Do you have big goals and want to get up bright and early to tackle them? Does getting up early feels impossible?
Maybe you have every intention of getting up early, but you keep shutting off that alarm and wasting that early morning magic hour again. Listen…
Some people are early risers.
Some people wake up with tons of energy.
Some people don’t need alarms or coffee.
I am not some people. And maybe you aren’t either, and that’s okay.
I was the teenager that could easily sleep until noon during the summer. I’m the one who’d set multiple alarms just in case I turned my alarm off in my sleep.
My husband even blames me for introducing him to the snooze button – “Before I met you I used to just pop out of bed…”
But then I started waking up early.
But I didn’t suddenly become a morning person.
I became an early-riser because I am an introvert with small kids and it is SURVIVAL man!
When I get up before my kids, have a cup of hot coffee before being asked to do anything for anyone else other than myself, I am a totally different human for the rest of the day.
It is my biggest self-care secret. And it’s available to everyone.
So without further ado, here are 10 secrets to getting your booty out of bed when those blankets are whispering sweet nothingness in your ears begging you to roll over and stay.
Secret 1: Put Your Phone Alarm Out of Reach
Arguably, this one is annoying if you share a room with anyone else. But if your alarm is not within arm’s reach, you will not be able to snooze it and roll back over in bed.
Charge your phone on your dresser instead of your nightstand or plug it in on the bathroom counter.
(Bonus benefit: you won’t scroll as much before sleep if your phone is out of reach).
Secret 2: Immediately Open Your E-Reader When Your Alarm Goes Off
Sure, you could scroll your phone after turning your alarm off and it would wake your brain up – but the first thing you see in the morning should not be social media. Don’t do that. Your nervous system will fire up and you’ll regret it.
Your kindle, on the other hand, is the perfect substitute.
Sometimes after shutting off my alarm, I immediately reach for my Kindle and read for a few minutes. This allows me to enjoy my warm bed for a couple more minutes before getting up to start my day. You should definitely sit up a little in bed, though, or else you are playing with fire (your warm bed).
Pro Tip: Do this with a book you enjoy, not a book you should be reading. This won’t work as well with a book that you’re forcing yourself to read.
Secret 3: Have a Cozy Robe Within Arm’s Reach of Your Bed
My favorite robe of all time is cozy and warm and luxurious. My grandma gave it to me, it’s my favorite color and it just makes me happy.
It’s basically a wearable blanket and it’s a huge hack for me to get my booty out of the warm blankets because it’s basically another warm blanket for me to walk around with.
I have two robes – my warm, fuzzy robe for winter and my cooler, summer robe. Somehow wrapping myself with something immediately after waking up seriously helps me start my day when I’m forcing myself out of bed, so I 10/10 recommend it.
Secret 4: Prep Your Coffee
If you don’t drink coffee, read on. If you do drink coffee…
If your coffee pot has a self-brew function, set it to five minutes before your alarm. If your kitchen is close, you will be able to smell your delicious coffee the minute that alarm screams at you to wake up. If your kitchen is too far to smell your coffee brewing, you’ll know it’s waiting to welcome you with a hot cup of caffeine.
This was the only thing that worked when my daughters were super little and I was sleep-deprived as hell.
My current coffee pot doesn’t have a self-brew function (Moccamaster – what the hell) but I still have that baby prepped every night before going to bed so all I have to do is flip that button and wait five minutes to grab some coffee.
Secret 5: Have a Fun Task on Deck After Getting Up
You’re setting yourself up for failure if you tell yourself to get out of bed (when you don’t want to) and immediately exercise (when you don’t want to).
Ask me how I know.
You will maybe be successful for a day or two but your nervous system will eventually get pissed off and will throw you off your game.
Have something fun waiting for you.
Planner girly? Have your planner and stickers out ready. Reading a great book? Schedule time to read that on your couch with a hot beverage. Journal girly? Have it out ready with a candle, lighter, and a pen.
Even if it’s just for fifteen minutes, give yourself an immediate reward for getting out of bed early. If you have other morning goals, tackle those afterwards.
Secret 6: Go to Bed On Time
Listen, I know. I KNOW. But the minute those mid-thirties roll around…
I used to be able to function on way less sleep. When I used to work the opening shift at Starbucks as a teenager, my rule was going to bed at least by midnight for my 4am alarm. ONLY FOUR HOURS OF SLEEP!
Then when I had my first daughter at 26, I was good on five or six hours of sleep. (By good, I mean that I wouldn’t lose my sh*t by the end of the day due to exhaustion).
Now, I’m in my mid-thirties and I need a minimum of 7 hours. Anything less, I will snap at someone by the end of the day – probably my kids – and then I will feel terrible. So I aim for 8, but will settle for 7. Every once in a while, I’ll give myself 9.
You probably have a million obligations during the day and want to stay up doing something fun at night, I GET it.
But the math just can’t math if you want to get up at 5:30am to have a productive morning and stay up until 11pm reading or watching Netflix.
You will get sick of being tired and the weakest link will break, which in this case is your new habit of waking up early.
It sucks, but just go to bed earlier.
Secret 7: Get Your Kids In Bed Early
Listen, this tip will save your life.
I love my kids. They have taught me more about love and life than anything else I’ve ever experienced.
AND I need some time at night to be me after they’ve gone to sleep.
Different aged kids need different bedtimes, but my daughters are 5 and 8 now and we aim for 8pm. This gives me time at night with my night-owl husband without tiny humans and also time in the morning for quiet time with myself without tiny humans.
If your kids already go to bed early, yay! Great job. If they don’t, get them in bed fifteen minutes early for a few days until you’ve carved away that evening time for you. You will not regret it.
Secret 8: Give Your Kids an “Ok to Wake” Light
* a quick moment of silence in respect of this savior *
Before my oldest daughter could tell time, this saved my quiet mornings. Basically, the light has a dim night-light mode all night and when it reaches a certain time, it turns a soft green color. There are tons of variations, tons of shapes, and a lot of them have sound machines attached.
But that green-light beauty held the morning wake-up boundary for me for years and I will be forever grateful.
My oldest daughter wakes up ready to go and she used to have a sixth-sense for identifying when I was up and starting my morning. And when we introduced the wake-up clock as a non-negotiable boundary, she learned to seriously respect it.
But just be ready to hear those stomping feet down the hall the minute that light switches green.
Secret 9: Make Yourself a Goal Chart with Stickers
Am I the only one? Maybe. But in case, you’re like me…
Make an easy grid on Google Sheets or Docs with enough blocks for the amount of days of your goal (this works for exercise, or any other goal, btw), print it out, and tape it up somewhere. Basically, make yourself a Goal Bingo.
For each day that you complete a day successfully, add a sticker to the grid. That hit of dopamine when you get to add a sticker is so worth the dorkiness of the sticker chart.
After a few days of adding stickers, your chart will start to give you confidence – look how many stickers, look how many days!
You can even give yourself a reward for filling the entire chart. Bonus points if the reward makes your new-found morning routine even easier. New coffee mug? New robe? New coffee pot?
Secret 10: Visualize Future You
This is perhaps the hardest tip, because there is no instant-gratification. But it is the most powerful tip, so read on…
We all have goals. Hopefully big goals. And we all only have 24 hours per day. But if you carve an extra hour for yourself every morning, you are adding over 25 hours per month (an entire extra day), 360 hours per year of time to do WHATEVER you want with your life.
Your warm blankets cannot offer you that.
Set a reading goal, learn a new language, move your body more, start meditating, build a side-hustle, learn something on Great Courses, write a book. Literally anything.
Who could you be in one month after 25 extra hours of doing something new?
Who could you be in one year after 360 extra hours of doing something new?
Probably a happier, healthier, calmer version of your already-awesome self that can do something that you can’t yet do now.
Think about areas where you’d like to expand, and dedicate some of your morning time to focus on those areas. Then see how amazing you feel when you start to grow.
Basically, if I can do this early morning thing, so can you.
And you deserve that quiet YOU time, girl.
Do you have any tips to share that I missed? Comment below and tell me your secrets!
xx
Bri