Goooooood morning! Are you a morning person? Or, are you interested in becoming a morning person? Who’s ready + rearing to go on this sunshine-y Monday? Not aye – it’s a sunshine-y, snowy Monday in Philadelphia today, so truth be told, I’d rather be curled up in Barefoot Dreams binging the rest of Schitt’s Creek Season 5. But HERE WE ARE, folks. More often than not, we’ve just gotta get up and do the damn thing. So why not get on board sooner rather than later, to feel sorta quasi half-decent about the week ahead instead of feeling full of dread? We’ve got Monday Mantras for a reason, but really, sometimes it’s more about it being too early in the morning than the day of the week. Because we all have those days when all the ventis in the world won’t do the trick. When the strength of espresso won’t kick in just yet, we need the strength of HABITS to get us through.
Everyone and their mom has likely wondered how and/or tried to be “a morning person” at one time or another. Chances are, it would’ve been some Tuesday at 10 am, when you’re still groggy + feeling behind on your list, wishing you had the stamina of those self-help gurus who swear by 5 am alarms or literal sun salutations to wake with the world.
Key #1 to becoming a morning person: ya gotta want it. Be it for the added hours of productivity or the general feel-good from not hating the entire first half of the day, becoming a morning person can have its perks. 😉
Key #2 to becoming a morning person: just do the damn thing. Motivation doesn’t come from feeling – it comes from doing. If you’re not someone who is naturally inclined to rise with the sun (or – gasp – BEFORE it), it won’t necessarily feel easy. It won’t be pretty. But it can be done.
Here are five solid tips to becoming a morning person in just one week:
- Adopt a consistent wakeup call AND bedtime. Consistency is key, yo! In pretty much everything. First thing’s first in becoming a morning person: set the alarm, and stick with it. And to do that, you’ve gotta set yourself up for success! Meaning, intentionally hit the sack earlier too, to make waking up earlier not the most painful thing on the planet. 😉 But, don’t just arbitrarily choose a time that sounds good (although that might work for you); know your own body’s Circadian rhythm, and try to work with it as best possible. Your body might feel best at 7 am – or it might feel even better at 5 am. Let yourself experiment a bit to find the actual times to rise + sleep, as well as duration of sleep, that works best.
- Try a smart alarm. This is a super fun tip I’ve seen online before that I’m DYING to try (so I think I will!). Essentially, instead of using your usual alarm clock, download a smart alarm app that requires some sorta brainpower to turn off. Since your typical iPhone alarm can be mindlessly shut off (J will turns his off and not even realize it went off in the first place – ha!), you ideally want to use an alarm that will a.) wake you up, and b.) KEEP you up. Anything that’s able to be subconsciously snoozed defeats the point, since chances are, you won’t get up; you might even lay in bed an extra half hour justbecause scrolling your Facebook sounds better than getting up and at ’em.
- Ease into it with a dedicated routine. This is listed as key #3 to becoming a morning person, but really, it’s THE KEY. Routine is essential here, since routines are comprised of habits. Habits are what get us to the next level, since they eliminate our ability to emotionally reason our way out of a situation. If going to the gym at 5:30 am every single morning becomes habitual, it’s not an option – no matter how tired or hungover or I-just-don’t-feel-like-it we might be that day. 😉 I say “ease into it” here because the quickest way to completely overwhelm yourself is by going balls to the wall too soon. If you’re used to getting up at 7:45 to lazily shower + loosely get ready before being at the office for 9, a daily 5:15 alarm to go pump iron isn’t going to feel like a walk in the park. If anything, it risks unsustainability or burnout, since your body has no clue (yet) how to adjust to this new cycle. Instead, ease into it. Start small at first – so long as you’re starting somewhere. Practice creating an intentional, dedicated routine that can (+ will!) become a habit, and get as specific as humanly possible with it. I’m talkin’, Step 1: Wake up at 5:15 am. Step 2: Pee. Step 3: Walk downstairs, feed the cats. Step 4: Take out vitamins. Step 5: Start Keurig. Step 6: Open devotional. Step 7: Drink coffee while reading daily devotional. ETC. It’s a routine, yes, but it’s so insanely specific that each individual step can easily become a force of habit, where you just do without even thinking. That’s the goal! Just do it – no room for feeling otherwise.
- Set up the night before for the next morning. You know when you’re trying to force your butt to the gym, so you leave your Nikes in plain view so that they’re unavoidable? Same thing here – just set up errrr’thaaaang for the next morning. Your coffee mug under the Keurig. Your planner open to today’s page, which is already filled out + ready to go. Your outfit picked out on the closet door. A key? Eliminate the need for decision-making. We make on average somewhere near 34,000 decisions a day (seriously). Every little thing is a this-or-that in our heads, regardless of whether or not it feels like a “difficult” decision in the moment. We need to save our headspace for the decisions in our day that are actually really freaking hard – like important calls at work, or regarding our health or family. Ain’t nobody got time to waste on petty choices before the day has even begun! Anything that could be overridden by a “Do I feel like it or not?” should be pre-planned so that the only choice at hand is to make it happen.
- Set up for sleeeeeep. If/when you’re in this zone of trying to coordinate wakeup with bedtime for the ultimate combo, it might feel unnatural at first, and your body might take some adjusting. Some things to try: calming gummies. I ordered these from Amazon – they’re anti-stress magnesium supplements said to help your body relaaaaax. Nix any blue light from your phone by having a designated shut down (or set aside) time; actually don’t look at your phone (at all, for anything) after that time. Do something light like gratitude journaling or reading to mentally tire + wind down the rest of the way. Bonus points if this is something that can genuinely uplift your mind + spirit before bedtime, so that your dreams are even sweeter!
We’ve talked about becoming a morning person before – right here. So if the above doesn’t/hasn’t worked for you just yet, try the tips in that post, too!
Are you a morning person? Are you interested in becoming a morning person?
What works for you?