Waking up earlier is one of those things in life that is infinitely easier said than done. While awake we put on a brave face, puff our chest and say “I’m going to wake up early tomorrow”. When morning rolls around, it’s a completely different story. Your covers seem warmer, your bed seems softer and your pillow hugs you even tighter.

Not to fear, I’m going to show you how I went from waking up at 8 am every day to waking up at 6 am every day. Below are my top 3 tips that will help you wake up earlier.

First Things First

Find your why

The first step towards conquering your day about is focusing on why you want to wake up so early. There has to be a reason which you can convince yourself is important enough to make you jump out of bed in the morning. This will be your driving energy that will give you the willpower to not only wake up early, but love doing so.

The Beautiful Details

Draft your plan

The second step towards waking up earlier efficiently is to build a plan that will help you achieve your goal. Consider this scenario: John has woken up around 10 am for the past 5 years. Is it reasonable for him to expect to start waking up at 8 am? Probably not. This type of sudden change in routine will take a negative toll on his body. He will most likely give up the new routine, and if he manages to stick through it, will go through a rough transition period.

A much more calculated approach that will set John up for success is one where he incrementally wakes up earlier over the course of a few weeks. Increments should be no more than 15 minutes earlier per week.

Graph 1 – Wake up time vs. weeks

Go to bed earlier

Go to bed earlier to wake up earlier. This seems like a no-brainer, but it is surprising how often the most obvious facts are those that are easily overlooked. A person generally needs between 6 – 8 hours of good sleep every night in order to function at his/her peak capacity. Find out what your peak amount of sleep is and work backwards from there. Make sure there is ample time (15 – 30 minutes) allowed to fall asleep.