I just love sleeping. I am lucky, because I am a good sleeper – falling asleep is easy, no noises can awake me, and if they do, I can fall asleep easily.
Waking up was however a total disaster for many-many years. I was extremely efficient in convincing myself about things like “I still have 10 more minutes to sleep”, or “Nah, that todo in the morning is actually not that important”, or “Why would I visit the morning seminar? I would not understand a single word anyway, when I am so tired…”. Well, in that case I can have a couple of minutes… The truth is, that when I actually really got up, I was always a little bit angry of myself, and felt kinda bad about the things I missed.
After reading – and trying – a lot about this subject, I have found these methods efficient enough, and I am still using these even today.
It’s possible, that these will not work for you, and it’s possible, that you can adapt only one or two of them into your morning routine.
Even if that is the case, it totally worth me writing them down, and it totally worth reading it, don’t you think? :)
How can I prepare myself for these magical minutes?
1. External motivation
It is highly effective, if there is someone else worth waking up for. Two small examples:
- I don’t want to wake up the one, who is sleeping in the same room. Because of that, I set up two alarms – my watch, which I can turn off just after the first “beep” -, and a much-much louder one, which is set up one minute later – in the other end of the room. The second one is usually turned off before it starts ringing, aaaand I am already out of the bed.
- I arrange meetings for the morning, for example I am having a breakfast with someone, we go together to the university, or I just drop something in. Having a feeling of not letting someone down is a very strict constraint, believe me!
2. I will do this, and then I go back to sleep
I am standing next to the clock, and there is a voice in my head trying to convince me in going back. There is a small trick for these situations, which works insanely for me – but(!), I still have some power in me, to do just one more thing. For example:
- I drink something (how about putting the louder clock on the top of the fridge?)
- I eat a fruit
- I take a shower.
One single task as like the previous ones is usually enough to get me through these critical minutes.
Even these two small tricks are enough for me to get up, but there are some others, which I tried, and they really work. They may come handy – who knows, maybe the next ones are more useful for you.
3. Deliberately positioned items
The less decisions to make, the less thoughts to think in the morning, the better.
When I carefully put every single items, that may be needed for the short time between waking up and getting up are carefully put(relocated) to their best place, that may help quite alot:
- selecting the clothes to wear
- water and coffee put to the coffemachine
- stuffs that are needed for the university (paper, pens, books, etc.) into the bag
- ingredients for the perfect breakfast
Such preparations are also made by me, when I set up the alarms, and I put my glass, fruit, bathrobe to their right place.
4. Setting up the alarm
For me, the best way of setting the alarm was, when I set it up to the exact time, when I must get up. With this method, the “Snooze” button has no power over me, as I know, that there is no time for that. What can not be procastinated, should never be procastinated.
5. Reward
Waking up in time is a good habit.
We will come back to the fact how important good habits are on the time managment training – right now lets accept that to learn good habits it is important to reward ourselves every time we succeed.
For me, it was a long time dream (I probably saw it in a film) to stand on a balcony and have a good look around, while I’m wearing a white bathrobe and drinking orange juice. So after the first week, when I never slept in, i surprised myself with a white bathrobe, as a first step. The next one will be the balcony ;)
6. Reason for waking up
Before going to sleep think about why you should wake up in the morning.
- If there is something worth waking up, be happy :)
- If you can’t find too much happiness and meaning in the next day, try to smuggle some into it. In the end, this is rests with you
7. Practice, practice, practice
I have contact lense for more then 10 years now, and in the evenings, when i take it out, I brush my teeth immediately too. Then one time I took the lenses in the afternoon, and – looking back to it, rather surprisingly – I automaticly brushed my teeth too.
When you are doing something over and over again many times after a while it becomes so automatic, you can do it without thinking. I wouldn’t say that I think clearly in the mornings, so the familiarity, the automation is extremely helpful.
Once I spent on hour to try out the “1 minute lying in the bed like sleeping, immediately turn off the alarm after the first ring, get out of the bed, go to the bathroom, and wash my face” rutin.
It could worth a try for you too :)
So much for the first time on how to get up easier. Try out what helps you, what works for you.
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