Conversion to a Morning Person: The One Hack That Worked

Try this simple hack to wake up with the sunrise

For decades, I’ve known the benefits of waking up with the sun or even before the sun. Stillness, peace, room to reflect before the rest of the world rises, time to write & meditate, and a well-oiled digestive system to name a few. But knowing all this did not get me out of the comfy sheets when the alarm sang its cheerful rhythm. All that cheer seemed to largely assault me in the morning.

Becoming a morning person is intertwined with getting a restful night of sleep. So, I tried different methods to sleep better and wake up nourished. My diet composed of steamed vegetables in the night to promote better digestion so I can wake up refreshed. I drank chamomile tea and meditated before sleeping to promote enhanced rest. I even wore satin pajamas to bed. Since blue light disrupts sleep, I kept my mobile in the living room and resorted to using an old-fashioned alarm clock with a thundering, monotonous alarm.

Certain experts say that if you can somehow get yourself to wake up at the time you want for a few days straight — come hell or high water, then the time you hit the bed at night will auto-regulate. Following this advice to ensure that I woke up on time, I kept the phone in the far corner of my room, so I had to walk or crawl up to it to turn it off in the morning. I experimented with the alarm tone, using tones from serene & soulful music to reverberating clangs to hip hop mashes.

When I was a kid, my mom told me that if I tapped on my pillow for X number of times that I will wake up after X hours had elapsed. This never worked as a kid, but I kept on tapping anyway. Realizing that tapping into the pillow was an intention-setting mechanism, as an adult, I set the stoic intention to wake up at six before I went to sleep.

I read somewhere that engaging in an activity that sparked joy for you first thing may get you out of bed faster. For me, this activity was writing. I tried freewriting first thing in the morning, fictionalizing dreams I vaguely remembered or picking up on a short story that I was working on.

But that too didn’t work. Nothing worked.

Although I had good intentions of writing and meditating and running in the morning, I struggled to beat the snooze. Every day.

Scheduling a Specific Activity With Exact Steps

The hack that clinched the deal for me was when I married exact steps for a specific plan or intention with my joyful calling — writing or tasks that aid in my writing like research, reading, and finding freelance clients. Each night, I decided what piece of writing I was going to work on and precisely how I was going to further it the next morning. This avoided waiting for inspiration and spinning with indecision on what to write each morning.

This eliminated any resistance I had to waking up as I was excited to further my writing project and I already knew the exact steps that I needed to take.

As soon as the alarm went off, I remember my writing plan. I still laze around for a few minutes and check my social media to wake me up. But I rise much quicker than before.

It is vital to find the activity that sparks unwavering joy in you. If you are like me, this won’t be hitting the gym or running a mile because I don’t enjoy this in my core (no pun intended). I go to the gym only because I need to stay fit to be able to do everything else in life. Because it’s important, not because it sparks joy. But when writing, I effortlessly dive into my flow and feel like I’ve conquered the world when I’m done.

Scheduling Should Be the Last Thing You Do on the Previous Night

I have found that the timing of when the schedule or plan is drawn plays a large role in denoting the success of waking up. Doing this as the last thing you do before bed, infuses the urgency and excitement to your subconscious. In my case, my subconscious may even start working on my story idea while I sleep. As a result, I may have an unexpected plot twist up my sleeve in the morning.

When I say that this should be the last thing you do, I mean the last striving activity for the day. As in, the last productive task of the day. If you’re someone who is in the habit of reading, meditating, journaling, listening to music, or engaging in any other relaxing activity before sleeping, this scheduling task should happen prior to the relaxing activity.

The planning task should essentially close out your goal-fulfilling activities for the day. This would also serve as a milepost for your day, signaling that it’s time to get some much-needed shut-eye.

Examples of Intentions/Plans I Have Set in the Past

If you’re struggling with executing this concept, and have questions around how detailed these plans need to be, please consider my examples below.

• I’m going to edit my article on the morning hack and publish it on Medium.
• I’m going to further my short story on social media and add two more pages for scene A and scene B.
• I will conduct a half hour’s research on the art of gifting for my blog post and start on the skeleton for the post.
• I will add ten new leads in the mental health app sector to my potential client list.
• I will read one chapter from Stephen King’s On Writing first thing tomorrow morning.
• I’m going to send out five cold-emails to clients from my potential client list tomorrow morning.
• I will read The Temporary Matter by Jhumpa Lahiri and list all the literary devices that she uses in this short story. Then, I will inject one of those devices to the short story I’m currently working on.

This morning method paid instant gratification, working from day one, and has been working for months now. I invite you to try this hack and let me know if it helps you too.

Good luck! And let the glorious mornings roll!