Neil Desai

Image by farnea via Flickr

Yesterday, I wrote a post on Why You Should Wake Up Early and today I wanted to outline a couple of steps to help you do so.

• Don’t hit snooze. This is the single biggest problem of mine when I’m trying to wake up. I love the snooze button. Those extra 10 minutes in my nice comfortable bed are heaven. And then it becomes another 10. And then 30. By the time I know it, I wake up around 9am when I was supposed to be up at 6am. Jump right out of bed as soon as your alarm goes off. Act like there’s a plane you have to catch and you can’t miss it.
• Go to bed with the thought of waking up early. When you go to bed think about how you are going to wake up at 6am, jump out of bed, and start the new day off right. Envision it and make it happen.
• Build the habit for 30 days. Wake up early for 30 days straight. Don’t make any excuses. Weekends too. When I first did this I once had to wake up on 3 hours of sleep. It was extremely hard to do but I did it anyways (and took a glorious nap around 10am!).
• Go to sleep early. If you go to sleep early and get enough sleep you are more likely to be able to get up. A good night’s sleep is around 7-9 hours.
• Keep your alarm clock out of reach. Keep your alarm clock somewhere that forces you to get out of bed. If you’re out of bed then stay out. No exceptions. 
• Get some sunshine. Sunshine helps release chemicals in your body that will help you wake up so open those blinds or go for a quick walk and soak up the sun.
• Remember why you should wake up early. Think of the benefits to waking up early. Realize all of the advantages to waking up early and stop thinking about the disadvantages. 
• Mark down the exact time you woke up. Keep a note of what time you wake up every day and see how you are doing. Keep track of it and review it once a week. Seeing your progress is a great way to motivate yourself.