3 little-known ‘nuclear’ strategies for peeling your sorry butt outta bed in the morning
Yesterday, I briefly touched on the importance of waking up early in the morning. In a nutshell, I believe it’s the time of day when minds can be refreshed, souls can be recharged, and dreams can be manifest in reality — all without even the slightest interruption from the outside world.
It’s a sacred time of day. And if you can harness its power properly, I believe it can set the foundation for many, many rewarding and fulfilling habits.
But that was the what.
Today, I want to talk about the how.
I’ve read countless articles on how to peel myself sorry self out of bed at 5 AM — and though many of them seemed to have sound advice, personally, I feel like they were all written by snooze addicts who don’t actually pull themselves out of bed until at least 9 or 10 in the morning.
Buncha wannabees, really.
You can tell who’s actually making it work and who’s not.
For example, when someone says “Avoid hitting the snooze button,” I feel like throwing up. Immediately, I’m just like…
It’s obvious you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.
So let’s cut to the chase and talk about some strategies that actually work. And yes, I have personal experience with each and every one of these — they’ve all yanked me out of bed more times than I care to admit.
1. The “Night Before” Trick
If you’ve having trouble getting out of bed in the morning, chances are good you haven’t set the tone for success the night before.
It’s like this…
If you want to wake up at 5 AM, but you’re not going to bed until midnight… you’re setting yourself up for failure.
Aim for 7–8 hours of sleep. Which means get in bed around 9 PM.
That might seem hella early for some — but trust me, as soon as you start doing it consistently, those eyes of yours are gonna start getting heavy at the 8:30 mark. Then, when 5 AM rolls around, you should feel refreshed enough hop outta bed no problem.
2. The “Shameful Letter” Trick
One thing I like to do (most) every night is prepare a little for the next day. I sit down and write about things that need to get done, stuff I need to remember, etc.
Then I thought of an idea that, as motivation to get myself out of bed, I would write an encouraging note to myself. “You can do it! Believe in yourself!” — that sorta thing. But in reality, the note was a bit harsher than expected…
“What the heck are you doing? Why can’t you do this for yourself? You know this is important yet you keep failing day after day after day! What’s wrong with you? If you can’t wake up at 5 AM tomorrow, how do you expect to create the life you want for yourself and your family? Simply, you won’t. You HAVE TO follow through with this!”
The result?
The tough love worked.
I sprouted of bed the next morning like a spring chicken and vowed not to let myself (or my family) down again.
It wasn’t pretty, but it was effective.
Imagine if I woke up at 7 AM the next day and had to read that note to myself? Man oh man would I have felt worthless. I think that’s why it worked.
So if you’re struggling to get up in the morning, give the shameful letter a try.
3. The “Two Alarm” Bonanza
This is a fail-safe you can (and should) use with any other strategy.
And honestly, it’s the nuclear option for making this whole thing work.
Here’s what you do…
Let’s say you wanna get up at 5 AM. So you set one alarm that wakes you up. If you’re sleeping with someone, this one’s gotta be soft enough that it doesn’t disturb them too much. You get up and you shut it off. Easy peasy.
Now, if you have a tendency to slip back in bed, this is where the 2nd alarm stops you dead in your tracks.
What you gotta do is, you gotta set up a 2nd alarm that goes off a couple minutes later on the other side of your house. And this one needs to be loud and proud. One of those alarms that feels like a foghorn going off in your face. And if it does go off, people are gonna be pissed.
So as soon as you wake up for your first alarm, you have no choice but to leave the bedroom, walk across the house, and turn the other alarm off before all hell breaks loose.
Then, you stay up — feeling proud of the fact that you’ve just saved your family from sheer disaster. They won’t know the gravity of the situation, but you will. And you’ll be up and ready to start the day.
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They’re not the prettiest strategies, but they’re the ones I turn to when all else fails. If you absolutely must get out of bed early in the morning, give them a try. I think you’ll be surprised how effective they are.
Once you start doing it consistently, it’ll become easier and easier.
But it’s also easy to fall back into old habits. So when that happens, pull one of these tricks out of your bag and get back on track lickity split.
Happy waking.
Halt right there!
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