A major roadblock when trying to wake up early is not knowing why & how. I have been working on my habits for over 10 years and these are the 4 simple steps to wake up early that most people don’t realize are very critical.
- Work on your mindset by learning more
- Before: Do the prep work needed
- During: Doing these while you wake up
- After: Doing these after waking up early
1. Learn more
Most people who want to wake up early and haven’t accomplished it yet, fight two things:
- wanting more sleep
- and needing enough sleep
The need for more sleep should be handled by going to sleep at a reasonable time and understanding your sleep cycle. Because getting enough sleep is very important. Burning the candles at both ends is not a sustainable idea. Yet most try to wake up early when their body needs more rest.
But fighting wanting to sleep in is a whole other topic. Anything that causes friction, when it comes to habits, will not last for a long time. You will feel defeated and the motivation will fade.
Hopefully, these next tips will help you change the need (desire) to not wake up early.
2. Prep work
You need to do prep work the night before if you want to wake up early and not hate how difficult it is. This means you need to create systems in order to reduce friction in the morning. For example:
- Getting your clothes ready – I wake up at 5:30am while my husband wakes around 8am. In order to not disturb him, I can’t turn on the lights or make all the noise in the world (opening and closing this and that). The prep work I need to do is to get my clothes together for the morning the night before. This way, all I have to do is pick them up and go into the restroom where I do my simple body routine without stress.
But this could have been avoided by planning. Make sure to plan ahead by writing down what you will have in the morning and putting groceries on your shopping list so you won’t run out. As well as do research to see if you can find meals you enjoy that are not so time-consuming. And create a periodic habit of learning how to cook meals you enjoy by watching a cooking channel/show instead binging shows you know are not good for you.
3. During the task
Research shows the reason most habits and goals fail because people don’t have an action plan. Most say “I am going to wake up early” but don’t actually go deep in order to understand and plan. These are a few important questions that are critical to ask yourself beforehand:
- What will I do with the extra time?
- Why exactly do I want to wake up early?
- What makes waking up early such a challenge now?
- What do I need to do in order to make sure I have an easy time?
- What does the perfect morning look like (visualize)?
Asking yourself these questions and answering them thoughtfully, will completely transform you mindset and give you a real fighting chance. During the task, when you are sitting in your bed contemplating why should you follow through, THESE questions you answered will come to your rescue.
4. After you accomplish
Early habits stick around only if they make you feel good and/or allow you to get something out of it. That is why rewards are a necessary step in the habit loop. In the beginning, do a simple thing like buying yourself something you love after 3 days of waking up early or eating a snack you enjoy as go to the kitchen. This will replace the old habits that were keeping you in bed when the reward was scrolling on your phone or the warm feeling of your bed.
But the goal is to make the reward internal eventually and not material (ex. eating chocolate or buying shoes). You will know you have reached your goal when you start getting excited to wake up because there is a functional purpose for waking up early. You start seeing that you have more time to yourself. Or that it is the only time before the world wakes up and undisrupted. Focused time = more success.
Conclusion
Waking up early seems like a huge task when you don’t categorize and plan ahead. Let’s be honest, doing the prep work in order to accomplish your goal of waking up early is a lot of work. So you need to know your why ahead of time in order to keep pushing during tough & unmotivated days. Building habits requires commitment & discipline.
