I am not a morning person — here’s how I am trying to fix it
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Mornings and me — let’s just say it’s complicated.
I have struggled with getting myself out of bed in the mornings for a while now. And I don’t know about you, but methods like putting the alarm clock across the room (yes, I am at that stage where I have an alarm clock and no phone) or making the bed immediately have never worked for me.
My brain is just so tired, that I cannot even comprehend that I walk across the room, switch off my alarm, and then go back to bed right away.
There is also this trick that you should count to five and then get up. And on the count of three, I am sound asleep.
So, I have devised a new strategy that I want to try over the next few weeks.
Let’s dive in and see the battle plan that I have come up with.
But first: Does it even matter if you are a morning person?
I guess the most important thing is to make the most of your days in the end.
Whether you are getting projects done or you are simply enjoying yourself — you should adopt a lifestyle that suits you best. And you can absolutely succeed as a night owl, I truly believe that.
The problem for me personally is, that I am neither.
I am not productive at night, so I am not ok with sleeping in the morning. I go to bed super early and sleep in super long. At the end of the day, I am missing out.
I sleep about 9.5 to 10 hours a night, while the average adult sleeps for about 7 hours. And I am not rested after that. I feel wrecked.
So, with all that, here is my new battle plan.
1. The habit before the habit.
James Clear talks about it in his (endlessly referenced) book — if you cannot stick to a new habit, you need to break it down into smaller pieces and practice the behavior leading up to the thing you want to do.
For example, if you want to pick up the habit of running, practice the habit before that, which is putting on your running shoes.
For me, that would be getting up with the alarm. And staying awake. I will attempt to do that by practicing that pattern. I want to restore the connection in my brain between “alarm = waking up”. Because right now, it is “Alarm = keep sleeping”.
2. Making it pleasant.
Another point that James Clear mentioned in his book, habits that stick are those that you find enjoyable. So I am thinking about how I can make my morning experience more delightful.
I have tried preparing a nice breakfast before, but that did not work. I think maybe that was too far away, too hard to get to, to convince me. I am thinking I have to incorporate something that is immediately pleasant after waking up.
Maybe listing to music could be a good idea for that. If you already have something you enjoy, let’s say listening to true crime podcasts, try to connect with something that you want to pick up. For example, running or doing the laundry. True crime and laundry always work for me.
3. Finding the why
All the hacks and all the tricks in the world are not going to work without the why. I don’t think I can get up early every morning just for the sake of it. It makes sense to dig into the reason, that will ultimately get me out of bed. And there are a lot of possibilities — reading, yoga, meditation, drawing, working out, building a business, self-care…
Last year, I had a 2-month long phase where I was consistently getting up early. I really felt proud of myself at that time. I had just switched from a phone to a classic alarm clock and that really helped.
Here is the weird part: I was awake, but I did not know what to do with the extra time. So, most days, I ended up wasting it on social media, staring at a wall, or with an endless, unnecessary morning routine. I did not have a why. I did not have a good reason for waking up early, so soon, I fell off track and started sleeping in again.
This time, I am really working on developing a strong why and finding ways to execute it immediately.
I am thinking writing this blog could be a great way to spend the time.
Healthy sleep habits are a super important part of your personal growth strategy. Huge parts of your overall productivity and motivation come down to sleep. I talk more about the fact that productivity is about actively managing limited resources in one of my other blog posts:
I want to talk about all the mentioned topics more in-depth in the future — so stay tuned if you are interested.
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