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Summary

The article provides four practical tips and a bonus suggestion for consistently waking up early, emphasizing the importance of scheduling important tasks, using alarm tactics, meditating, listening to stimulating content, and leveraging the presence of a favorite animal.

Abstract

The author of the article shares personal insights and practical strategies for those who struggle with waking up early. The tips include scheduling important commitments that involve others early in the morning to ensure accountability, hiding an alarm to force oneself out of bed, engaging in energizing meditation to stimulate the mind, and listening to exciting content to increase alertness. Additionally, the author humorously suggests the "Frank principle," which involves placing a beloved pet in bed to prompt wakefulness, as an effective bonus strategy. The article acknowledges that waking up early is challenging, especially for non-morning people, and offers these methods as potential solutions to make the process easier and more enjoyable.

Opinions

  • The author does not believe that waking up at 5:30 AM is a universal key to success and finds the idea personally unappealing.
  • There is a higher likelihood of waking up early for commitments that affect others than for personal goals, such as fitness.
  • Hiding an alarm clock can be an effective, albeit stressful, method to ensure one gets out of bed due to the increased anxiety of locating the alarm.
  • Meditation can be counterproductive if it relaxes the individual too much, but a guided, energizing meditation can help wake up and refocus.
  • Listening to music or engaging with content that provokes strong emotions or opinions can be an effective way to become alert and ready for the day.
  • The presence of a favorite animal, like a small dog named Frank, can be a joyful and effective motivator for waking up early.

How to wake up early consistently

Four tips for when you’re forced to be an early bird, but getting the worm doesn’t even seem worth it.

Photo by Jen Theodore on Unsplash

Are you a morning person or a night owl?

Me, personally? I’m a 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Eastern Standard Time kind of girl. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work because I have a day job and other responsibilities that fall on both sides of that timeframe. And sometimes, I have to get up earlier than usual to get extra things done because productivity is key!

In all honesty, I don’t believe that waking up at 5:30 AM every day is the key to success. It’s certainly not my key to success. I don’t mean to yuck anyone else’s yum, but waking up at 5:30 AM every day sounds terrible to me. To me, that sounds like a fate worse than death! But mostly because I’m a very sleepy individual.

However, if you do find that you need to wake up early consistently, here are four tricks that you can use to get things moving at whatever ungodly hour you’re supposed to be getting things moving at:

1. Schedule something important first

As sad as it is, I know I’m not alone in this: I am way more likely to get out of bed early if it the thing that I’m getting out of bed early for affects someone else.

I’m way less likely to get out of bed if it’s something that I’m doing for me.

For example, back when I was working as a consultant, towards the end of my tenure, I had to fly to headquarters every week. Our work travel policy required employees to arrive in time to start the work day with everyone else, which meant I had to wake up around 3:15 AM to get ready to catch my flight.

As painful as that was, I never missed a flight. Well, I missed one flight, but it wasn’t one of those early flights and it wasn’t because I overslept; I didn’t have pre-check at the time and though I showed up 2 hours early like I usually do, the check-in line wrapped around the terminal and was barely moving, so most people in line missed their flights that morning.

The point is I never missed one of those super early flights because if I did, my actions would affect other people (i.e. my coworkers).

However, every now and again, I’ll start a new health and fitness related journey where I try to trick myself into thinking that I’ll wake up at 5:30 AM to exercise. In case you’re wondering, I have never made it out of bed to exercise at 5:30 AM, not once.

I set the alarm. I wake up. I’ve even gotten as far as getting out of bed and getting dressed to workout. But then somehow, some way, I find my way back into bed.

So all that to say: When it’s a personal thing, I just can’t seem to bring myself to do it that early in the morning. If you’re like me, it may be helpful to schedule something that you know has implications for someone else first thing at the time you’re trying to wake up. That way, you feel more pressure to meet that wake up call. And then, while you’re up after you finish that task (no matter how small it may be), you’ll be awake enough to handle whatever else it is that you need to do in the morning.

2. Set your alarm and hide it

Doesn’t it seem like human beings just like to torture themselves? In this case, however, it may be an effective way to get you out of bed in the morning.

If you find that you’re particularly sleepy when you wake up in the morning, try putting your phone not only out of arm’s reach, but also hiding it somewhere where you have to get out of bed and follow the sound/put in mental effort in order to find it.

The aim here is that:

  1. You’ve woken up your body by getting out of bed,
  2. You’ve woken up your mind by putting it to work, trying to find your alarm clock, and
  3. You’ve increased your anxiety level (and, therefore, your alertness) because you want that darn thing to stop making noise already!

By the time you find it, you should be wide awake and ready to get to work. Although you probably won’t try this technique ever again after the first time because it’s pretty stressful.

I did this to myself by accident one time and I’ve very intentionally made sure to never do it again. Still, I thought I’d share just in case anyone might be interested in trying (read: desperate enough to try) it on purpose.

3. Do an energizing mediation

I don’t know about you, but I am someone who gets very relaxed when meditating. So, if you decide to do this meditation while lying down, it very well could backfire.

But if you’re able to sit up in bed or, better yet, find a chair, a guided meditation could be just what you need to wake yourself up. And luckily, YouTube has countless free guided meditations to choose from.

I don’t use this method to wake me up in the morning, but I do use it when I’m feeling lazy and I’ve finished a task, but I don’t feel like moving on to the next one. I find that listening to a quick, guided meditation in between tasks energizes me and re-focuses my mind so I can tackle the next item on the agenda.

4. Listen to something that excites you

For me, this is music. So, when I need to get up and I can’t seem to rally myself up using sheer reasoning (read: guilt-tripping), I’ll listen to my favorite song to get myself pumped up. It doesn’t even need to be a high-energy song; it could just be a song you really like and something that doesn’t soothe you back to sleep.

Just as well, it doesn’t necessarily need to be something you enjoy. You could watch a debate in which the majority of arguments oppose your beliefs in the realm of politics, religion, environmental issues, etc. The key word is “exciting”. It doesn’t have to be something that excites you in a good way; it just needs to be something that gets your mind moving and your blood pumping. Once you do that, you should be awake enough to get things done.

5. Bonus tip: Find your “Frank”

Not everyone can hack this. Not everyone has the resources to get this done. But this is the single most effective trick that has gotten me out of bed and ready to go.

One day, I went over to a friend’s place for a joint birthday party and a group of us ended up staying the night. I don’t know what it is about sleepovers but even though I still manage to fall asleep at the same time as I normally do, I’m more likely to feel tired enough to sleep in when I’m sleeping over at someone else’s place.

The morning after the party, I just could not get myself out of bed. None of us guests could. But of course the host was up and she had a secret weapon to get the rest of us moving: Frank. A small, blanket loving, bow-tie-wearing wiener dog named Frank.

My dear friend tried to wake me up at a very reasonable hour on her own, but I just turned over. In fact, my number one technique for avoiding responsibility is to simply turn over in bed so that I’m no longer facing the reason why I need to get up. And my efficacy rate would be 100% except when I visit my mom and try this in the mornings, I’m met with a very fierce resistance.…

So, my dear friend picks Frank up and puts him in bed beside me. I’m under the covers; Frank joins me. He loves blankets and he loves to burrow. Because dogs are my favorite animal I’m now wide awake, cuddling Frank. He’s so small! How could you not?!

To apply the “Frank principle”, simply have a loved one drop your favorite animal in your bed when it’s time for you to wake up. I have only tried this with a dog, but I imagine it becomes more effective the scarier your favorite animal is. So if your favorite animal is a lion or an alligator, I’m very confident you will wake up when someone drops one of those next to you.

That’s it! I hope you enjoyed these tips.

Happy Early Rising!

Morning Routines
Wake Up Early
Productivity
Life Hacking
Get Up Early
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