Trying to Become an Early Riser

I have been trying to become an early riser for most of my life. The closest I have gotten was in high school when I had to drive for almost an hour to get to class. At the same time I was doing that I was taking an independent study course that required me to get up in the morning and write 3 pages by hand every morning (about a half an hour worth of work). My senior year of high school was the most productive year of my life. I got up at 6:03am exactly. Wrote for a half an hour, did my morning routine and drove myself to school in time to find a parking spot and get to class. 

The next most productive time in my life was the summer immediately following my senior year. I was working as a wrangler at a summer camp. This meant that I had to get up at around 5am every day and bring the horses in, feed them, brush and saddle them all before breakfast. The reason that I count this as the second most productive time is because it was only 3 months long and I often took naps during the day just to make sure I didn't pass out while on a trail ride. That, and I took a week off to go to Orlando. 

The reason that I am trying to get back into these good habits is because I waste so much of the day. I could work out in the morning, but I often don't. I could write in the morning but I almost never do. Even something as simple as having an hour extra to get through a load of laundry or wash the dishes would be extraordinarily useful. Especially since I live on the opposite side of town from my job which means I commit over an hour to driving each day. This is the hour that (I tell myself) I could be using for my workout or my grocery shopping... or the endless list of other things that I think about while sitting idly in traffic. I enjoy that I get to spend the time with the love of my life, but we don't get to talk with our normal fluidity when we are worried about ramming into the car in front of us. 

I have read several blog posts and scientific journals on the matter of becoming an early riser. The scientists say "yes, do it, it is healthier." However, they don't lend much advise on the how to do it. The very first "how to" article I ever read was simply How to Become an Early Riser which was the exact search I typed in. In the article, Steve Pavlina goes over his struggle to become an early riser and the ultimate solution. He realized that you must use both your biology and necessity to become an early riser. He states that simply going to bed when you are tired and waking up when your body naturally tells you to isn't the solution. It leads to your sleep patterns drifting around and never knowing when you are going to wake up. This also isn't practical with a 9-5 job. Also, going to bed earlier in order to get up earlier isn't the solution either since you end up going to bed and not falling asleep which defeats the purpose. What Steve suggests is splitting the difference. What he has found is that you need to go to bed when you feel tired enough to fall asleep. Then you need to wake up at the exact same time every day. (your preferred, early time). Your body will naturally adjust from there. If you went to bed late one evening and didn't get enough rest, you will naturally go to bed earlier the next evening.

This theory and advice was supported by another article on econsultant.com also titled How to Become an Early Riser. This article actually goes over how to do it and how to form the habit. It suggests that you make it a game to write down the precises time that you get out of bed each morning. This is habit forming and it gives you a gauge of how responsible you are being with your new goal. It also suggests waking up to classical music in the morning. This I like because I HATE the buzzer and because it has no words. Which according to the article are not conducive to the waking up process and are not good for me since I need to get up and write in the morning. Outside words don't let me focus on listening to what needs to be written. (I write that knowing I will sound pretentious... but it is my process so... :p) The thing that I won't do in this article is give up coffee. I am sure it was written a long time ago and the health benefits of coffee far out weigh any "drug addiction." 

With all of this new and exciting information in mind this is how my ideal morning would go. (this will help me figure out what time i need to set my alarm to).

 -- Wake up and get out of bed when the alarm goes off.

 -- Write 3 pages of morning pages (should take about 30-45 minutes)

 -- Do 30 minutes of aerobics

 -- Blog or free write for 30 minutes

 -- Take a shower/ get ready for 45 minutes

 -- Make and consume breakfast 15-30 minutes

 -- Be off to work by 7:45am

Wow, that is 2 and a half hours of stuff that I would like to accomplish before I can go to work. 

5:15 AM is now my constant wake up time. 

We usually go to bed at about 10pm. This is too early for me since I spend about an hour laying in bed waiting for sleep. I think that I will try to read a bit in the evening to keep myself occupied until I am sleepy enough to go to bed. So! This is the plan. From here I can adjust it depending on what else I need to add to my morning the same way Leo Babuta did in How I Became an Early Riser. He adjusted for NaNoWriMo and a marathon. Things that may (NaNoWriMo) or may not (a marathon) be in my future. It is more likely that I will get up and go to an early yoga class than do a marathon, but the habit must be established before it can be adjusted. 

Today I will put a clock in the bathroom along with a calendar and a pen. So that I get up and leave the bedroom before I am allowed to chart my wake up time.