Becoming a morning person is a skill that is aspired by many but accomplished by very few. Whether its your work or class schedule, it is a difficult feat to do. While some may feel that they accomplished this, many fail to understand that getting up in the morning and becoming a morning person are two different things. Today, we will look at a couple of ways in which you can transform yourself from begrudgingly waking up in the morning, to truly enjoying what waking up early has to offer. With the fall college semester coming up for many students in a little over a month, these are some pointers you should all pay attention to.
Standardize Your Sleep
The first step in becoming a morning person is having a set time for waking up and going to bed. The reason we find that we want to sleep in on weekends is so we can catch up on sleep. However, if your sleep is standardized for seven to eight hours, catching up on sleep wouldn’t be necessary. Even on your days off, if you wake up at your designated time, get your morning errands out of the way, and go for a nap in the mid-early afternoon, you’ll still be productive while treating yourself for the weekend.
Take Baby Steps
To be able to sleep at a set schedule, you need to incorporate being a morning person in small baby steps. Start first by getting an assessment of what keeps you up late at night. The key to becoming a morning person is by hacking into the night before.
- Sleep is the biggest hurdle and being able to figure out what prevents you from getting enough sleep at night will allow you to know how to survive the next day.
- Once you figure out the triggers that keep you up, decide on a time to go to bed. This time will stay regardless of what time you have to be up. So, for example, if you choose that you will stick to a 10 pm bedtime, go to bed at 10 pm. Even if it’s a weekend or there’s a delay on the time you have to go into work.
- After a 10 pm bedtime becomes commonplace, start to tailor your standardize wake up time. If you have to be at work at 9 am, standardize yourself to wake up at 7 am everyday.
- Just like a diet change, you can have cheat days with sleeping as well. If you want to go out with friends, shift your schedule a tad bit. Don’t let becoming a morning a person also make you a hermit crab.
Make a Task List
Having a set guideline on what to do for the day will allow you to have an idea of what’s ahead of you. If you are able to know your day’s plan, you can have something to look forward to. Having a plan to look forward to will get you excited about getting out of bed. Attaching a task list to your day will also prevent you from running around like a headless chicken, taking the day as it comes.
Hack your task list in two ways: by attaching an alarm to important tasks and ranking them. Setting deadlines through alarms will allow you to transition between tasks and ranking them based on importance will allow you to feel okay if you can’t complete the whole list that day.
Understand Your Body
It is important to always be in tune with your body. While you begin to work toward a steady sleep schedule, you will find that there are times when the work day is too much for you and you need to get some rest. By all means, when you find that you are tired, always get some rest. This is the case even if it deviates from your schedule. If this happens in the middle of the day, opt for a nap. If you are jittery or high energy from coffee or energy drinks later in the day, set a cut off time for coffee and start to eliminate energy drinks from your diet. Listening to your body over anything else is the key to becoming a morning person.
Dive Into the Morning
A mistake that many individuals make in the morning is making it unproductive. By waking up in the morning, showering, getting dressed, and having a quick to-go breakfast, you aren’t relishing in all that the morning has to offer for you. Instead, dive into the morning by looking at the to-do list you creating the night before. Catch up on the day’s news, knock out a couple of emails, and leave home with the feeling that you aren’t about to start your day, but that you have already started your day.
Natural Light is Best
Making use of natural light is a great way to aid in becoming a morning person. It allows you to feel more awake rather than simply waking up in darkness. Light is proven to treat disorders including Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) because light is considered a mood booster. The main hindrance to a successful morning is mood and by opening up the windows the night before, using light colored sheets, reducing the use of lamps, and ensuring that the room is airy and not stuffy. This also opens up your brain and wakes it up from hours of slumber.
Making use of natural light is a great way to aid in becoming a morning person. It allows you to feel more awake rather than simply waking up in darkness. Light is proven to treat disorders including Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) because light is considered a mood booster. The main hindrance to a successful morning is mood and by opening up the windows the night before, using light colored sheets, reducing the use of lamps, and ensuring that the room is airy and not stuffy. This also opens up your brain and wakes it up from hours of slumber.
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