I am not a morning person but boy do I wish I was. There is something so great about waking up and being productive while most of the world is still asleep. Waking up early also allows you to take some time for yourself to relax before your day actually starts.
I have been trying to turn myself into a morning person for years and while I don’t think I can officially call myself a morning person yet, I have learned some tricks to waking up early along the way.
- Set multiple *specific* alarms
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It’s safe to say that the majority of people already set multiple alarms in the morning to help them get out of bed. Rather than simply setting six alarms, each fifteen minutes apart, try three alarms with specific tasks. For example, if you want to start your day at 6am, set an alarm for 5am, 5:30am and 6am. At 5am, get out of bed, turn your light on and drink some water. Get back into bed and go to sleep until 5:30am. At 5:30am, stay awake but also stay in bed. This time is specifically for you to scroll through TikTok or read a chapter of a book, the choice is yours. By the time 6am comes around, you should be satisfied with the amount of time you gave yourself to both get some extra sleep and lay around in bed.
- Put your phone on do not disturb
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The key to waking up early is going to sleep at a reasonable time. Turning my phone on do not disturb at night has really helped me fall asleep. If my phone vibrates on my desk while I am trying to fall asleep, I have to check it. No matter how hard I try to ignore it, I just need to know what the notification is. Putting my phone on do not disturb blocks any notifications and therefore helps me fall asleep at night.
- Make your bed
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Making your bed in the morning will make sure you stay awake and out of bed until it is time to go to sleep. Something I used to do whenever I woke up early was get back into bed at 2pm and not do anything else for the rest of the day. I have found that making my bed first thing in the morning has gotten rid of this bad habit. Laying in a made bed just isn’t as comfortable so while I usually still get that 2pm slump, I now make myself a cup of coffee and sit on my *made* bed to give myself a break before getting back to work.
There is also a book called Make Your Bed by William H. McRaven and in it he explains that if you make your bed in the morning before you leave the house, you could have the worst day possible but you will still come home to a made bed and at least one thing would have gone right that day.