10 Thoughts on Becoming an Early Bird

Some of you might remember I made a commitment to myself 5 weeks ago that would require me to kick my night owl tendencies to the curb in order to finally become the early bird I’ve always dreamed of being.  I mentioned this on both instagram and here on the blog, mainly for the accountability.  But also to ask any early birds out there to share their tips.

For as long as I can remember I’ve wanted to be that person that wakes up before the rest of the house is stirring.  To be up preparing my mind and heart for the day ahead with a quiet morning ritual, this seemingly simple thing somehow always seemed so out of reach for me.

I’ve always been a night owl.  Going to bed well past midnight and often staying up until almost 3 am was a fairly regular thing for me.  And Netflix only added to my midnight oil.

As a mom I have to confess that during the school year morning scrambles haven’t just been about eggs around here.  The truth is on most mornings I would be a hot mess, often driving my kids to school in pajama pants and praying I wouldn’t have to get out of the car at drop-off.

So this school year I decided to challenge myself, to stop making excuses and to finally make this early morning ritual thing a habit!

I’m happy to report I’ve successfully woken up 30 minutes earlier (a 6:15 am wake-up call) than the rest of my household for the last 5 weeks!   Experts say it takes 21 days to form a habit although I won’t go so far as to actually call myself an official “early bird”.  But today I thought I’d share my thoughts on what has helped me to keep this commitment to myself in case any of you are also looking to make waking up early a habit.

1. Keeping the alarm FAR away from the bed.  This is the only reason I’m not tempted to get back into bed after turning the alarm off.  By the time I actually reach my alarm I’ve walked enough steps that I’m fully awake. Some people recommend keeping your alarm in your bathroom, but I just keep mine across my bedroom and that seems to do the trick.
2. Never allowing myself to hit the snooze button.  You know that saying ‘you snooze, you lose’?  Y’all, that is God’s truth when it comes to getting up early.  And there is actual science behind why hitting the snooze button is actually bad for your morning productivity.
3. The book many of you recommended, The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins, absolutely helped a ton!  Thanks you!  I was leery of this as I’ve never been drawn to the self-help genre or really any type of motivational writing.  But I downloaded the audible version of the book which felt more like listening to a really great podcast, and I took away so much good, applicable stuff.  I geek out over science-y research as it pertains to human development and the way our brains are wired, and in this book Mel Robbins explains so much about the positive impact of waking up early.  It was really eye-opening and totally confirmed my commitment to keeping this goal.
4. Creature comforts make the physical act of getting out of bed easier.  A robe, a cozy throw, macadamia nut milk in my coffee…these are the things that give me something to look forward to when my alarm sounds.
5. Following a set bedtime has been as important to keeping this early morning commitment as not allowing myself to hit the snooze button.  And I’ve personally found this to be harder than waking up early.  But if I’m not at least in bed by 10 p.m. waking up at 6:15 a.m. feels pretty much impossible.  Most nights I’m asleep by 10:30 p.m., but the early morning wake-up is easier to handle when I’m asleep by 10.  One thing that has helped me to stick to this bed time is getting a jump on my evening routine.  I wash my face and get ready for bed around 8:30-9 (and this is also when I plug in my phone for the night) so my body and my mind feels physically ready to climb in bed by 9:30- 9:45 ish.
6. Accountability has definitely played a role.  I share this goal not only with all of you but also with my family and friends, so I have lots of people checking in to see how things are going.
7. Realizing this is never going to be easy for me has helped me to tackle this as a goal rather than a wish.  Actually being someone that naturally wakes and even enjoys waking up early is probably never going to be my reality.  And understanding that this is always going to feel hard, that I’m always going to have to mindfully put an effort into making this happen has actually been one of the things that has helped me to do this.
8. Rewarding myself with one day a week to sleep in keeps me motivated.  Saturday mornings I let myself wake up without an alarm clock which usually means I’m up by 8:30 a.m.  And even that is early compared to the person I was before taking on this challenge.  I’ve realized that this doesn’t have to be an all or nothing kind of deal.  I was always afraid that if this wasn’t something I did every single day that I’d fall back into old habits.  But actually allowing for that extra Saturday rest makes the other 6 early wake-ups not feel quite so awful.  😉
9. Having a plan for that 30 minute window of time, before everyone else in my house wakes up, makes doing this feel like a special reward to myself.  For me the goal of waking up early wasn’t about getting a jumpstart on my schedule or daily tasks.  This was about me carving out time for me, time that I would otherwise not be getting.  So this 30 minutes feels extra special.  It’s such valuable time and I cherish it…..which makes it easier to walk across the room to turn off the alarm.  Thanks to my morning reading time I’ve finished Braving the Wilderness and am now on to The Gifts of Imperfection.  
10. And last but not least, establishing hard and fast rules for myself has definitely kept me on track.  Most of which I’ve already mentioned like having a set bedtime, keeping my alarm across the room, not hitting the snooze button, but also not allowing myself to make any excuses that would let me sleep in, unless it’s Saturday.  😉  I’m a rule follower by nature, so giving myself some hard and fast rules has definitely been beneficial.

What I’ve learned in these past 5 weeks is that this is probably always going to be hard for me, but this is also definitely, absolutely worthwhile!  My husband and my kids have all commented on my pleasant morning mood.  Our household has never (I mean never) run this smoothly in the morning before.  I’ve realized what I’ve been missing all the years, and I’ve come to find that this 30 minutes of me time is 100% necessary.  This 30 minutes is life-giving!  And now I don’t know how I’ve been living without it for all these years?!   Starting each day with intention, without hurry and scurry, I feel like I’m just now staring to live the way I’ve always wanted to, and as it turns out, it was just a matter of doing it.

I don’t know that I’ll ever be an “early bird” but I’ll never go back on my commitment to myself to wake up early.  5, 4, 3, 2, 1!