How to wake up early (4 tips to become a morning person)

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I made this app because I wanted to share the to-do list system that has helped me stay accountable and get things done.

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Waking up early often gets glorified in the self-improvement space.

It gets framed as if waking up early will all of a sudden grant you instant superpowers, alongside other habits such as cold showers.

But, the real is that these habits, while beneficial, is not magic. You still have to put in the work.

So..

It's not about what time you wake up.

It's about what you do when you're awake.

When I was building the habit of waking up early, I would be able to because of the following tips I will be giving, but I would just end up doing nothing.

And guess what? That's okay too. I use to wake up early to straight up just get "peace" time.

But, the actual value you get from waking up early is when you're intentional with what you're going to be doing with that time.

//1. Get sufficient sleep

C'mon.

This is the foundation of waking up early so I can't skip this one out just because it's obvious.

Waking up early starts the night before.

You need sufficient sleep.

For me, sufficient sleep is around 6-8 hours and that's in line with what most studies recommend.

If you're a woman reading this, I think most of those studies have been done on men and I saw an article saying that women need more sleep on average. I haven't looked into it really, but there are research being done now on women with different conclusions so it's worth looking into.

Without enough sleep, you'll just end up waking up feeling like shit and it just defeats the whole purpose of doing all of this.

//2. Alarm placement

Placing my alarm at the other end of the room or in a completely different room is the biggest game changer that helped me wake up early.

Doing this forces you to actually get up and move to turn off the alarm, which the action in itself helps you wake up.

From there, the obstacles that you only really need to fight is going back to bed, sitting on your sofa, and or laying down on the floor. As long as you fight those urges, you'll get your first win of the day.

Another tip I would say with this is to pick an alarm tone that will actually wake you up. For me, the default tones on the phone is just not enough.

When I was building the habit of waking up early on, I had the siren from The Purge going off to wake me up. It was extreme, but it worked. I have a less dramatic tone now, but it's still something that actually wakes me up.

//3. Ditch the phone alarm (if possible)

Now, this is something that I don't do, but highly consider doing.

And that is to invest on an actual alarm clock because the phone is a slippery slope.

Since you'll be on your phone to turn the alarm off, you might get tempted to just doom scroll all morning.

An actual alarm clock can help remove that temptation of early-morning screen time.

//4. Have a morning action plan

This is the last tip for actually staying up once you've woken up.

The key for me is knowing what to do next as soon as I get up to turn off my alarm.

Right now, for me, a good shower jolts me awake and is very actionable in the winter time. In the summer, things like going for a walk is another good option.

No matter what you pick, it just has to be concrete, actionable, and stimulating.

From there, I continue with the idea of eating the frog. The idea that if you have to eat a live frog, that it's best to do first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you for the rest of the day.

So, after "eating" the biggest frog of waking up early, I eat another in the form of working on my passion projects that I someday want to be my main thing.

For me, the "extra" time you get from waking up early is what I love about it. Whether that be time to work on your business before your 9-5 or plainly just getting peace time before the world starts doing it's thing.

That's all for this one :)

I hope it helps.

— Renz