5 Tips For Waking Up Earlier
Waking up early...ughh!
For most of my life I had such a negative attitude towards early mornings. I slept in on every weekend or day off of school. Even as an adult I was more of a "night owl" then an "early bird". When I went into labor with my middle son my water broke at 7:00 am and I was still in bed!
Can you get a pretty good idea of how much I disliked waking up early in the past? January of 2017, when I decided to make a healthier lifestyle change, I became more aware and conscious of how I was spending my time each day. With some resistance I soon realized my time early in the morning was being waisted by sleeping! As a Stay At Home Mom of 3, I hardly had time alone much less on a daily basis, so I had to get creative with my day and how I was spending my time. Early mornings while my kiddos were still asleep was the only time I could come up with for getting in my new "self care" routine....daily devotional/quit time + work out + a real breakfast (proper nutrition) + some blogging.
Since waking up early doesn't come natural to me I had to come up with realistic habits I could start implementing that would eventually transform me into a "Morning Person"! These are the top 5 that helped me the most and are easily sustainable daily.
Tip #1: Set Your Mind On All The Positives
Deciding the night before that waking up early is going to be a positive thing for your day will make you look forward to it more then if you are dreading it. Focus on why you are choosing to wake up earlier whether it be...
to enjoy a quite home while everyone is sleeping
to truly enjoy and soak up your devotional or motivational book without interruptions
the feeling of being prepared for your day instead of rushing once the whole house is awake
getting to push harder in your work out because your kids aren't needing your attention
getting to enjoy breakfast with out having to share
simply gaining mental peace to start your day off right
Understanding these benefits help to create a positive mind shift when first starting this new habit. Having more patience and feeling less anxious during the day because of the self care quite time first thing is well worth trading a couple of hours of sleep for!
Tip #2: Set Everything Out The Night Before
Being prepared the night before helps do two things, motivate you to follow through and allow your time in the morning to be used for quality productive tasks.
1. The night before decide which work out clothes your going to wear the next morning. Set out a pile of clothes with your shoes in a place that is easily accessible in the morning when your room is still dark because your husband is still sleeping. Don't forget to set out socks and a sports bra. It really is a pain to have ALMOST everything and then realize you don't so, you have to try and not make to much noise searching through the dresser drawer.
Visually seeing your clothes set out and prepared for your early morning work out does something really amazing to our brains. It sends positive affirmations and a sense of accomplishment to see ourselves attempting to following through with a new goal.
2. By having our clothes set out, ready for us to just grab, and head to the bathroom to change allows for our minds and bodies to stay in a productive forward motion. Totally avoiding being distracted with looking for something to wear, how messy our closet is, or tempted to look at our phone messages. We are on a mission of getting out of bed, STAYING out of bed, and getting dressed. Once I am dressed in the morning it makes it really really hard to give up and go back to bed!
Tip #3: Early To Bed + Alarm Clock
The average adult needs 7-9 hours of sleep each night to stay healthy and feel rested. But, most adults are actually only getting 6 hours or less each night. It's a lot harder to catch up on lost sleep then to just go to bed a little earlier. As a Mom of 3 super busy kiddos, I know that I have to have my sleep to be able to function and keep up with them daily. I try my best to be asleep each night by 9-9:30 pm. This doesn't mean in bed scrolling social media or checking emails...like actually snoozing!
When I make this my routine 5 days a week then the next morning when my alarm goes off I don't feel super sluggish or exhausted. After a couple of days of waking up at 5:00 am your body will be ready to go to bed at 9:00 pm with out any problems.
-Confession Time: I am a chronic snoozer of my alarm clock! It's THAT bad and it drives my husband super crazy!! I am fully aware of this issue, so being honest with myself I knew that this habit wouldn't just change over night. I mean it has taken years to perfect!
To avoid hitting the snooze 10-837 times each morning I actually plug my phone (also alarm clock) in across the room before I go to bed. Not the wall next to the bed, where I could still be in bed but reach for my phone to turn off the alarm half asleep. It has to be the wall all the way across the room next to the bedroom door and in grabbing distance to where my clothes are set out.
Yup, I told you...chronic alarm snoozer right here. But, by choosing to be intentional with where I am plugging in my alarm helps with Tip #1 and because it is all the way across my room it causes me to get all the way out of bed. Taking the next steps to just keep moving forward instead of going back to bed become a lot easier for me. Even after a year and a half of doing these positive tips my old habits like to sneak back up from time to time, so I still to this day can't have the phone next to me on the side table if I want to be successful with waking up early the next morning.
Tip #4: Create Daily Accountability
You know that saying..."women can't go to the bathroom alone"...well this is similar!
Having an accountability partner that you can call or text as soon as your up and dressed makes wanting to get up more exciting. In your mind you won't want to let that other person down so you make it a point to get up so you can sent the "Good Morning" GIF their way asap.
The larger the accountability group the better this works. About 6-8 Ladies and I have a "Morning Motivation" FB Messenger Group. Every morning at 5:00 am we all check in with a funny GIF. If I decided to lay in bed and not get up I will hear my phone start to ding...ding...ding...ding...and I promise you that is motivation to get up! It's not cool to be the one who didn't get up and check in....BTW!
Tip #5 Have A Set Routine Once You're UP
I am a creature of habit. Once I know a specific routine works I tend to stick with it for most aspects of my life. My morning routine is very much like this too! I try to be as productive as possible when it comes to the time I am "kid-less" in the mornings, so once I found a routine that work for me I have stuck to it.
When deciding how you will spend your morning routine first right down all the tasks you want to accomplish. For example...devotional/quite time, work out, computer work (if you work from home), nutritious break fast, or anything else that serves as self care. Decided which order you want to accomplish each task and stick to your plan or morning schedule. After a few mornings of being super productive it will encourage you to want to continue doing it each morning because the feeling of productivity is actually a super boost of energy for the rest of your day.
I hope these 5 tips help you as much as they have helped me! If you have any great tips I would love to hear about them too. Mom, you are worthy of YOUR self care time each day and you are strong enough to transform into a Morning Person!!
