3 steps to wake up early: morning routine change:
Imagine you could experience the sensation of the sunrise every day. Imagine you could wake up before anybody else does. Imagine you can use that extra time for yourself. With no distractions around, just a fresh and quiet morning. Perhaps you already tried that — but it didn’t work for you?
That’s because the trick to become an early morning bird is not just to set the alarm clock for 05:00 a.m. Initially, I tried that too — and failed miserably. But don’t worry, there is a way how you can easily make it your new morning routine. The same way as I did. Stay tuned to this episode and find out how.
The wake up challenge
Seems quite interesting, that we people somehow value the sunrise more than a sunset. I guess it is because we subconsciously know that unlike sunset, experiencing the sunrise takes the effort. To see the sunset, you just stay awake a little bit longer. And depending on your location’s longitude and the period of the year, you perhaps even don’t need to push that too far.
Sunrise however is very different, special. You just have to interrupt your sleep and pull yourself out of the comfy bed. That takes effort. But when you actually do it, you know that the prize was worth it.
The trouble is how to make it a habit, right?
The good news is that changing your morning routine and waking up early is perfectly possible. Most people fail to establish this new habit just because they follow one of the change management misconceptions: they believe in the power of willpower.
Willpower is a great force multiplier, a catalyst to initiate a change. But willpower evaporates over time. Willpower sucks as a long-term change management tool.
Sometimes, I’m guilty to forget that too. So here’s a story how I tried to wake up at 5 a.m. and initially failed. Yes, I did. Because I thought it’s no big deal, I would just do it. And the idea that I would actually need to apply some hacks from the change management toolbox didn’t cross my mind — at first.
How I failed badly — at first
So in the evening, I set my alarm clock for 5 a.m. and went to sleep. My motivation was fresh and high — so when the alarm went on in the morning, I almost jumped out of the bed. No problem. I was cool, I was badass.
The second day however was more challenging, The bed felt sooo comfy in the morning. But the heck — I somehow managed and pulled myself out. Clenching my teeth. Just do it!
The third day was a killer. If I remember right, I guess it was even raining outside. It was dark and definitely unwelcoming. And for the worse, I went to bed late that evening before. So I hit the snooze button. And then again. Well, maybe three times. When I got up finally, I wasted like 30 minutes of the time I intended for exercise. I just messed up my new morning setup. I was disappointed, and my motivation got some cracks for sure.
On the fourth day, I really suffered to even persuade myself that it actually makes sense to wake up so early. What’s the whole point of this madness? And I was looking for a reasons not only to snooze the alarm — but to switch it off completely and sleep until 7 a.m. Which I did. And you know that it really never works, right? You are just in some kind of a limbo. You are not sleeping, yet you are procrastinating the time.
I repeated the same experience on the fifth day — and didn’t even bother to set the alarm clock in the evening. Especially because the next day was Saturday.
And I was off the line. I slipped.
The willpower was not enough to form this new habit and to change my morning routine. I just got reminded of my own teachings myself.
I always say in my webinars, trainings or coaching sessions: Do not rely on the willpower when you want to change your habits — or for any other change activity for that sake.
Instead, to impose the new routine and get up early in the morning, we need to focus on making just three things right.
1) Make it personal: have a reason
The first thing is to make it personal. It all starts with a strong personal reason.
Although that may sound pretty obvious, you would be surprised how many people fail to establish the regular early morning routine just because they don’t really know why they want to do it.
The social media gurus might be buzzing and bragging about waking up at 4 a.m., hence people may get the notion that it is a cool thing to do. So let’s try that too, shouldn’t we?
To make any change work however, the first prerequisite is to know why you are doing it. To have a strong personal reason.
Everyone may have different reason why to wake up early in the morning and how to use that extra time. Just make sure that you find one and that it is strong enough for you.
Myself, I appreciate that everybody around is well asleep, so I have quiet and undisturbed time either to workout or to do some creative work. Like writing articles and podcasts. Some of the popular reasons why other people want to get early out of the bed might be the following.
Workout or walk outside: With no unexpected meeting request and delays, morning seems to be sure time not to skip your physical exercise.
Productive work: With nobody to interrupt your concentration and a fresh brain, mornings are ideal for creative work and when you need to do more.
Side hustle: Get some extra time next to your 9 to 5 job, when you are still fresh.
You may skip the traffic: When you commute in the rush hour, it eats valuable time. It may be a good idea to avoid the jam and ride early.
Your health and to align with circadian rhythm: Because our body is biologically programmed to wake up with the sunset.
Mindfulness time: Quiet time of the day for your meditation or reading a book.
Slow start: Enjoy the peaceful mornings to start your day without rush and stress.
The reason to wake up early in the morning not only formalizes your motivation, it actually makes the effort tangible. But it only works in conjunction with the second step:
2. Have a specific plan what to do when you wake up
The personal reason gives you the general purpose why you want to wake up early. The actual plan tells you what exactly are you going to do, once standing up in that morning.
I will explain you the difference and why is it so important.
Let’s assume that your personal reason to wake up early is to use the quiet morning time for productive work. Then your plan needs to be exactly what kind of work you want to complete on that very morning. That could be a business presentation, a blog post for social media, editing your vacation photos, whatever.
If you settle only for the general idea of some productive work, you will have difficult time to pull yourself out of the bed. however, the specific and clear plan, the task at hand, will give that extra push.
And by the way — always make sure you set the plan in advance, the previous day. Because believe me, if you try to come up with some plan in the morning, under the warm blanket, your brain would come up only with excused…
So when you want to exercise in the morning, know in advance how long you want to run and where. When you want to work, know on which tasks. When you want to read, know which book or article. And so on — Always know what you will do that morning — do not plan on being spontaneous, do not postpone the decision on the morning’s activity for when you wake up.
So to remember: first step is to have a strong personal reason — the why. The second step is to have a specific plan for the morning — the what. Now the third step is the how — and this one is the real game-changer…
3. Adjust you evening routine
You have to adjust your evening routine.
Now wait a minute! We have been talking about the morning routine — why do I suddenly open that pandora box?!
Because you must understand that there is no way around the required amount of sleeping time.
And I will repeat that again: you must get the healthy amount of sleep every night, no matter when you wake up.
In one youtube video, I remember Arnold Schwarzenegger to advise how to achieve more in life by saying “sleep faster”. There is no such a thing. Unless you are about for serious health problems! If you want to better understand the sleep, I recommend you the book Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker.
And by the way, let’s be clear — I am no medical expert. I cannot advise you on how you should sleep, what is your chronotype, or how to deal with any sleep related disorders. If you suffer any health issues, you should consult a specialist. The purpose of this podcast is to provide some tips for healthy people who are interested in forming new habits. And how the change management toolbox can be applied on such topics.
That being said, according to the sleep experts, a normal person needs to sleep 8 to 9 hours. And simple mathematics tells us that to wake up at 5 a.m. you need to be in your bed by 9 p.m.
Voilà, here it comes — the surprising key to a consistent early morning routine is actually a consistent evening routine!
And that is the key question: can you adjust your evenings to go for bed that “early”? Do you want to, actually?
I am aware that this very first prerequisite is hard to swallow for most people. Evenings and late nights become the time to catch up with our personal life, once we are done with our jobs and put the kids into bed (how two-faced).
But it doesn’t have to be a sacrifice, an either-or situation, a trade-off.
Just look back on what is your reason for waking up early in the morning. Perhaps you just may reschedule your activities from the evening to the morning? And enjoy them more undisturbed? And fresh? Perhaps the review of how you spend your evenings could be an eye-opening exercise and a beginning of a healthier and more productive life. What do you think?
When running this exercise on myself, I realized that the majority of my evening activities is either catching up with work tasks or just wasting time. A mental buffering in an attempt to relax after a tiresome day. Activities like watching Netflix, watching youtube, scrolling social media, trying to read a book at best.
But with the new routine now, I can move the work into the morning — and actually do it faster and better with a fresh mind and no distractions. And I can replace the useless and passive streaming consumption with more mindfulness activities in the fresh and peaceful morning.
The reshuffling of your evening routine unlocks the opportunity for a healthy 8 to 9 hours sleep and awaking early, yet refreshed each and every morning.
Further steps may be however necessary to ensure you are snuggled up in bed by 9 p.m.
Our bodies prepare for the sleep gradually, it is not like jumping in the bed and falling asleep as on command. Here are the most critical do’s and don’ts how to get into your new habit:
Discuss your new habit with your family. If they won’t joint you, they at least should understand what you do and why. So they would’t interfere and jeopardize your new schedule.
Avoid caffeine at least 5 hours prior your sleep time. Caffein blocks the neuron-receptors for adenosine, a substance triggering the sleep-wake cycle in our brain.
Eat light and modest meals for the dinner, 2 to 3 hours prior the bedtime.
Do not watch TV and avoid blue light from electronic devices. If possible, turn on automatically the blue-light filter on your mobile phone 1 or 2 hours before sleep.
Dedicate your bedroom to just sleeping (well, besides perhaps one other thing). Either darken the windows or use a sleeping mask, if you go to sleep with light still outside.
There is nothing wrong to use sleeping apps or meditation music to facilitate falling asleep.
But most importantly, be consistent. Both in your new evening routine and waking up. The weekends should be no exception to the rule. Of course, you may need to attend a business dinner, party with friends or the travel may disrupt your rhythm. But you should always return back to your new habit as soon as possible.
Summary
Waking early could shift your productivity and wellbeing to a whole new level. Not only our brain is fresh and more creative — but we may work or self-care undisturbed, while everybody is still asleep.
Although establishing this habit is not overly complicated, many people fail because they do not understand the causality of the behaviour change. The most important thing to recognize is that you cannot cheat on the duration of your sleep. Waking up at 5 a.m. actually means going to bed at 9 p.m.
Changing the morning routine therefore starts with changing your evening routine, like cause and consequence. The rework of the usual habitual patterns, that are more imposed on us than deliberately chosen, is the key to sustainable and consistent change.
Closing remark
This change management use-case of altering the morning routine quite interestingly demonstrates how the change misconceptions can easily cause the change execution to fail. The obvious solution, setting the alarm clock to 5 a.m., will not work in long-term and cause abandoning the whole change activity. This is why I developed the Change Causality Method: to cut through the obvious and through the white noise, so you can make any change work for you.