If you’re a night owl and you’ve tried waking up early, you know it’s one of the most difficult habits. It’s a pain in the ass to deal with grogginess in the morning and to be in bed on time with all the digital distractions nowadays.

You probably already read a few articles (or books) on sleep and early rising. In those, you see the usual advice:

• have a consistent schedule on weekends
• don’t use electronics late at night
• eliminate blue light
• don’t eat late dinner
• have a morning/bedtime routine

All these points are important and they’ve been discussed to death everywhere on the internet. Instead, I want to talk about some less known, “ninja” tips that will make you an early riser faster. I’ve been coaching people on waking up an early habit for more than two years now, and there are a few of those that pop up constantly.

1. Don’t Jump Out of Bed Immediately

The usual advice with the alarm is to keep it far away and immediately jump out of bed when it goes off.

That approach works well in the military, but what if you don’t want to have that stressful schedule in your everyday life?

What if you want to enjoy your morning and spend some time in bed before jumping into work?

If you want to do a habit long-term it has to feel good.

You’re not going to make it very far if your new habit feels horrible, and that’s exactly how it feels when you jump out of bed groggily.

So how can you spend time in bed without falling back asleep?

Have a two-alarm setup.

The first one is to wake you up, the second one is your cue to get out of bed.

The first one should be within arm’s reach and the second one should be away from your bed.

That way, you can give your body some time to gently awaken and you can spend some quiet time in bed doing something you love, like reading your favorite novel, writing in your journal, or doing affirmations.

When the second alarm goes off your time is up and you have to get out of bed.

A 10 or 15-minute period before the first and the second alarm works well. By that time your body will feel much better and you would have gotten some inspiration by doing your favorite thing in the morning.

My setup is a silent Fitbit alarm that wakes me up and my phone alarm goes off 10 minutes later. I use that 10 minutes to cuddle with my girlfriend — a great way to start the day.

2. Start Your Day with Joy

We’ve been conditioned by the productivity movement that everything should be about getting things done.

Do more, faster, increase efficiency. Most of our morning routines are filled with activities that require willpower and discipline.

But getting out of bed is much easier if you have something that you’re looking forward to. Something that gives you joy and excites you.

It might be doing a morning walk in the park, walking your dog, getting a cup of coffee at your favorite café, spending time with your loved ones.

It’s different for everybody but whatever it is, make sure there’s at least one activity every morning that is just to excite you and improve your mood.

That indirectly will make you more productive for the rest of the day.

3. Have A Strong Reason “Why?”

“I heard that early risers are happier and more productive” is not a good reason.

It’s too general and will not inspire you to take action.

Changing this habit is hard, and if you want to endure the difficulty, you will need a good reason for it. Be really clear about what you want to get out of the extra morning time.

Do you want to use it to work more on your business?

To improve your fitness and health?

To get some extra time with your friends and loved ones?

To make more time for learning and reading?

If you don’t come up with a good way to spend your mornings, they will automatically be allocated for sleeping in.

Planning it in advance is also very important.

Coming up with the right thing to do at 6 AM when you’re feeling groggy isn’t going to work.

At that time your mind will always come up with the same priority: sleep more.

Before you even start waking up early, come up with a great plan about how you’re going to use that extra morning time.

4. Hire a personal habit-building coach (It’s not as expensive as you think)

The statistics of one of the top habit-tracking apps Lift showed that people using a coach had a 300% better chance to master a new habit than the ones trying to do it on their own — that’s how important accountability is.

The problem is that it’s hard to find a friend that cares enough to hold us accountable, at least not long-term.

Well, thanks to technology, nowadays, it’s easy to find and hire a professional coach that specializes in the habit or goal you want to achieve.

And believe it or not, you can do so for as little as $25/week using the Coach.me coaching platform.

You can even sign up for a 3-day free trial and see if it’s the right fit for you before you commit here: www.coach.me/coaching

5. Plan Your Mornings with Excruciating Detail

The more specific you are with your morning routine, the easier it will be to execute it. I’m talking about the really small details.

Where do you put your alarm?

Do you get dressed before going to the bathroom?

Do you shave first or brush your teeth first?

Do you take a shower in the morning or in the evening?

Also, the better defined your routine is, the more efficient it will be.

Since you’re doing the same thing daily, you will find many ways to optimize it.

After writing down my routine in detail, I figured out that laying out my clothes for the next day is much better than doing it when I wake up.

It saves time and it feels nice to have everything ready when you wake up.

I imagine it’s going to save even more time for the ladies.

When I saw the routine written on paper, I also noticed how many unnecessary trips I was making back and forth to different rooms.

First, I didn’t do it in the right order, and second, I would forget something and then have to return.

Here’s my morning routine in detail:

• Turn off the second alarm
• Do my business in the bathroom (1 min)
• Go to the kitchen and weigh in on the scales (1 min)
• Drink a glass of water (1 min)
• Go back to the bathroom
• Take off retainer (1 min)
• Put on lenses (1 min)
• Brush teeth, Tongue scrape, Mouthwash (3 mins)
• Shave (3 mins)
• Put on perfume
• Style hair (1 min)
• Put on clothes (3 mins)
• Hit the door

It seems like a big list, but since I do exactly the same thing every morning I’ve optimized it so it takes just 15 minutes.

6. Lend or Give Away Your Electronics

Six years ago, when I was really struggling with waking up early, something happened that made me an early riser in just three days — my computer died. It was as easy as that.

I had no TV, smartphone, or tablet at the time, so there was nothing keeping me up late at night.

The only electronic I had was an iPod which I used to listen to audiobooks, which only helped me fall asleep faster. Since I fell asleep early, I started getting enough sleep and naturally started waking up early.

Going through that period without a computer and effortlessly becoming an early riser helped me realize that waking up early is our natural state. We don’t have to do anything extra to be early birds.

We need to eliminate the obstacles.

If you’re committed to succeeding in this habit, eliminate all the electronics.

Don’t just turn them off.

That never works.

Nothing stops you from turning everything back on when you’re bored at night and can’t fall asleep.

Lend your tablet to a friend for a few weeks.

Get rid of the TV.

Switch to an old school phone; the only distraction is playing the Snake game.

It’s an extreme step and getting rid of all electronics will be challenging.

Also, it’s not realistic to make it a permanent change. But doing it for a few weeks will help you get a great start with this habit.

It’s like learning to ride a bike with training wheels, eliminating the chance of falling.

Getting rid of electronics eliminates the chance of being tempted and staying up late.

7. Staying Awake After Getting Out of Bed

Many people manage to get out of bed early, but an hour later, they still feel groggy and go back to sleep.

Changing your wake-up time to a few hours earlier is hard.

While your body gets used to the new timing, you will feel sleepy in the first few hours, and going back to sleep will be tempting.

Especially if you’re still at home with your cozy bed seemingly doing a come-hither gesture, just like in a Disney movie.

Even coffee doesn’t help in that case.

I’ve tried getting two strong cups of coffee when feeling groggy, and I can still keep snoozing for a few more hours.

So what’s the solution?

Go outdoors as soon as possible.

Do a quick morning routine to refresh yourself and hit the door immediately.

Something about the outdoors makes it easy to stay awake.

You are feeling the cool air on your skin, smelling the grass and flowers, hearing the rustling leaves. Nature tends to melt away all the grogginess.

It’s a great opportunity to do some exercise too, which is one of the best ways to start your day. Get your heart rate up.

8. Get a Pet

Accountability is becoming mainstream.

Getting friends and family to keep you in check helps a lot.

Hiring a coach or making a financial commitment on sites like stikK.com is great too.

But there is no better accountability than a hungry cat in the morning.

If you get a cat and show her that 6 AM is food time, she will ensure you prepare breakfast at 5:55 AM every morning. No exceptions.

The downside to that approach is that she might also decide she wants some playtime at 3 am, but oh well… cats will be cats.

9. Use Sleep Cycles to Your Advantage

Have you had one of those days where you wake up early, but you don’t feel sleepy or groggy?

You can fall back asleep easily, but you can also get up and start your day.

Feels great, doesn’t it?

Of course, you also know about the other mornings.

Mornings where waking up early is terrible: your mind is foggier than the Golden Gate Bridge and your body feels like it’s been run over by an 18-wheeler.

Several times.

The difference between those two cases is the sleep cycles.

When we sleep at night, we experience a few cycles that our bodies go through.

Each cycle passes through different stages, illustrated on the graph below.

 

Stage 4 is the deepest, and Stage 1 (REM) is the lightest, meaning the closest to the awake state.

When the alarm goes off, the closer you are to the awake state you will feel better.

The deeper you are, the worse you will feel.

So how can you use that to your advantage?

Figure out at which time in the morning you’re in REM sleep.

If you feel terrible when the alarm goes off at 7 am, try 7:30 instead.

If that doesn’t work, try 8 am.

Eventually, you’ll find the sweet spot, and you’ll be able to get up much more easily.

Once you find that sweet spot, you can gradually move your alarm back 10–15 minutes earlier, and shift your sleep cycles until you hit your target wake-up time.

This approach works only if you have consistent bedtimes.

If you change the bedtimes by 1–2 hours every day, the sleep cycles will change too, and you won’t be able to find that stability in the morning.

10. Have Realistic Expectations

One of the most frequent questions that I get is, “How long does it take to become an early riser?”

It only takes your body 4–5 days of waking up and going to bed simultaneously to adjust to the new schedule.

It works even if it’s a big change, like moving in a different time zone.

However, getting yourself to do those 4–5 consistent days is different.

Being able to do it depends on your current habits.

If you’re used to watching Netflix while overeating until 2 AM, and you try shifting your bedtime to 10 pm, it will be a big challenge.

In that case, you must change two additional habits — overeating and late TV watching.

That takes additional time and discipline.

Becoming an early riser is difficult because it’s not just one habit but a combination of many tiny ones.

That’s why shifting the sleep schedule gradually works better than cold turkey. It allows you to improve the other prerequisite habits at the same time gradually.