If you are considering or trying to wake up early in the morning, you already know the benefits. Waking up early is not that complicated than you think, just don’t overthink it.

You are trying to wake up early in the morning, but even those annoying alarms are not working. You have read a lot of things about waking up early and watched a lot of videos of people sharing their morning routines and rituals. Everything seems so awesome. The only problem is you are not able to follow through on these plans that you are making for yourself or not even able to start.

Let’s try and simplify things.

Don’t overthink it

There is so much information about waking up early and so many rituals and routines to follow that can complicate the process. The point is, don’t pressurize yourself to stick to any or many of them, just because it works for someone, doesn’t mean it will work for you. When you read or watch someone’s morning ritual, absorb it for inspiration and not to follow as it is.

Here are a few things you can try:

1. Absorb the article or video about morning routine and ritual
2. Create a list and notes of the steps that were mentioned
3. Keep adding to this list as you consume more content
4. Highlight the points that you think can work for you
5. Pick any 1 or at most 2 out of them
6. Start applying from the next morning

If you find yourself struggling to follow along with the plan, you still have other items on the list that you can swap with the existing selection.

Remember, the goal is not to overthink on create a perfect routine or ritual for the morning, but some steps that work for you and help you wake up early.

You might start feeling bad about your day

When you set standards for yourself by seeing or reading about other people’s morning habits, you are pushing yourself. It might work for some, but not all. If it is not working for you, don’t stress too much about it. Most of the time we start setting unrealistic expectations for us. 

We somehow don’t pay attention to the fact that habits don’t form overnight or just by deciding on them. Even the people whom you are looking up to didn’t form these morning habits in one day.

If you push yourself too hard, you will start developing the feeling that you are not starting the day well. Once that happens, your point of focus for the entire day is on the regret of not waking up early. With this, you start wasting your energy on regret instead of making most of the day.

Don’t focus too much on waking up early, even if you are not able to wake up early, keep it behind you and utilize the remaining hours of the day and try again tomorrow.

Visualize the morning

Don’t plan too far ahead about the morning, just think of the first thing that you want to do. For me, this is how it works, “sit on the bed when the alarm rings, close the alarm and open DoRemember to write what I am looking forward to today.” Just this series of steps activate me and makes me ready for the day. 

By this time, I have a good idea about what I am looking forward to in the day, so the next step is planning by day and prioritizing my tasks. After this, I read a book and keep myself away from any news or social media. This makes sure I am not starting the day distracted and I am not getting into a distracted mindset for the rest of the day.

You can stay in bed

You don’t have to jump out of the bed straight away. It is ok to stay in bed and do something productive while sitting inside your blanket. If you are not the person who can easily jump out of bed, it is fine, find something to do in bed and prepare the night before. If you want to read in the morning, keep the book next to you. 

You might have to get off the bed to turn on the light if the switch is not accessible from the bed, or you can get a table lamp right next to your bed. But this is up to you, you can get creative with comfort and reduce friction so that you are not making excuses in the morning and sticking to the plan. 

You can try reading this 20-second rule to learn more about the resistance to getting things done.

You can’t wake up early if you stay up late in the night

Don’t force your body to wake up early if you are not able to get proper sleep at night. You have to sleep early in order to wake up early.

You don’t have to wake up at 4 or 5, even waking up around 6 or 7 is early enough, but make sure you are sleeping based on when you want to wake.

Forcing yourself to wake up early when you are sleeping late, can only take you as far as a few days of productive feeling. After the early days, you will start feeling low on energy throughout the day.

Take away

The important thing to wake up early is to not overthink the process and put too much pressure on yourself. Things are still fine and you are able to get things done throughout the day. It is just that you want to extract more out of the day. If you keep trying and are not too hard on yourself you will be able to get into the habit of waking up early. Start simple and gradually make it sophisticated step by step.