Waking up early, 10 tips that worked for me • Hacker News Board

Re: Waking up early, 10 tips that worked for me

#21

Post by libraryatnight » Wed, Apr 11, 2012, 6:12 PM UTC

I find that I have an easier time getting out of bed if I get up when I wake naturally. I almost always wake about 30 minutes before my alarm goes off. In the past I just went back to sleep, but when 30 minutes went by I felt groggy and sluggish.

Hopping out of bed right when I wake up, even if it costs me 30 - 45 minutes of extra sleep, makes it so much easier.

My fiance has been using this alarm application where she inputs the time she's going to bed and it shows best and worst times within the sleep cycle to be woken, it works well. I have a feeling this is what I'm doing on my own by getting up when I wake up.

Re: Waking up early, 10 tips that worked for me

#22

Post by rahim » Wed, Apr 11, 2012, 6:14 PM UTC

I tried just jumping out of bed and getting going, but it ended up with me failing more often than not. What works for me is to ease into waking up with a set, autopilot-type routine, something you can do without even thinking about it. Wake up, get out of bed right away, walk to the bathroom, start the shower, get in.

Re: Waking up early, 10 tips that worked for me

#23

Post by tomjen3 » Wed, Apr 11, 2012, 6:16 PM UTC

jerrya wrote: post #13

You may not want to literally jump out of bed. Most heart attacks occur in the morning.

Isn't that because those who die in their sleep aren't discovered until the morning?

Re: Waking up early, 10 tips that worked for me

#24

Post by AleksanderK » Wed, Apr 11, 2012, 6:18 PM UTC

For me, at least, rationalizations and planning don't work when it comes to forming new habits. I just have to jump into it. With sleeping, I set my alarm clock at 4:30 and got up. First couple of days were tough, but eventually my internal clock shifted.

Having said that, you should have a good reason for waking up early aside from "I want to be one of those guys that get up super early; they seem to do so much work before I even open my eyes." For me, it was a couple of reasons: - doing my morning power walk before all the traffic (so I can put in my earbuds and crank up the noise) - getting stuff done before everyone else wakes up and messages/emails/calls... start - prepping most of my food for the day so that I save more time - avoiding evenings when I have to do a lot of work so I can focus more on reading/learning

It also helps if you're tough on yourself. I know I won't achieve what I want by irregular sleeping schedule and spoiling myself. And if there is ever a late night I still get up at the same time; I just take a caffeine pill later in the day.

Re: Waking up early, 10 tips that worked for me

#25

Post by a3camero » Wed, Apr 11, 2012, 6:23 PM UTC

wtracy wrote: post #17

parbo wrote: post #3

You only need one tip: get a kid. Won't help with productivity though.

How about a cat? There is no snooze button on a cat that wants to be fed. :-)

Kids have snooze buttons?

Re: Waking up early, 10 tips that worked for me

#26

Post by therobot24 » Wed, Apr 11, 2012, 6:23 PM UTC

these 10 tips can be replaced with one:

1) Feed cat(s) wet-food in the morning

the cat(s) will not let you sleep until you get up to feed them...guaranteed.

if you don't have a cat

1) place obnoxious alarm out of range

Re: Waking up early, 10 tips that worked for me

#27

Post by eeeeaaii » Wed, Apr 11, 2012, 6:24 PM UTC

parbo wrote: post #3

You only need one tip: get a kid. Won't help with productivity though.

stole my comment, that's exactly what I was going to say...

Re: Waking up early, 10 tips that worked for me

#28

Post by WayneDB » Wed, Apr 11, 2012, 6:28 PM UTC

This is all I need:

http://www.amazon.com/EcoTeas-Organic-Yerba-Loose-5-Pound/dp...

and

http://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-Ancients-Bombilla-Strainerstraw...

Re: Waking up early, 10 tips that worked for me

#29

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Apr 11, 2012, 6:31 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Waking up early, 10 tips that worked for me

#30

Post by toumhi » Wed, Apr 11, 2012, 6:32 PM UTC

AleksanderK wrote: post #24

For me, at least, rationalizations and planning don't work when it comes to forming new habits. I just have to jump into it. With sleeping, I set my alarm clock at 4:30 and got up. First couple of days were tough, but eventually my internal clock shifted. Having said that, you should have a good reason for waking up early aside from "I want to be one of those guys that get up super early; they seem to do so much work…

If I could count the number of hours I spent in my life half awake in my bed - it would fill many holidays

I've tried a number of times to rise early, but I've never managed to do it consistently. When considering to get up, I can't convince myself that i HAVE to get up, since I can do what I want to do later anyways.

It seems that, on my own, the reasons are not strong enough for me to get up: the only thing that worked was when I had a commitment with a group of friends to swim at 7AM with them.