The charm of getting up early in the morning and having a morning routine
Picture this: You get out of bed at 5 A.M. right after the alarm, tie on your running shoes, treat yourself to a morning run, then a shower and a slow, hearty breakfast. You take the time to meditate, journal and read at least a few pages from a good book. By the time you start working at 8, you’ve already accomplished all of this. Sounds like an ideal way to start the day, doesn’t it?
Yes, this is the perfect beginning to your day. The problem, however, is that it is far from easy to do in reality. Maybe you’re not an early bird, or perhaps you just don’t have the discipline. But the truth is that anyone can do it. All you need is strong will and determination. And one thing is certain – if you can do this for at least a few days and see what it does to you, you will not stop for the rest of your life.
How to get there, and set up your morning routine?
The fundamental question is this: How do you get to the point where you can easily get out of bed at the first alarm in the morning? It certainly demands a regular routine and a not-insignificant amount of willpower. What can help is knowing what many people do wrong, so you can avoid these pitfalls.
Challenge # 1: Lack of motivation due to lack of sleep
This is probably the most common problem that people who choose to get up early in the morning encounter. This is the problem with not having a morning routine. If you are used to a different regimen and staying up till midnight, you’ll feel very sleepy during the first few days. In this case, however, you have no choice but to overcome it and “reprogram” yourself to go to bed earlier.
This can be difficult if you have trouble falling asleep at 10:00 P.M. (for example) because you have been in the habit of going to bed much later. To help yourself, you should introduce a new rule: no smartphone and no computer an hour before bed. During this hour, also try to get into a “quiet” mode and move in an environment with dim light – your body will begin to produce the melatonin that’s necessary for sleep. The best thing you can do for yourself in this case is to establish a habit of reading or listening to familiar music at bedtime. Just 20-30 minutes can do real miracles.
Challenge # 2: You lose to the Snooze
Hitting the snooze button on your alarm is the worst thing you can do in the morning. You know very well how it usually turns out – you keep pressing “snooze,” getting just a few more minutes of sleep, until you realize that it has been half an hour — or more! This paltry amount of poor sleep doesn’t really help you. However, we have great news for you – this is one of the most common mistakes, but preventing it is much easier than you think.
The key to your success may lie in determining your “When-So Plan”. Is this new to you? The Motivation Grid portal describes it perfectly. These are just 2-3 simple sentences that you write down the night before bed to determine a certain intention. In this case, it should be the sentences:
When my alarm clock rings in the morning, I will get out of bed – whether I want to get up or not. When I feel like turning the alarm off, I will get up immediately and start my day.
Such a simple idea may sound like complete nonsense, but hundreds of studies have confirmed that it really works. The best thing to do is to try it out for yourself. You can also help yourself with modern technologies – there are many apps on which the alarm will not turn off until you take a few steps. For iOs, try Step Out of Bed; for Android, it’s simply Alarms.
Challenge # 3: Failure to follow the regime over the weekend
Once you’ve committed to this morning routine, it is important not to give up on it – even on weekends. Of course, this is very difficult. Let’s say you manage to follow everything perfectly from Monday to Friday. You even get up on Saturday, but then Saturday night you go out somewhere to sit with friends, and you come home at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning. The next thing you know, you’ve slept until 10 A.M., and your body is absolutely confused. Since you slept so long, you probably won’t feel sleepy at 10:00 in the evening, so you won’t even be able to get up on Monday morning. Your motivation feels as though it’s gone forever, and now you have to start all over again.
The ideal solution, of course, would be to follow the same regime on weekends, but clearly this can be a problem sometimes. If you do happen to deviate from your new regime, try to get back as soon as possible – a single day won’t ruin your weeks-long progress. You can also try various natural supplements to support sleep – if, for example, you know that you will have trouble sleeping on Sunday, try using melatonin, or turn on a diffuser with lavender aroma in your room. Thanks to these tricks, you will sleep faster, so you shouldn’t have a problem getting up on Monday.
Challenge # 4: You don’t have a morning routine
And last but not least, it is definitely important that you have created a regular morning routine, thanks to which you will be motivated enough to get out of your warm, cozy bed in the morning – something you will look forward to every single day. It would be great for you to be able to “saturate” not only your body (with exercise and breakfast), but also your soul (for example by meditation) and your mind (by reading) before work.
It is up to you to commit to all of these activities and decide exactly how you will organize them. For example, one person cannot even think before their morning coffee, while another does not have a problem at all. It’s up to you to test what works best for your body and mind. Once you discover it, I am certain that getting up in the morning will be easy for you – you will even look forward to it. When other people are just crawling out of bed, you will have the most important part of the day behind you.
