How to Wake Up at 5 AM: The Power of Early Mornings

SOOOO You want to wake up early, but your previous attempts have failed? Or you just don’t know what to do to make this habit stick?

Well - stick with me through this video because I’m going to go through my 5 steps to successfully waking up early and getting this habit in place!

#1: Get Cozy with WHY You Want to Wake-up Early
Because if you don’t have a good reason - your brain is not going to register a need to make a change. You’re going to hit that snooze button and stay in that deliciously warm spot your body is residing in when your alarm goes off. 

#2: Prep the Night Before
Yes! Successfully waking up early requires prep the night before. Counter intuitive, I know. I want you to pull out your phone right now and do 2 things. 1) You are going to set an alarm for 8 PM every evening and it’s going to say “prep for tomorrow morning.” Then when you get to 8 PM every night you’re going to prep the items that you want to have ready in the morning. If you want to work-out, you’re going to pull out your work-out clothes and have your workout ready to go. If you want to journal, get your journal, pen and space prepped. Get your coffee ready, have your water in your water bottle - whatever it is that YOU want to do - get it ready! See how this ties in to my point #1 - you need to be clear on your why… otherwise, are you just going to wander around your house at 5 AM aimlessly? There’s no point to that.

Now, the second thing I want you to do since you’re in your alarms - Set an alarm for 4:55 AM for every weekday (I personally don’t stress about when I wake-up on weekends) - you do you, but make an alarm to go off automatically everyday that you want to wake up. 

#3: Go To Bed Early
No one, and I do mean no one is saying get less sleep. SO, to get in your 8 hours (and seriously, you need sleep so stop being like “I’m fine sleeping less than 8 hours.” Stop it. To get adequate sleep - you need to NOW go to bed earlier. I am usually putting my kids down at 8, and then I do my morning prep and I crawl into my own bed. I am asleep no later than 9 PM during the week. If you’re like “9 PM, jesus - I’m just starting to regain my sanity at 9 PM!” Well, you’re trying to wake up early and start your day sane, so it’s a trade off.

Now that we’ve covered the main mindset point, let’s dig into the most important tactical point. 

#4: Rehome Your Phone
When you go to bed, you are going to rehome your phone to outside of your arm’s reach. Specifically, in a place where you will have to get out of bed to actually turn that alarm off. Pro Tip: Spend the money and download a PLEASANT song to wake-up to. Focus on the intro to the song so that it eases you out of sleep instead of creating a micro-stressful situation. I have two songs that I use (and save your judgment of my song picks - judgy mickjudgerson) 1) Caravan - Instrumental by Rachel Portmam from the movie Chocolate  2) I’m Your Man by Michael Buble. 

Now, you can give one of my two a try or pick your own, but let me reiterate - make it pleasant to wake up to.

#5 Write It Out
As you start building your new morning routine, write down on a piece of paper exactly what you are going to do systematically so that in your groggy state of mind you are just going down your check-list of everything that you want to get done. Now, with that being said - do not overload yourself. Be realistic with how long things take you and adjust as you start putting this habit in place. 

Any habit takes practice to integrate, so don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t happen overnight (because it won’t), or every day that you plan on waking up early. Life happens and sometimes we have to forgo our best laid plans to deal with the unexpected.

Ok, I want to hear from you! What are the obstacles, barriers of struggles that you have to just waking up early?