For this final week of “flipping the 9-5” I’ve gone from working 5-9pm to working 5-9am.  OK, so it’s the end of the second day and on neither day have I managed to start bang on 5am, but I must admit that as a self-confessed early-morning hater, I’m loving the buzz of having got so much of my work done before 8am!

I’m always told I don’t write enough blog posts with catchy titles, so here’s “5 ways to become a morning person”!

 

1. Set two alarms

Ideally, have two alarm clocks, with neither of them reachable from the bed.  I’m a sucker for the snooze.  In fact, on days when I don’t get up, the post-alarm snoozing is the highlight of my day.  If you don’t have two alarms, you can always set more than one alarm on your phone the night before.  Plan to fail early with the first one, but plan the second one for the time you really want to get up.

 

2. Get the blood pumping around your body quickly

Have you sometimes got up early, only to find you’re so groggy that all you do for the extra hour that you’ve just snatched for yourself is stare into space and drink tea?  Set up a routine so that you move quickly from the bed into an activity designed specifically to shake your body into action.  The best two for me are to leave all my running kit next to the bed the night before, so that I can get into running mode without even having to pause and think about what I’m doing and jumping straight into the shower – with a bit of cold water at the end if I really need it!

 

3. Move the faffing

Activities like breakfast can take much longer if you’re not a morning person.  So change them.  I keep fruit, cereals and bowls at the office, so that on days when I need to get out the door quickly, I know I can still have my breakfast… whilst writing blog posts!  Groggy mornings are also terrible for creating displacement activities like checking the news, doing the washing and other stuff that allows you to avoid engaging brain.

 

4. Listen to something cool

An inspiring podcast, a Radio 4 political debate or a piece of beautiful music can be a great way of enticing the energy and motivation to come out of its cave that bit earlier.  So get your headphones on, and leave the house belting out the words to “Killing In The Name Of”.  It’ll brighten up the milkman’s day, I’m sure.

 

5. Have kids

From my limited experience (basically, friends and family moaning), kids are the best alarm clock.  And with so much to do once they wake up, you’ll be a morning person forever more!

…so this 5-9am stuff will no doubt stand me in good stead when the time comes for me!

 

 

Like this? try this…

Welcome to flipping the 9-5

How to sleep like a ninja

Train yourself to be a morning person at life hacker