Five Ways to Motivate Yourself to Wake up Early!

Waking up early is something we all dream about, but seldom do. While some blame their lifestyle, others find it impossible to stop snoozing their alarms.

If you’re one of those who cannot wake up with the rising sun, here are a few tips or tricks you could use to wake up early. Follow these, and you would soon trick your mind into thinking that it’s fun to start the day early – which it is!

Start One Minute Early

You don’t have to wake up several hours early every day to make an impact in your life. Waking up even a minute early could make a major difference in your life in the long run. You should just wake up one minute earlier than you usually do. And the day after that, advance your alarm by another minute. Soon, towards the end of one month, you’re waking up at least 30 minutes earlier than you earlier did. And you do this without straining yourself a lot and feeling sick all day.

In a few months, you will reach your goal and find the motivation to wake up earlier than what you wanted to initially. The major challenge that most people face when they wake up early is feeling tired all day long! For instance, you cannot wake up at 5 am if your usual time is 9 am, and you feel sleepy all day long. However, one minute might not seem like much of a difference to your body. It will tune your mind into thinking you’re getting the same amount of sleep. Slowly one minute a day, you’re closer to your goal. Eventually, you can wake up at any time you want without feeling sleepy and weak.

Make It Easy to Wake Up!

Well, this might sound a bit redundant. But think about it. What is it that is stopping you from waking up early? Is it the lack of quality sleep at night? The fear of feeling tired? Or the dark, comfortable room, with the alarm at a reachable distance that makes it easy for you to stay in the sack? Change all of it but not everything at once, but slowly until you get to a point where you get quality sleep at night and feel well-rested when your alarm goes off.

And make sure your alarm is not at a reachable distance. This will make you get out of your bed to turn it off and wake you up as soon as the alarm rings. Isn’t that an easy way to start? You could also set your coffee machine timer off around the time you wake up. The soothing aroma of a hot cup of coffee is sure to lure you into waking up early!

Use Peer Pressure

Remember the time you woke up way ahead of your usual time when you had to go for a school play practice, an office meeting, or a favorite sport of yours? Well, the reason you could do that is you had committed to someone that you would be there. Or you were following your passion. However, it’s not the same when you need to wake up early now. With no reason or motivation to wake up early, you continue to sleep for longer.

One way to beat this is to find a hobby class that requires you to be up in the morning or set up meetings with the early risers, you know, to work on something together. The peer pressure, the fear of missing out on commitments, and the enthusiasm to finish the task on hand will help you stay away from the snooze button. As you have an extrinsic motivation to get off the bed, you’re more likely to succeed in the long run!

Change to Your Routine

Understand and evaluate every step you have taken until now to wake up early. Figure out why they did not work out and make changes. By introducing tiny changes to your routine, you will improve the quality of sleep you get at night. And thus be able to wake up feeling fresh in the morning. For instance, you could have a warm shower before bedtime.  Or you could exercise in the evening, play soothing music, and so on. Having a warm robe and a pair of slippers by your bed on a cold night and a bottle of cold water on a warm night would help you look forward to waking up too.

Remember to take notes of the progress, and do not forget to reward yourself even for the tiny changes in the right direction. This will motivate you to wake up early!