Being a “morning person” has always been a foreign subject to me. Even when I think back to my grade school days I remember my dad prodding me to wake up and even pulling my toes – that always got me right up!
I’ve heard people equate “non-morning” people to lazy people and from first-hand experience I know that is not necessarily the case. We all have an internal clock, also known as a circadian rhythm which is a biological function that operates on a (roughly) 24 hour cycle.
So, there are morning people, night owls and I’d like to throw a third category in there or intermediaries (which is me!) I am neither a morning person nor a night owl – even if I fall asleep at a decent time (say 10:30-11PM) I STILL hit the snooze button at 7AM.
If you can afford or have a lifestyle that can support your internal clock then have at it! Sleep at whatever time that rocks your boat. I on the other hand need to be up in the morning and be at work by 9AM (although I have been shooting to get in by 8:30 and not too successful at that lately).
I used to think that my snooze hitting habits were a by-product of our long and cold Boston winters but I've come to the conclusion that that is not the case - it's simply me.
Here are the things I have worked on in the past couple of years that have helped me become (somewhat) of a morning person.
Consistency
In order to make a long term change in your life it is crucial to be consistent. This means that, in my case, I set my alarm clock for 7AM every day including weekends. Yes, even weekends. Even though I usually allow myself to fall back to sleep on Saturdays and Sundays I want my body to get used to a 7AM wake up call.
Time Management
If you know how many hours your body needs to function to its optimal level make sure you do everything in your power to make those hours sacred. For me that means I need a solid 8 hours to feel good in the morning, therefore, I do all of the miscellaneous things that need to get done in the morning at night. This includes, picking my outfit, prepping my lunch bag and prepping my coffee machine. I do all of this at night because I want to get every minute of sleep I can in the morning.
Drink water
Since I have started to drink water in the morning at I am getting ready I have noticed such a positive change in my morning attitude. It is such a simple and easy thing to add to your morning routine that will immediately give you positive results.
Aside from beginning to drink water every morning becoming consistent and effectively managing my time has by far taken the longest time to work on. For example, if I knew I had to be at work by 8AM on any given day I would go to sleep earlier and set my alarm earlier for the next morning. Then, the next day came along and I reverted back to my normal sleeping schedule which completely threw any progress I had made out the door.
In order to combat that from happening I landed on 7AM as a good time for me to wake up every morning. If I need to be at work by 8AMthen I know that 1 hour is just enough time for me to get ready and get to work (those days Iprep a little extra to make my morning routine as quick and simple as possible). But if it’s a normal work day I know I can take my time getting ready – I can watch a video as I get dressed and as I make my coffee.
Those early days do not happen very often so I am OK with the tight timeline I have created for myself on those days. My main goal here is to train my body to wake up at a consistent time every day and hopefully someday I will not even need an alarm clock!
And, while I still end up hitting the snooze button it is not nearly as bad as it was a few years ago. I can say that I do have a little more discipline around that these days.
So, as a “non-morning” person or intermediary I’d like to say that no, we are all not just lazy people. And some of us do try very hard to train our bodies to adjust to the work hours we need to adhere to.
As for me, I still envy people to wake up early in the morning without even trying!
How about you – are you a morning person, a night owl or an in-between like me? And have you always been that way? Do share below!