Photo by David Jackmanson
I plan to conduct ongoing experiments as this blog continues. I feel that it is a necessary thing to do in order to keep myself motivated as well as accountable. So I figure I would start off easy with something that I have seen on many other blogs.
Waking up early (or ontime) has never been easy for me. I tend to go to bed around midnight and set my alarm for 6:41 am (yes, random time I know) so that I can be at work by 8 am. Without fail, I hit the snooze button every 9 minutes until it is about 7:08 and don’t get out of bed for another 5 minutes. Then I find myself scrambling, figuring out ways to make up for time that I don’t have, make some coffee, and race out of the garage. Sometimes I get to work on time, and sometimes I’m a little late.
I have read many tips on how to wake up early and how beneficial it is to your life. I have printed out Leo Babauta’s tips from Zen Habits, read them, re-read them, and still can’t manage to get my ass out of bed. But he gets up at 5 am!!! That’s just WAAAY too early for me. So I decided to set myself a more realistic goal.
6:30 am will be the magic number. OK, maybe 6:33 am, just to remain consistently random.
Here are the benefits I see from waking up at this time:
- I can make and pack breakfast and coffee to bring to work. Hopefully I will already have a lunch packed.
- I don’t like eating breakfast before work mostly cause I don’t know how it will affect my stomach on my commute. (TMI??) - Can quickly walk the dog, which will actually help me to wake up to some fresh air.
- Can do some excercises.
- In general, I can take my time and not feel so rushed.
I think #4 is my main goal. The times that I have woke up early for whatever reason have always seemed to just be more relaxing. Even though this is only 30 – 40 minutes earlier than normal, time seems to go by slower for some reason. When there is an extra 10 minutes, I feel like I can do so much more.
I won’t reiterate what I am sure many people have already read, from others who have become the authority on this subject. Let’s just say that I will pick and choose from the tips in the posts I have linked to below.
I will post how I am doing throughout the week and see if I really do benefit from actually waking up on time. And thanks to what seems like a never ending cycle of having to do stuff with friends on the weekend (I wish sometimes that everyone was born on the same day so there weren’t so many birthdays to celebrate), this time does not apply to Saturday and Sunday sleeping in/recovery mornings.
***UPDATE: Thanks to a certain Apple product which shall remain nameless, I was unable to sleep in this morning due having to hear a bunch of crazy people screaming and clapping every time a person walked out of the store with said product. Thank you Steve Jobs for helping me get 4 hours of sleep on a Saturday.***
Sweet Dreams!
My virtual advisors:
- 10 Benefits of Rising Early, and How to Do It by Leo Babauta – I can’t really say anything that hasn’t already been said about this guy. Great guide and motivation for getting up in the morning.
- How to Become An Early Riser by Steve Pavlina – Also good insight into sleeping patterns and how to not fall trap into thinking that going to bed earlier will help you get up earlier.
- 10 Geeky Tricks for Getting Out of Bed In the Morning – Pretty general tips, but I like #6. Have a good reason for being up early. They relate it to finishing some video game, which makes sense cause it’s geeky, but I can relate this to times I am going on vacation and have to leave for an early flight. It’s always easier to get up when you’re excited for something.
Haha, I can relate with you. Unfortunately, my time is 5AM… My wife and i force each other to get up then, do a p90x routine, get showered, and i go to work (while my wife goes back to sleep for another 1.5 hours)… I would guess that my incentive to get up is the workout, because i feel terrible if i miss one. =\
Hello Nell, I know we’ve never met, but we have to be related. I’m reading your story and realize that it is very similar to mine. If I need to be out of bed by let’s say 6am, I must set my alarm clock for 5am. Reason? Because I’m going to press snooze until the very last second. I have kids and it’s very hard for me to get in bed prior to 11pm. And getting to bed late affects the next morning. Let’s just say I’ve learned to “manage”, but it’s always a work in progress.
Brandon, there are many things about your comment that I admire. (A) that you can get up at 5 am. (B) that your wife gets up with you even though it seems that she can sleep in. (C) that you do P90X in the morning. I was on the P7X routine once. That’s right, 7 days, and I was so sore I could barely move for the next 7. haha.
I have a love/hate relationship with the snooze button. I love to hit it, but hate that it gives me the option. I have considered getting one of those alarm clocks that force you to either chase them down or put them together just so I can’t just hit that button.
I think if anyone is going to grow as a person, then everyone is a work in progress. This little experiment is one small step in getting things done for me. Thanks for comment and good luck with the snooze button!
[...] for anyone that read my post last week, Earlier Rising…Adventures in Waking Up On Time, I challenged myself with a realistic goal of waking up at 6:33 am. After about a week and a half [...]
Hello Nell, I know we’ve never met, but we have to be related. I’m reading your story and realize that it is very similar to mine. If I need to be out of bed by let’s say 6am, I must set my alarm clock for 5am. Reason? Because I’m going to press snooze until the very last second. I have kids and it’s very hard for me to get in bed prior to 11pm. And getting to bed late affects the next morning. Let’s just say I’ve learned to “manage”, but it’s always a work in progress.