Get up early for some you-time before the world starts knocking. It’s what the successful creators and entrepreneurs do, right?
In the wee hours of the morning, the possibilities are endless. You could get in tune with your body for a workout, get a jumpstart on today’s to-do list, or make a dent in your biggest goals.
Wake up earlier and start the day on your own terms.
Sounds amazing! In fact, it’s such a great concept that I’ve revisited this idea perhaps 4 or 5 times over the last decade.
Whether it was because I was studying for professional exams, trying to catch a breather during maternity leave, or chasing my creative dreams, the allure of early morning alone time was strong.
But I couldn’t make it stick.
I must not want it bad enough, I’d think, hitting snooze for the third time in a row.
It turns out that wasn’t it at all! I was just taking the wrong approach to my early morning routine.
How do I know? I finally found a way to get up early that works!
There are tons of tips and morning routines on the web, but if you haven’t found a way to make any one of them stick yet, it could be because they weren’t made for you.
Much like my approach to work-life balance, the trick is to get a little introspective, and customize your routine so that it suits you personally. In this post, I’ll share what that looked like for me.
Why bother getting up earlier?
Here’s why I was so obsessed with trying to get up early:
- There was a lot of stuff that I wanted to do, and I needed more time if I wanted to fit it all in outside of work. For me, that included more exercise, more home cooked meals, and multiple hobbies, to name a few.
- You know that feeling of being stuck in a loop? I wanted to get off the hamster wheel by bringing more creativity into my life. But in what time!?
- If you have young kids, and you manage to get up before them, then you’ve got a little pocket of time to get grounded before the day starts and you’ve got to be on. Never did I understand the concept of being truly needed until I had kids.
- I wanted to write my blog. I also wanted time to do the things that I knew fuelled my writing (taking in inspiration, following curiosities, writing morning pages). But I was too tired to write after the kids had gone to bed, so I took to Netflix instead.
Ironically, I finally found a solution that worked for me after leaving my day job, and the early mornings hit a bit differently.
When I was employed, having a bit of me-time in the mornings alleviated a little anxiety that came from the feeling of having too much to do, and never being able to catch up. I was navigating daily life reactively, so getting grounded in the morning helped instill a sense of calm control.
If that resonates, you might want to check out the 5-Minute Reset. Don’t miss the free one-page download!
Now that I’m self-employed, I still have full days, but the time is mine. I don’t have to be out the door at a certain time, so the allure of a cozy bed (even with my kids monkeying around in there) is strong. So early mornings are less about productivity and more about showing up grounded and available in the morning. To start the day with joy, even.
The calm, the quiet time with your own thoughts, and the concept of starting the day on your terms, are the fuel that will carry you through the work day. You’ll start out feeling centred, accomplished, and focused.
Whether you’re showing up for work-work or creative work, these are the lubricants your brain needs to function optimally.
What most people try (and why it didn’t work for me)
There are two parts to the early morning routine: your approach to the alarm, and the activity you choose to fill your morning with.
Let’s zero in on the alarm first.
1. Gradual entry
Set your alarm 15 minutes earlier, every few days, to ease into your new wake-up time.
This one didn’t work for me because I didn’t feel like I could do anything meaningful with the time. I would just start doing little chores instead of the activities that really inspired me, like writing.
This wasn’t motivating enough to keep me from the snooze button.
2. Bite the bullet
Want to get up at 5:30am? Set the alarm for 5:30am, and commit.
Reduce resistance: have your clothes laid out and move your phone/alarm to the other side of the room. Accept the tiredness – you’ll adjust in a couple of weeks.
Despite all the dream chasing I could do with that extra me-time, I wasn’t loving the earlier bedtime, and I was just unwilling to accept the tiredness. My kids were under 5, I already had a baseline level of tiredness going!
3. Find a happy medium (this one worked)
The most successful method was a combination of the two: bite the bullet, but choose an hour that’s not so far off from my previously established routine. For me, the magic time was 6:10am.
It doesn’t seem like much, but even if I hit “snooze” once, I still have a good half hour to exist by myself in the morning.
This was just part one, though. It’s not enough to find the right wake-up time, you also need to find the right activity.
What not to do with your early morning bonus time
There are so many things you could do with your extra time, so choose wisely!
The conventional wisdom is usually to work on your most lever-moving task, or the thing you’re most excited to do. Unfortunately, my brain didn’t get the memo.
Here’s what I tried, and why it didn’t work:
Writing the blog
This is perhaps the most lever-moving and exciting thing I could have done with my time! So why didn’t it work?
The advice is to plan exactly what you’ll work on that morning. Great. I will draft 1 section of my next blog post.
It turns out, even this was too much ambiguity. I love writing, but it’s challenging, and even simply drafting a section took more mental bandwidth than I had available at 6am.
Perhaps more importantly, it turns out that the early morning is not when I’m my most creative. Around 9am with a cup of coffee in hand is a different story entirely.
So, what if used my early morning time to get more simple tasks done? Then I’d have more time to write later in the day!
Well, my sleepy heart just couldn’t make the connection between getting out of bed to do chores, and the possibility of extra writing time later.
So the task you choose can’t be too mundane, nor too involved, for your early morning energy levels. Even if you love doing it, if the amount of mental effort required is misaligned, you won’t be jumping out of bed to tackle it.
Exercise
This one actually did work pretty well, but it had to be the right exercise. For me, that was running. There was something about the physical momentum of getting out of bed to getting your running gear on to thrusting yourself out the door and down the street that felt sustainable.
Plus, the energy boost and sense of accomplishment I got after completing a morning run was unbeatable.
A couple roadblocks popped up, though: First, my husband left early for work, so I’d have to be back by about 6am because we have young kids. That run would be early. Second, apart from summer, it is dark in the morning, and I don’t love running around in the dark.
So how about indoor exercise? Yoga would be the next best (and most enjoyable) activity, but it lacked the jolt that bursting out of your doorway in the morning has, and so that idea fizzled out fairly quickly.
Any one of these activities may work for you! We’re all wired (and motivated) differently. But if you’ve also tried all of these things and nothing has stuck, let me give you one more bit of inspiration.
How I found an early morning routine that sticks
All of my failed attempts at waking up earlier taught me a bit about myself and what I need in the process of emerging from my cocoon of slumber every day.
I need something inspiring, something just for me, but also something that’s not too mentally taxing.
While updating the “to read” book spread in my bullet journal one day, inspiration struck.
Read first thing in the morning.
I have a large list of books I want to read, and it’s continually growing because I don’t make enough time to read through them. Reading first thing in the morning would help me:
- Feel like I’m making progress by moving through my reading list
- Feed my creative practice by making new connections and inspire new blog posts
- Expand my knowledge through nonfiction
- Reconnect me with my love of literature through fiction
But here’s the trick (because prior experiences have told me I can’t just sit up in bed and open my Kindle):
You must pick something you enjoy, and then add joy.
Add more joy.
Continue sprinkling the joy on until it’s as joyful as it can be.
Here’s how that looks in practice:
1. Pick something you enjoy, and then add joy
Why you enjoy it is personal.
Some people get great pleasure out of a spotless kitchen in the morning, and getting up early to tackle that is a worthwhile endeavour.
For me, I enjoy reading, but I’ve always had trouble fitting it into my day. It’s not just that I would enjoy the activity, but I’d also really enjoy that sense of accomplishment from seeing my progress through my book (and book list).
Add joy.
If you’re exercising, pick your most favourite exercise.
If you’re cleaning, clean the best part of your home.
For me, I’ll pick a book that I’m most looking forward to reading. I normally have two types of books on the go:
- One on creativity or creative pursuits (e.g., Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert, or Steal like an Artist, Austin Kleon).
- One that’s self-improvement or adjacent (e.g., a parenting book or psychology recommendations from my therapist).
Morning reading time is now reserved for the missing third type: my joyful pursuit book. It could be fiction, something I’ve been deeply curious about, a recommendation from a friend or a new publication from a favourite author. It’s going to be a book that’s fun to read.
2. Add more joy
As I mentioned, sitting up in bed and opening the Kindle wasn’t going to motivate me to really wake up enough to actually read – it’s too easy to roll over and go back to sleep.
So, I decided I needed a joyful location, and created a little reading nook in my creative space to migrate to.
I also wanted the tactile experience of holding a book in my hand and turning the pages.
Now we’re getting somewhere.
Run the scenic route. Listen to the fun playlist. Use the good rubber gloves.
3. Continue sprinkling the joy on until it’s as joyful as it can be
I tried this joyful reading routine out, and it was working! I was looking forward to getting up early and heading down to my reading nook.
But as I was sitting there contemplating what a good self-carer I was, I realized: I could make this even more joyful.
I chose the ambiance of a reading lamp over my overheads, and loved it.
I made sure I had a hot cup of herbal tea in hand for my reading session.
I grabbed a soft blanket to cuddle up in that now lives in the nook.
How cozy, right?
Exactly! For me, to add joy was to add coziness. The very thing that makes it so hard to get out of bed became the pull I needed to get up and start the day on my own, very cozy terms.
Is cozy your thing, too? Or is it more energetic and fun? Is it social? How about streamlined?
Get creative, and find more little ways you can sprinkle your most favourite vibes into your morning.
In summary
If you want to make it stick, work with your energy, your motivators, and make it joyful:
- Pick the right goal to fit into your morning time slot. It helps to break it down to the lowest common denominator. If you’re getting up early to write your blog, go for it! But for me, my goal was simply to start the day on my terms.
- Pick a reasonable time and accept a little tiredness. If you have an activity you want to complete, try for just enough time to make it meaningful. No need to get too ambitious, but don’t shortchange yourself, either.
- Pick the right activity. You know yourself best, so how do you want to feel first thing in the morning? Warm and cozy? Vibrant and energetic? Calm and meditative? Pick the activity that best fits the feeling you’re going for and meets your goals.
- Add several dashes of joy. Adjust the ambiance. Use the good soap. Play the fun playlist. Get creative and find ways to enhance the experience.
There you have it!
In thinking about mornings through the lens of joy, I’ve finally found a lasting morning routine. My days start off far more calm, grounded, and of course, joyful. No more feeling the need to rush, no more anxiousness.
Oh, and my ever-growing book list is actually a source of inspiration now, rather than a source of guilt over how I’ll ever get to them all.
What’s your ideal early morning like? Sprinkle a little joy in the comments below!
Want more creative self-care ideas? Your next stop: The Busy Professional’s Guide to Creative Self-Care
And whether you have an early morning routine or not, here’s a great exercise for a little mental grounding before you get started with your day: Grab the free one-pager: 5 Minute Reset
