Waking Up Early

I am the most productive during the morning than at any other time of the day. To take advantage of this, I shifted my sleep schedule to have some extra time every morning to get to work and reduce my load for the evening. However, developing a habit of sleeping and waking up early did not come naturally to me. During high school, I frequently found myself browsing social media sites or falling down the YouTube rabbit hole at night. Once the habit of watching videos under the covers started, it was tough to stop with sheer willpower. In addition, I never used to wake up on time from my tendency of hitting the snooze button on my alarm. This was repeated every morning, sometimes 3-4 times.

However, I broke out of this vicious cycle by researching ways other people overcame a lack of motivation to wake up early, the source of my problem. From trying many techniques out, I settled on three steps. I eased into my sleep schedule, created a reward system, and used the “5-second rule” that has helped me in my daily life even now. First, I gradually changed my sleep and wake-up times by 30-minute increments. On the first day, I slept from 1 am to 9 am, then 12:30 am to 8:30 am the day after and onwards until I reached my desired times. Next, I rewarded myself for waking up without snoozing by doing something delightful, so I look forward to it. I started by watching a few episodes of anime and later transitioned to productive work after two weeks.

However, I had a big problem to overcome...I needed to stick to my goals. An author and motivational speaker, Mel Robbins, introduced me to her “5-second rule” that harnesses the science behind forming habits to achieve anything you desire. Whenever I must do something, but I don’t feel like doing it, like an assignment, I count down from 5 and immediately start the task. Of course, I was skeptical about its benefits at first. Why can such a simple solution exist to the biggest productivity problem that everyone faces?

To my surprise, this simple technique works miracles. “The rule is a form of metacognition. There are tricks that you can use that actually outsmart the tricks your brain plays on you in furtherance of a higher purpose. […] When you count backwards 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, […] you’re interrupting what researchers call habit loops that get encoded as close loop patterns in your basal ganglia, which is nothing more than behavior that you repeat.” These habits loops are the reason why you snooze your alarm in the morning, procrastinate your homework, let your emotions get the better of you, or hinder your progress. Instead, “it awakens your prefrontal cortex” that is typically awake when changing a habitual behavior or learning something new.

You can use the “5-second rule” for basically anything that you find yourself avoiding, even when you must do it. For instance, if you keep snoozing your alarm, just count down from 5. Try it first before deciding if it is worthless, and you will find new possibilities and opportunities open to you. The first day I counted down from 5, it worked. I was overcome with feelings of joy that I was able to finally stop hitting the snooze button. I took my first step in my lifelong fight against procrastination and sleeping late.

I have observed that waking up early is an unusual phenomenon for the typical college student, and I have a few reasons. When I tell my friends about my sleep schedule, they are baffled and ask how to keep it up. And to their surprise, I do … well, most of the time. My motivation for waking up early is that I usually take advantage of the mornings before my classes because I can focus more in the mornings than late at night. To fully optimize my schedule, I shifted my sleep schedule from my usual 12-1 am bedtime and 8-9 am wake-up time in high school to a strict 11 pm-7 am sleep schedule. I can stick to it around 6 days a week, with Friday designated as a cheat day if I have any planned social activities that continue into the night past this bedtime. Since college social activities usually occur pretty late, I decided to incorporate this leeway in my schedule so I don’t have to miss out on making fun memories.