3 Dead-Simple Tricks to Get Up Earlier in The Morning
Even if you love sleeping in!
I am a night owl, but I get up at 5 AM, here’s how.
We’ve all heard it; The early bird gets the worm.
We know that rising early can do great things for us. But, it is easier said than done.
Early in the morning, as the alarm clock goes off, all we want to do is get that clock to shut the f*** up and get back to sleep.
I love staying up late, and my natural rhythm is going to bed at 3 AM and getting up at 10 AM. That’s how I function without an alarm clock.
However, a long time ago, I read a great book called The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. A book I highly recommend. In the book, he shares all of the reasons why waking up early has excellent benefits, and it is very inspiring. But, one can be inspired and not rise before the sun anyway.
It took me a couple of years before I managed to get up early consistently. I have now found out what can make me, and the people I have shared this with, actually get up when the alarm buzzes.
#1: Go to bed on time
Yeah, I know this is kind of obvious, but it is crucial. You can’t go to bed at the same time as you do now when rising hours earlier. You need to go to bed 7–9 hours before your wake-up time.
It’s challenging to fall asleep earlier if your body isn’t used to it, and you aren’t tried.
Here are my 3 tips for getting to bed earlier:
A. Use a lot of energy
On the day you need to get to bed way earlier than usual, you need to use as much energy as you can. It makes you tired and it will therefore be easier to climb into bed earlier. A great way of tiring out yourself is getting in a lot of exercise. For me, swimming makes me tired, in a feel-good way. For you, it might be something different.
B. Slow and steady
Make a slow transition into getting up before the sun. Go to bed 15 minutes earlier every night, and get up 15 minutes earlier every morning.
Here’s an example:
Your usual bedtime is 1 AM and getting up at 9 AM.
On the first night, go to bed at 00.45 AM and get up at 8.45 AM.
The second night you go to bed at 00.30 AM and get up at 8.30 AM.
Continue this until you reach the goal of getting up at X o’clock in the morning (for me, it’s 5 AM, but you don’t have to get up that early.)
Adjusting your sleep by 15 minutes every night is what experts in the field recommend.
I’ve got to be honest with you; adjusting bedtime by 15 minutes every night doesn’t work for me.
Before waking up at the same time every morning, my schedule was highly irregular, and I wasn’t used to going to bed at the same time every night. Maybe that was the reason it didn’t work for me.
I did this instead:
C. Going cold turkey
What has worked for me is to get up even though I didn’t get enough sleep. It’s not easy, but it is possible.
I am a very avid advocate for getting plenty of sleep, and getting 7–8 hours of sleep is essential for me to function optimally. Not getting enough rest one or two nights in a row is not going to kill you (don’t do this too often, though).
When I started getting up early, once in a while I only got 4 hours of sleep. If I fall out of the routine and have to get back into it (Yes guys, I’m not perfect 😉), I do the same. This surtanly isn’t ideal, not by a longshot, but at least I can go to bed early the following night.
#2: Have something to look forward to
Beep, beep, beep…. It’s that first morning, and it feels way too early to even think about getting up. You are about to turn off your alarm clock, roll on to the other side, and get back to never-never land. But, then you remember, you get to do/have THAT.
Having something to be genuinely excited about is a great way to get your a** out of bed.
Is it hard for you to get up way earlier than usual if something awesome is happening? For me, getting up in the middle of the night to catch a flight heading for vacation has never been a problem. We all remember how easy it was for us, as kids, to wake up early on Christmas morning.
To motivate yourself to get up early the first couple of times, you need a strategy. Find something that you truly want to do, or you really want to have. Recreate the motivation you get when going on vacation or Christmas morning.
The carrot you dangle in front of yourself mustn’t be 100 miles away. The reward needs to be reasonably immediate.
We are all wired towards instant gratification. Finding something that can give you that spark of motivation in the morning makes you more likely to follow through.
Long-term goals are not motivation enough initially for most people (including yours truly). We’ve all said, “I’ll do it tomorrow too many times to count. However, long-term motivation is important for long-term succes.
Here are some suggestions on ways to get that spark early in the morning. Please make up your own if nothing on this list lights get you excited enough to get up early.
- Watch the sunrise, go for a walk, or read a book (or something similar you find immensely enjoyable)
- Eat a snicker. This might not be the healthiest option. If it gets the job done, one snicker every morning for three days is not going to harm you that much. 😅
- Go surfing before work (or something similar, you find lots of fun)
- Have quiet time before the kids wake up (Use that time to soak in a tub, read a book, or whatever you genuinely want)
- Sorting your cabinets (if you love doing that)
- Buy yourself something you want online when you get up at the intended time. Something that you won’t buy if you don’t get up (This is a costly way to get instant gratification. Please be responsible)
- Enjoy the quiet in the morning with a Café Latte and your journal
This form of instant gratification is thankfully only necessary for the first few mornings. However, some of them, like Latte and journal, can easily be a part of your routine forever.
When you’ve managed to rise early a couple of mornings in a row, momentum and motivation from long-term goals take over.
This leads me to;
#3: Find the reason(s) why
You must have a reason, a solid one, to get up before everyone else.
If you don’t, the motivation to stick to it quickly fades away.
I highly recommend that you figure this out before starting your new way of life.
There are many reasons to get up before sunrise. Here are some fairly common ones that might be true to you as well.
- To start up a side hustle.
- To move faster towards your goals.
- To have quiet time before the rest of the family wakes up.
- To get things done in your business, in your day job, or on your side hustle, without being disturbed.
- To start writing the book that you’ve always dreamt of writing.
- To gain the feeling of winning the day and being productive (I love that I’ve already gotten 2 hours of work done before my husband rises).
Find your reasons, write them down. Be sure to read them every day, maybe even put them on the wall beside your bed.
These reasons are compelling, but be aware that it is easy-breezy to postpone them just one more day (which becomes a week, a year, and eventually a decade). The instant gratifications are what make most people get up early in the morning during the first few days.
Momentum is King
Momentum is what is going to let you keep the habit.
Your body quickly adapts to the new routine, and every morning, it gets easier. I have come to a place where I wake up at 5 AM, even if I don’t set the alarm clock, which is fantastic.
Your mind might not adapt as quickly as your body. Waking up that early, especially on the weekends, is challenging. You probably still feel like waking up early is a chore, something you have to do. It takes time for you to WANT to do it.
When the mind perceives waking up early as an unpleasant task, it will try to convince you that it’s not necessary. The mind will tell you that you can have a few days off — that you deserve it. You need to realize that waking up early is not some dreadful thing you must do. When you get used to it, it’s no worse than waking up any other time of day. For me, it feels soo much better; take it from someone who loves sleeping in.
So, what I’m trying to tell you is; Don’t let your mind play tricks on you!
Keeping momentum is vital; otherwise, it is going to keep being a struggle. I use a rule I learned from Matt D’Avella, called the two-day rule. This rule is straightforward: don’t miss two days in a row.
We can all miss the mark on some days — that’s only human. Instead, be sure never to miss two days in a row; this way, you will still keep momentum.
Go to bed in due time, use instant gratification, know your why, and keep momentum. That is how to get into the habit of being an early riser.
I have a couple more tips for you:
- If you have a hard time falling asleep, block out ANY light in your bedroom. This includes lights from alarm clocks.
- I have a hard time falling asleep, no matter how tired I am. My mind keeps racing 100 miles an hour. I sometimes use Melatonin, to help me sleep. Medicine is not healthy, and it can make you dizzy and nauseous before falling asleep. But for me, it is worth it. Always talk to your physician about it first.
- Having a specific time you go to bed and wake up every day is crucial. So please don’t sleep in on weekends. It will make the routine more difficult for you and your body. I did the sleep-late weekend thing multiple times, and it just doesn’t work. Getting up 30 minutes later on weekends can work — but no more than that.
- Remove the alarm clock to the opposite side of the room to force yourself to get out of bed.
I hope you decide to start waking up early and seizing the day.
For me, it has been THE habit that changed my life the most. As soon as you become used to it, waking up early is not going to feel like a chore or a task you must do.
Best of luck — you can do it!
Living Life, Loving Life
Sincerely Maria
