5 Ways To Consistently Wake Up (Without Feeling Exhausted)
What’s no one’s ever told you about thriving every morning
When you sit up and open your phone first thing in the morning, you’re most likely feeding an addiction. I know from personal experience that it isn’t the best habit in the world to feed, nor does it make my days any better.
The question is, what do we do instead?
How else do we start our day? How do we wake up in a way that makes life a little more appealing as our eyes blink open for the first time every morning?
Thankfully, there are some things (besides our phones) that are available around us to help us wake up — and do it more easily each and every day.
“Wake up happy. No matter the circumstance. Choose it.”
— Jennifer Willick
The morning can make or break our day — and the habits we implement in it can change the course of our entire life. But what habits can we implement to make waking up in the mornings easier on us, making our days better overall?
#1: Technology boundaries
According to The Nielsen Corporation, “American adults spend over 11 hours per day listening to, watching, reading, or generally interacting with media.”
While this statistic comes from 2018 research, I can’t imagine that that number is still accurate, especially in light of a pandemic that left us all with a bit more time on our hands.
The amount of time we spend online has most likely skyrocketed even more as we’ve begun to rely more and more on the digital world.
“Whether it’s yoga, going to the gym, driving or heading out on a walk. Allow yourself activities that don’t involve technology. […] As humans we need this separation.”
— Davida Lederle
While I wouldn’t attempt to argue that this is bad, or that 11 hours is even unreasonable depending on what we’re doing, it’s obvious that not all of this can be productive time, particularly first thing in the morning.
I have two recommendations based off of this info.
- At some point, tell yourself at night that you’re not going to use technology — or at least not use it in a particular way. The idea here extends beyond your usual “don’t use technology after 9pm” self-help article slogan. This is about setting a boundary between you and your device — not allowing your laptop or smartphone to take up more time than it’s allowed.
- Second — I would implore you to not look at your phone first thing in the morning. Spend the first thirty minutes or so technology free, and engage in productive morning habits that you enjoy and most benefit you.
Research shows that most people wake up stressed about money and work, which usually isn’t a good combination for growing as a person and waking up peacefully, or particularly productive.
This boundary is meant to be proactive, firm, well-intentioned, and a key part in improving your mornings each and every day.
#2: Slow alarm clocks
I personally have used Sleep Cycle in the past, an app that uses audio recording to determine when you’re entering and exiting sleep cycles, and wakes you up accordingly based off of a pre-selected window of when you want to wake up.
For instance, if I wanted to be awake by 7:00am at the latest, I would set the window for 6:30–7:00am. Depending on when I was finishing my last sleep cycle, it would wake me up. Sometimes that will be exactly at 6:30am, sometimes it won’t be until 6:50 or 7:00am.
“Wake up early and tackle the day before it tackles you. Be on offense, not defense.” — Evan Carmichael
I personally love this app — and that’s saying something, considering I thought it was a huge gimmick in the beginning.
I can vouch for its effectiveness, and even the fact that it wakes you up slowly with a gradually increasing volume plays a role in waking up more easily.
Even on days when I’ve been only able to get five or six hours of sleep, much less than my usual eight, I’ve been much more well-rested and awake than on other days when I didn’t have such a peaceful awakening.
#3: Rhythms for nightly routines
Finding a rhythm for your nightly routine and standard bedtime is crucial to allow yourself consistent mornings that leave you waking up more easily than ever before.
Especially if you’re a night owl who gets a second wind, knowing when you need to start settling down in order to avoid that kicking in and keeping you up is essential.
“Successful people wake up early, talk less, stay laser-focused, don’t waste time, live healthy, and ignore nonsense.” — Unknown
I’ve personally learned that I have to start winding down about 8:30 if I want to be in bed by a decent hour — which usually still ends up being 11pm.
This allows me to get ready for bed, spend time with my family, finish up any last minute tasks of the day, prepare food and coffee for the following day, and a few other small things I try and get done at night.
#4: Hour of Powers
I’m not sure where I first heard of this tactic, but it comes from several successful individuals who implement an hour long morning routine each day.
This is similar to the idea of The Miracle Morning, where you execute six morning habits that are supposed to roughly take an hour.
“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive — to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” — Marcus Aurelius
Basically, this hour can be made up of anything that you want — but it’s all things that are for you. These habits are meant to inspire and motivate you, and help you to see your vision and set up your mindset for the rest of the day.
It doesn’t even have to take an hour — just make sure that you’re consistently setting aside time to take care of yourself and prepare for the day ahead.
With that kind of habit implemented, you’ll be much more in tune with the precious gift that is your life, and find it much more enjoyable to wake up to it each and every day.
#5: Keystone habits
Keystone habits come originally from Charles Duhigg’s book, The Power of Habit — famous for introducing the simple habit loop, as well as amazing case studies of how cues cause behaviors and rewards in our mind, making us much more routine creatures than we might realize and admit to.
“Each morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.” — Buddha
These are the habits that, when implemented, make building, remembering, and implementing other habits much more easy.
For instance, if every night you wipe off your makeup, then you’ll be much more inclined to also put on moisturizer and wash your face with water. If you put on your workout clothes, you’re much more likely to work out.
They can really be this simple. In all, they are habits that make other habits easier on your willpower load, as well as working memory. The sequence of habits, then, in and of itself, becomes a new habit.
These habits should be the most motivating, the most fun, and the most naturally leading in to the other things you want to start doing everyday.
Waking up wasn’t meant to be an absolute pain — something that you agonize each and every night, something you hate.
With these tips, and others, many of which you can find in other pieces I’ve written on the same subject, you can create mornings that feel like those you’d wake up to on Christmas, or your birthday.
Creating a life you can’t wait to wake up to starts here.
It needn’t be complicated or too dramatized, just consistent, mindful, and at least somewhat information-based.
