5 Effective Ways To Become a Morning Person Even If You’re a Night Owl
By: Dayana Sabatin
Tags: Morning Routines, Personal Growth, Lifestyle, Productivity, Self Improvement

Figure Out Your “Why”

If you’re a night owl who enjoys sleeping in and staying up late, but you want to change that, I’m here to tell you that you can definitely do it.

It won’t be easy, but no good habit is ever formed effortlessly. From personal experience, I realized that the sole reason behind why I escaped being a night owl is because I had a strong and powerful why.

For example, when I was working as a waitress, I knew I had to be at work by 10 am, and if I wanted to go to the gym, shower, eat and make myself presentable, I had to get up around 7 am at the very latest. That wasn’t too difficult for me, and it laid down the 7 am foundation.

However, in 2018 I started working at an aerospace tech company as a financial specialist, and I had to be there by 6 am. Nothing changed; I still wanted to make it to the gym and shower and get my life together, so I started training my body to go to bed earlier (around 8–9 am) and wake up at 3 am.

That was extremely difficult, but I knew it was only for a short period of time, and I wanted to prioritize my health; for me, that meant getting 6–7 hours of quality sleep and exercising.

Now that I work for myself and can create my own schedule, I still stick to an early morning routine. I don’t wake up at 3 am, but doing that for several months allowed me to establish the discipline of waking up early and starting my day before anyone else. In all honestly, that last bit was the biggest motivator for me.

There’s no better feeling than knowing I’ve already accomplished 2–3 things by the time hundreds of people wake up.

Figure out your why. Ask yourself why do you want to wake up earlier? What benefits do you think you’ll gain? What will you accomplish if you wake up just an hour earlier?

Identify the things that will motivate you to wake up earlier. For me, that was going to the gym and having it all to myself every morning. Now, I wake up early without an alarm clock because I want to get a workout in, and I’m driven to work on my business before the sun rises.

Your answers will be the reasons you become an early riser.

Create a Night Routine

Your day doesn’t actually start in the morning; it starts the night before. Before going to bed, you should already know what your ideal morning will look like.

It’s important to figure that out beforehand because when you wake up the following morning at the butt crack of dawn, your sleepy mind will tell you to go back under those cozy and warm covers.

So instead, set a plan for yourself, set some clothes out, and maybe jot down a quick to-do list of things you’d like to start with and get to it the moment you wake up.

For example, when I stop working, I always write down 1–2 things that I’m excited to do the following morning.

For instance, one of those things is working out. I love it; it makes me feel on top of my game and in control of my body. I’ve learned through trial and error that working out first thing in the morning enables me to feel much more productive. If I leave it off for the afternoon or evening, I just won’t do it. By telling myself that I can only do it in the morning, I feel more driven and motivated to get up.

What are the things you’re excited to do? It doesn’t have to be working out or writing the next greatest novel; it can truly be the simplest of things.

Maybe you’re excited to have your delicious cup of coffee or sitting down with a blanket and journal; sometimes, I get excited about watching my favorite YouTuber’s newest videos. It’s the little things.

Incremental Change Is Better Than No Change

Establishing a new habit is hard, especially when you’re so used to doing things a certain way for an extended period of time.

Yes, you can start waking up 1–2 hours earlier starting tomorrow and simply do it cold turkey, but it doesn’t work like that for everyone.

So if you are trying to incorporate this new and incredible habit into your life and want it to be as smooth as possible, set your alarm 20 minutes earlier tomorrow.

Then set it 30 minutes earlier 2–3 days later.

45 minutes.

1 hour.

Continue doing this for a few days and allow your body to adjust and get comfortable. Treat your body with respect throughout this time; don’t force it.

Something I used to do is allocate for my snoozing time; I knew I would hit the snooze button at least one time, so I would set my alarm clock an extra ten minutes earlier.

If I wanted to wake up at 6, and I knew I would snooze, I would set the alarm to 5:45 or even earlier.

Another trick you can utilize is setting your alarm clock somewhere that you’re forced to walk to turn it off. That way, you wake yourself up in the process.

Always Make Your Bed

Morning light can help a lot when it comes to waking up early; however, if you’re someone like me who likes to wake up when it’s still dark — a trick I like to use is to make my bed the moment I’m out of it.

That way, you’re not tempted to get back in it after you brush your teeth and wash your face (been there, done that).

If you are someone who wants to wake up early but not too early, then open up the blinds and windows and let the natural light in. It will signal your body that it’s time to wake up.

Naval Admiral William H. McRaven, from the University of Texas, says,

If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right.

Create a Productive Morning Routine

Along with looking forward to those 1–2 things that you jotted down during your night routine, a morning routine will make you just as excited about the day.

Charles Duhigg, author of ‘The Power of Habit,’ says that there’s a loop at the core of every single habit, which consists of three parts; cue, habit, and reward.

The idea is that the reward of performing an action is essentially what will make you do it again and again. And, when you repeat the action consistently enough, it becomes etched into your brain as a habit.

Therefore, try to make your mornings productive and rewarding for you to feel driven and motivated to do them over again.

The way to do this is to go back to your WHY. Those are the things you love and get excited about, so the reward of performing them again will motivate you to get up.

When I was going through this process, my big why was making time for exercise and having time with myself before the world woke up, along with knocking things off my to-do list before anyone else. That still drives me to continue being a morning person.

What will drive you to become a morning person?