I am getting to a point in the Legislative Session in which I need to become an early riser. There are so many moving parts to my day that I need time to prepare myself early before heading into the fray. I woke up at 6 o’clock this morning, which is earlier than I have been waking up lately. My target is actually 5 AM, but I figure I could ease into it a little. Tomorrow, I’ll wake up at 5:30.
When you wake up late, like an hour before work, you basically jump out of bed, grab your change of clothes and head for the shower. After that, you primp and preen a little before heading out to work. If you have time, you’ll stop for a coffee or breakfast somewhere, eat it on the way to the office and then sit down and get right into… That’s the problem. You’ve been so focused on getting to work on time that you haven’t actually figured out what you’re going to do once you get there. And once you are there, you get right into doing whatever comes up. You don’t have the mindset that you are going to get there and attack A, B, and C until they are done. At best, you’ll work on A and might get around to B and C if you remember. I checked and there are plenty of others out there who also want to become early risers.
By waking up at 6 AM today, miraculous things happened. First, I was able to have coffee at home. I was able to do a little bit of exercise. I actually made my bed. I made a journal entry. I checked some personal email. I read a couple of online articles. And, I was able to write down a list of priorities for the day. Best of all was the ability to just take it easy until it was time to drive to work. The easygoing morning and long time to wake up completely even made me one of those damned morning people. I was actually perky this morning when I got to work. I can’t begin to tell you how much I am looking forward to all the leisure I’ll have by waking up at 5 AM. However, if waking up at 5 AM were easy, wouldn’t we all do it?
Of course, when you want to do something nearly impossible, the first thing you should probably do is Google the task to find out who has done it and how they did it. One of the first search results on becoming an early riser is Steve Pavlina. Pavlina has shared his insight on how to become an early riser. His solution? Do it every day of the week no matter what. In other posts, Pavlina suggests that before you go the path of New Year resolutions, you should just give it a 30-day trial. If after 30 days you decide that a new habit is not for you, at least you gave it a month.
There are other writers out there who give similar advice on how to wake up early consistently. I find that the advice, while not identical, has similar ideas. Coupled with my own experience in the past, I can share some ideas to help you become an early riser.
Get Enough Sleep
This is probably the most important factor to waking up early. Your chances of waking up early if you go to bed late go down. I can operate fairly well on about 5-6 hours sleep. I might get the sleepies here and there, but I can function. If you try to pull off an early morning rise on 2 or 3 hours sleep, it’s going to be an epic battle with yourself. On the flip side, getting enough sleep also means not getting too much sleep. Once you go over the 8 hours of sleep mark, it’s easy to get 10 hours of sleep. Worst of all, you’ll have missed most of the day and still feel groggy.
The Alarm Clock
I found that if I put the Alarm clock right next to me, I am likely to turn it off and not remember it. I’ll reach right over and hit the snooze; or, if it’s too complicated, will just turn the damn thing off. One of my first lessons in waking up early was that I need to put the alarm out of reach. It must be located so that I must get up out of bed to turn it off. I have found that it does not matter how loud the alarm is so long as I expect that it will go off. One year, I woke up exclusively to a watch alarm because I expected it. Unexpected sounds of other sorts like garbage trucks, car alarms, and even mild thunderstorms don’t even make me budge. My watch never work me up, by the way, when I wore it. I had to leave it across the room and get up to turn it off in the morning.
Just Get Up
Once you get up out of bed to turn off the alarm, you have to be committed to stay standing. Do some stretches, lean against the wall, or whatever. Just stay away from that warm, comfortable bed. What will happen if you “briefly” lay back down is that you will talk yourself into 5 more minutes of sleep. It’s never 5 minutes. When you just wake up, it’s easy to outsmart yourself. Your higher thinking is dumber than your primitive instincts early in the morning. You will promise yourself anything for a few more minutes of sleep that, if you were thinking straight, you’d normally never believe.
Take a Shower
Some people swear that a cold shower is just the shock you need to wake you up. Others say that a hot shower will warm your body up to normal operating temperature to wake you up. I don’t think it really matters, although I prefer warm showers, do what works for you. The important thing is that you are not in bed while you shower.
Have Something to Do
I have found that having something to do in the morning, that isn’t work, is a great motivator for getting up and staying up. There are all kinds of things you can do like check the weather for the day, check email, mail out payments, check the oil in your car, or even make a list of stuff to accomplish for the day. One thing that I do is start a list before going to bed, and finish it in the morning as I’m getting ready. This way there is a sense of needing to finish something in my subconscious. If you remember the old Army commercials that used to say that they did more things by 6 AM than most people do all day, you’ll have the same feeling if you maximize your morning hours before going to work. By the time you arrive at work, you’ve already kicked ass and are carrying your list of names.
Wake Up at the Same Time Every Day
This one works. I learned this, not by choice, but because I worked at a cannery that ran 7 days a week. On occasion, we’d get a day off to cut back on overtime, but I’d still wake up at 5 AM. After doing this long enough, you wake up just as the alarm is about to go off. I swear that having a consistent 7 day wake up schedule makes the whole thing easier. After a month, it becomes second nature.
Be Healthy
This ought to be a no brainer. You can’t go abusing your body and expect it to perform at peak levels. Get a little exercise. Eat right. One important thing to remember is to not drink before bed. I can tell you, from experience as well, that it IS easier to fall asleep after a drink, but you will not feel rested the next morning. I don’t know why it is. You would think that if you have a drink and fall asleep faster that you would feel much better rested the next day. However, this has not proven true in my experience. I often feel lousier the morning after a night cap than I do the morning after just going to bed.
There you have it. Those are my tips for becoming an early riser. Some I’ve learned from knowing myself; others I learned by accident. One thing I did not mention, which is an absolute must, is that you have to commit to yourself that you will wake up early. I’m not talking about willpower. By commitment, I mean that you have to have good reason for waking up early. It can be for a job, to go work out, to spend time on a hobby, or whatever. For me, the extra free time to take care of personal things when I’m freshly rested is worth it. If you have no good reason to wake up early, you’ll just be awake and bored in the mornings. You will give up that way.
I will keep you posted on my 30-day early rising challenge.
Progress
Early Rise Kickoff
Waking Up Early Day One or Day Four?
Shaine 