Waking up early is an almost universal habit in successful people. Even if you’re not over the top ambitious, there are several reasons why you might want to wake up early, or at least make it easier for yourself in the morning.
If we don’t start to train our bodies sooner or later, we might end up feeling tired all day and be wide awake all night. In addition to being quite counter-productive, this is a very uncomfortable way to live. Plus, waking up early is a very healthy habit that we should try to cultivate as much as possible.
Early rising can enhance our productivity, as we can get a lot done while the world is asleep. Having a healthy, leisurely breakfast, making time to write, or simply meditating before a long day can refresh our minds before the day starts.
Even if we do know of all these benefits, it can be just too tempting to hit that snooze button in the morning. This leads to a panicked and rushed morning routine, leaving us grumpy and lazy for the rest of the day. In order to avoid this, we have to train both our body and our mind. The tips below might be of help when it comes to early rising:
Mind Over Matter
If you’re having trouble waking up early in the morning, a book might help you get into the right mindset. Fortunately, there are quite a few books on the market in this genre, with one of the best being “The 5 A.M. Revolution: Why High Achievers Wake Up Early and How You Can Do It”. This is authored by Dan Luca and can even guide us in achieving the best life we can lead.
With this book, we might train ourselves to be among the highest percentile of successful people in the world. It gives us the fundamentals of getting a calm, peaceful, and relaxing sleep as the first step. This might help you feel like a new person. The second step involves a decent morning ritual that will make every day amazing.
If you follow this work correctly, it might even teach you how to wake up having a high level of motivation and passion for the new day. This could hopefully get us away from the habit of using sleep as an escape from reality and instead use it as a tool to tackle our reality.
In addition to getting proper sleep, you’ll also learn about implementing the necessary changes in your life in order to upgrade it. This might help in achieving a balance between work and family, enhancing productivity, and a healthier state of mind altogether.
Drink Some Water
Place a glass of water beside your bed and have some sips right after your online alarm clock rings. The cold water kick starts your metabolism and makes feel fresh and vital. This would also rehydrate your body, washing away those early-morning aches. If nothing else, the water will get you to the bathroom and have you wake up in that manner!
Wake Up at the Same Time Every Day
Set your online alarm clock to the same time every day and go to bed when you start to feel tired. Your body will start to get used to this wake-up time and you will begin to slowly and gently wake up prior to the buzzer.
This might be a bit of a bummer on the weekends, when you badly want to sleep in and can actually do so without being late for work. However, it’s time we stopped scheduling our life around work or school. Waking up early should be a chance to get in some personal time, meditation, or some exercise in order to benefit ourselves.
Have Something to Look Forward to
Remember how fresh and fast you can wake up when it´s your birthday or Christmas day? Have a little reward you can look forward to in the morning every single day. A nice cup of coffee? Your sleepy wife? Or your favorite music triggered by a handy dandy online alarm service.
You can enhance your early-morning reward as well. Invest in some high-end coffee beans in order to get a more fragrant cup as a reward for early rising, and only use it when you accomplish your wake-up goal. If you want to wake up early and write, set out a cute notebook and a smooth-writing pen to get you in the scribbling mood right away.
Pick Out Your Outfit Beforehand
Even small decisions like picking out which dress to wear can be a drag in the early morning hours. Make these decisions in the evening right before you set your online alarm clock, and you’ll be surprised at how much of a burden falls off you in the morning. You can also take this productive habit a step further by setting out other things that will help you in the morning. This could be your jewelry, makeup, watch, shoes, and any other accessory. If you’re on a health kick, you might want to make some overnight oatmeal to help out with breakfast as well.
Stretch
Your cat does it and your dog too! When you wake, up stretch all your muscles properly. You can start while still lying in your warm bed. It will help to get your blood circulating in all parts of your body! You can also take this up a notch by setting aside an exercise video to get your blood pumping early in the morning.
Using Music
Don´t use an aggressive buzzer noise for waking up 365 days of the year. This makes you hate the sound and causes you to wake up with a negative feeling right off the bat. It’s probably a better idea to use an online alarm clock service and wake up with your favorite music. Change the music every other week so that you don’t get used to it.
Alternatively, you can probably download some sort of app that can wake you up with your favorite podcasts or radio show every day. This will get your mind working right from the moment you wake up, so you won’t even be tempted to reach for the snooze button.
Focus on the First Step
Waking up in the morning can overwhelm you with thoughts of all you have to accomplish during the day ahead. However, train your mind not to think about anything except for actually getting out of bed in the first place. Once you accomplish this, you’ll be washing your face and getting your tasks done before you even know it.
One useful trick for taking this first step is to have a second alarm clock situated at a distance from your bed. This will force you to get up and turn it off, hence tricking your body into action.
Mental Stimulation
There are also a few ways in which you can wake up your brain and make it stay alert for the whole day. Some people accomplish this by listening to podcasts about waking early and hence gaining motivation. You can listen to stories about successful people who usually woke up very early, and also gain ideas on what to do with that extra time.
Stay Excited
Once you have the right attitude, you shouldn’t find jumping out of bed a very difficult task in the morning. This might require some major changes in your life. For instance, do you hate waking up in the morning because of a boring, dead-end job? You might want to consider changing up your career path in order to have a more exciting day ahead of your in the morning.
Another change might be your morning routine. Make yourself accomplish something worthwhile in the morning, such as getting on with that painting, novel, or gardening. Accomplishing these goals with have you popping out of bed with a smile on your face instead of a frown.
Proper Sleep
This might seem to be the most obvious point of all, but it’s worth discussing. The struggle of waking up early is physical as well as mental, so you need to make sure your body feels up to the task. Going to bed early is a major aspect of waking up early, so make sure to get eight hours on the regular.
Another physical need here is paying attention to diet plus exercise. A fit body will find it easy to adopt healthy sleep levels and is more likely to feel energized at the right time.
Conclusion
Waking up at the crack of dawn might seem like torture when you try it out in the beginning. However, the right amount of motivation and discipline will help you accomplish your goals and set you on the way to leading a more productive life. Make this tweak first, and you’ll probably be able to achieve more milestones in the near future.