How I Learned To Beat Morning Laziness From My Cat

Life hack for the snooze trap

We all know that waking up in the right manner allows us to have fresh mornings, productive afternoons, and strong connections throughout the day.

Similarly, we all know that hitting the snooze button to get a few minutes of extra sleep, or going back to sleep once we’re awake, makes us feel like utter shit when we finally need to get up.

For some of us, beating laziness in the morning seems like Wim Hoff asking us to climb Mount Everest in our shorts — erm no, I think I’m good; you go on ahead, bro.

We make excuses for going back to sleep even though we know 100% of that it is the wrong decision. We’ll say to ourselves:

• Only a few more minutes.
• I need more sleep.
• The blankets have accepted us as their own, and if we leave them, we might lose their trust

These excuses don’t even make sense — especially the first one — but we seem to forget that it did us no good yesterday.

The battle here is with laziness.

It’s the first battle we face with ourselves, so winning this battle is key to winning all others throughout the day, simply because the momentum and mentality seem to carry us through tasks with ease.

But how do we get up?

If you have a Cat, you’ll see. They are one of the most meditative, patient, and chilled-out creatures on the planet (well, when they aren’t making scratchy violin noises with the neighbor’s Cat at 3 am).

After a long nap or deep sleep, you’ll see how the cats take their time to rise. It doesn’t try to get up like a startled deer, rather:

• The cat will pick its head up
• Look around
• Breathe
• Blink a few times, slow and tight
• Yawn
• Do some stretches whilst laying down
• Stay there for how long it wants.
• Lift itself up with its arms
• Breathe some more
• Take in the world
• It seems to take time to be thankful for a new day
• Then it will slowly stand up whilst doing some cat yoga stretches
• Then finally stand up completely
• Shake its head with some final stretches
• A big cat yawns, and then boom! It’s ready for an action-packed powerful day of adventure, of licking, grooming, meditating in the sun, annoying the dogs, eating delicious treats, and chasing butterflies.

The key concept here is that we make things too hard on ourselves. If we break things down into micro-tasks, it becomes way easier. Just like the Cat, this is what I did this morning, and now I feel great:

• I opened my eyes
• KEPT THE PHONE AWAY!
• Blinked a few times (slow and tight like my Cat) and was thankful for the new day
• Leaned me up on one elbow, lifting my head (this one is key!)
• Wanted to crash my head back down on the pillow — you’ll feel this too the first time, Don’t — instead, ride the momentum!
• Stayed there for how long I needed, but didn’t go back down
• Stretched my legs
• Stretched my arms
• Stayed and meditated for a while
• Then got into a cat pose position, like the lioness on the left in the image below

• Then I sat up on my knees
• I breathed deep a few times and blinked the sleep away
• Boom! Ready to get out of bed

Now I feel extremely productive and ready for adventure. I feel like I am in control since I have beaten the first battle of the day, rather than a groggy zombie being carried by laziness.

I hope this helps you in your daily routine, it’s one of the best life hacks I have in my arsenal. A special thanks to my cat — she’s called Sheba.

I didn’t want to disturb her. She’s doing Tai Chi.

Anyway.

I wonder what else we can easily conquer by breaking it down into micro-tasks?