The Reality of the Unrealistic

The Morning Routine

I'm sure most of us hit a point where we want more time in the day to get things done. If you're anything like me with this day and age you go on YouTube or Google and try to find a way to achieve that. So the simple solution is to wake up early right? Well you can but adults need 7 to 9 hours of sleep a day and chances are waking up earlier will either make that impossible or if you wake up earlier while meeting that you're still not getting anymore time out of your day.

Now i am not much of a night person. I didnt think getting up early would really be a problem. Boy was i wrong. The number one mistake people will make is to jump right into this crazy morning routine and then when they find it impossible they give up. Ive attempted this several times before realizing i needed a consistent wake up time. So...

Step one: wake up

If you are the type of person who needs time in bed before getting on with your day you have to allow for that extra time. The key is to not go from waking up latest 9 am to waking up at 6 am. That will not work. Ive tried. Originally i woke up at 9 most days but once i started school I was forced to wake up at 7 am latest. And as much as it sucks, if you get up at that time or an hour later on your days off then its easier to get up. It also is easier if you slowly wake up earlier every week. Sure it'll take time but over all it makes it more realistic. I realize that if you work or go to school at 8 am Monday to Friday you're not going to want to get up at that time on the weekend. Yes you can sleep in just make sure it isn't too much later or the system doesn't work. But at least you'll have a bunch of extra time on your hands during the weekends.

Step two: figure out a way to stay up

Ive gotten into the habit of drinking a glass of water or just making sure I'm drinking water. When i wake up i roll out of bed and go to the washroom. By then, honestly, ive woken up a bit, for one im out of bed and two the bright lights in the washroom tell your brain the sun is up and its time to start the day. I do have a habit of going back into bed afterwards and going on my phone but, if we are to be realistic, its something we all do. I give myself about 15 minutes on my phone and then i roll out of bed again and get dressed. At this time i normally put on a YouTube video of some sort. Wish i could say i was super smart and cool and i put on a podcast but nope, its YouTube.

Step three: the tips

I always make sure to eat in the morning even if I don't want to. Ill leave it for the last possible second to do so though cause I'm not much of a person for eating in the mornings. I'm so busy I don't have time to make food every morning so i go with an overnight oat recipe, which i will be putting in another chapter. I tried to get into yoga in the mornings and it did feel really good to do so, the only problem was, I couldn't keep that in my routine if i was getting up at 5 am for school. I would recommend at least some light stretches which i found i was still able to do. My last tip is to have your list of things you need for your different activities written out somewhere you can see. Think about that as a check list, that way you write it out once and you can just refer to it if you need to. I have one for school and my two jobs just to make sure I don't forget to grab a phone charger, feed my fish or pack my homework before walking out the door.

All in all i found every video i found about people waking up at 5 am and loving it and getting time to do all these amazing cool things just never worked for me. I would hate every minute of it. All my friends where up  all hours of the night and i would be going to bed at 9 pm. These were my best guidelines that i pieced together. No matter what time you want to get up at. Find a consistent schedule and your body will get used to it. Find a way to stay out of bed, best way is with natural light. And of course, find the things you already do naturally in the morning and just set it in stone instead of running around forgetting everything you always do.

Don't try to force anything otherwise it will most likely not stick. You wanna do things in baby steps till it just becomes a natural thing for you to do. 

Any questions on any of the chapters can be left in comments or direct message.

Now on to the next thing...