How to be a Morning Person
I always get asked how I wake up so early so consistently while at college. If you don't already know 4-5 days a week I start my day at 5:00AM and if I don't wake up at 5:00AM I sleep in until 5:30 or 6. This is partly because 2 days a week I work on campus at 5:45 in the morning, and partly because I just like it.
Becoming a morning person is as easy as developing a routine.
The Night Before
| Go to sleep at the same time every night |
This is the most important part of becoming a morning person, or just developing a college routine in general. There are no consistent class, meeting, or study schedules so its important that no matter what you plan to do during the day Monday-Friday you set a reasonable 'bedtime' every night.
I've been using the new bedtime feature on the clock app with the new iOS 10 update and I really like it!
For reference, I try to make sure I'm in bed by 10:30 PM every week night. This doesn't mean I'm sleeping or tired, I'm just in bed starting my wind down routine. {mine involves twitter and candy-crush, but typically this is when people turn their phones on silent and read.}
| Plan a yummy and healthy breakfast |
Having a delicious breakfast to look forward to makes you excited about waking up and starting the day! I always make sure my breakfast is yummy and healthy so I feel good all day.
Part of my routine is that I like to have consistency, so I have literally the same basic breakfast every morning right when I wake up, then closer to when I have class (10 AM) I'll have a second, random breakfast.
My early breakfast is green tea and oatmeal, and for second breakfast I'll either have some eggs, toast and coffee or a protein shake to-go.
|Set out your clothes |
The night before plan what you're going to wear the next day. The nights before I have work I lay out my uniform for work, and the outfit I'll be changing into for class when I get back.
Having everything already planned makes the morning so much less stressful.
| Organize everything you'll need for the next day |
In keeping with minimizing stress, I always pack my backpack the night before and pick up my room a little bit. When I pack my backpack I make sure I have everything printed I need for class, or I make note of anything I need to stop and print, and I pack some snacks.
Since I spend most of the day on campus and have large breaks between classes I bring lots of snacks and all my chargers and headphones to make sure I won't have to come back to my apartment during the day.
The Morning Of
| Wake up at the same time every day |
As important as going to bed every night is, waking up at the same time everyday is arguably more important. I know that I can't control when I fall asleep {I know that nights before I have exams I can never sleep}, but I can control exactly when I wake up.
By waking up at the same time everyday regardless of when you fell asleep, you'll start to almost train your body to a new schedule. It'll become easier to sleep at the same time every night, and soon waking up early will just seem normal.
| Update your planner and Schedule your day |
I always pull out my planner in the morning and make sure I've crossed off everything I finished, and moved everything I still need to do over to the current day. I also look over the hourly schedule part of my planner and fill in anything that's not already there.
If you don't have a day planner you should still schedule out your day. I recommend doing this because it just reminds you of meetings you may have forgotten, and it can help you see where you have time in the day to do homework or go to the gym.
| Take time to do something you love |
When you wake up as early as I do you have to reward yourself. I never have time during the day to watch the videos in my Youtube subscription box so while I get ready in the morning I watch videos from all the people I subscribe to!
Other suggestions would be to read a book, go for a run, blog {something I do the mornings I don't have work}, pretty much anything you love to do but don't normally have time to do during the day.
Knowing you're going to wake up and do something you love will help you jump up when that alarm goes off.
pro-tip
Hitting *snooze on your alarm actually makes it harder to wake up. If you know you're not going to be able, or want to, wake up at a certain time one morning, rather than hitting snooze for 15 minutes, set your alarm 15 minutes later. This is why I sometimes "sleep-in" for a half an hour certain days of the week.
