A Case for Early Mornings - Reasons not to Hit the Snooze Button Again
Not everyone is gifted with the trait of being a morning person. Historically, I have not been someone chipper to get out of bed before the sun came up. However, as I've gotten older, I’ve started doing this more. Part of it is out of necessity, but I’ve also grown to enjoy it. I now find a particular pleasure in the crisp air, early morning light, and a fresh cup of coffee. My favorite part of being up early is the prevailing sense of peace while everyone around me continues to sleep.
Setting my own preferences aside, I've discovered there are particular advantages to getting up early. These advantages apply to many walks of life both in the mental and physical domains. In this post, I would like to share some of my findings.
More Energy
I tend to lose energy and motivation when I don’t have enough time to get things accomplished. When my schedule is full and deadlines start to approach, I will begin to stress out, lose sleep, and generally become a grump to be around.
When I rise out of bed early, I am fresh. My mind is sharp, and I have hours to prepare myself for the day ahead. I can work ahead on various tasks if there’s a deadline, or practice some meditation to get my mind into a calm state before the day hits me. Morning walks are also wonderful. When I try to work ahead by staying up late, I'm pushing my body and my mind to the limits. I'm actively fighting against my body telling me that it needs to rest and my abilities suffer. If I don't listen to the alarm bells of my body telling me to get some rest, it will retaliate. It will force me to rest, and the process won't be pretty...
More Creativity
For creatives like myself, getting up in the morning also has a positive impact on the ability to create and think of new ideas. While you may get a great idea for some creative work on a late-night vigil, it is much more common for the brain to produce ideas right after we have slept. There’s a reason the term “shower ideas” exists. This phenomenon occurs when people get great ideas when they are doing “mindless” things. (particularly after sleeping) This is due to the fact that our brain functions better at problem-solving and creativity after we step away from the problem. Focusing on something else, and giving our mind a chance to rest, is the best way to get a creative spark.
Fighting Procrastination
By starting your day early, you’re also giving yourself the chance to get things done quickly. When you roll out of bed and go on a morning walk, take a shower, eat breakfast, or meditate right away, your brain doesn’t have a chance to argue. Having habits that you do right after waking up gives your brain a hit of Dopamine first thing in the morning, taking away its chance of convincing you that staying in bed is a better idea. This motivates you to continue getting more things done forming a kind of feedback loop. You’ll be surprised when you take a look at the clock, and only a few hours have gone by, but you feel like you’ve accomplished an entire day’s work.
Doing difficult tasks first also makes it easier to have a positive outlook on the rest of the day. When your most difficult tasks are done before 9 am, then you don't have to spend the afternoon procrastinating and dreading the task. You can simply enjoy the rest of the day feeling accomplished.
The Goal of Habits
It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen — John Wooden
There are times when it is hard for me to get up and be productive first thing in the morning. Even after forming habits for myself and doing it for a while. It’s important to keep consistency. That is why identifying the triggers in your life that make it harder to wake up is crucial.
I understand more than anyone it is difficult to get total consistency in practicing habits. Sometimes life runs late. I’ll be out late with friends or family, I'll get caught up on a project, or lose track of time while watching funny YouTube videos. Sometimes you get stuck at work late, or the kid is wired or has a blowout right before bedtime - pushing the entire nighttime routine back an hour.
While building habits, it's critical to remember this:
The goal of building sustainable habits is not perfection. The goal of habits is to have a framework that keeps your life going in the direction you want it to go.
In other words, habits are rules to have in place that keep you on track to accomplishing your goals whenever life isn’t throwing you curve balls. This will give you the ability to absorb the chaos of life when it hits without it completely de-railing your efforts.
Here are some things that I have to watch out for if I want to keep enjoying the peace and productivity that comes from early mornings.
Things to Avoid
Not allowing your body to wind down the night before
I’ve found that the most important aspect of being able to get my body out of bed in the early hours is keeping control of the evening the night before. If you don’t go to bed at a specific time every night, it will make it very difficult to get up at a specific time every morning. Not getting to bed early enough, and not doing things that help my body and mind to get into sleep mode is the number one reason I’m not able to get up early in the morning.
Avoiding Responsibilities
If I put off something that I should do the day before, it will follow me into the next day, popping up out of the woodwork of my subconscious mind as soon as I open my eyes. It doesn’t help your brain to get out of bed when you need to carry all the things you need to do today, plus the ones you didn’t do yesterday. If you do procrastinate, don’t let it hang over your head. Make a plan, write it down, and get up the next morning and execute the plan.
Not Enticing Yourself
Finally, put things in place that make the morning fun! Find some things that you love to do, eat, or play, and make them part of your habit-building process. Make your mornings a special time where you give yourself the pleasure of doing something enjoyable. The point is to entice yourself (and your brain) that it’s worth the little bit of discomfort of getting up early, for the reward that comes after. Do whatever you know will motivate you, each person is different so knowing yourself and what you are driven by is the key to forming a habit and sticking with it.
I hope that this is an inspiration to you. If you’ve never got up early before, try it for a week or two and see what happens. Be patient with yourself. Don’t try to be someone else or make yourself something that you are not. Instead, set some goals, make some rewards and give your mind some Dopamine. If you stick with it, I think you’ll be surprised at what you can accomplish!
-Josh