So... Does anybody have any actual advice for getting out of bed?
1. If you need to get up early for work, leave a good handle on it the night before. Like leave detailed notes on how to accomplish the next step or steps. Detailed enough that your first half hour to hour will be brainless peace and harmony.
2. Leave an exciting reveal for the morning. Say you finished building a cool new feature. Don't try it out until you wake up. I like to leave a 3D image or animation rendering overnight.
3. If possible change your schedule so that the early morning can just be full of fun stuff.
4. Plan to lay in bed for about an hour before you fall asleep. Incentivize it with a bedtime-only iPad or a pile of good books for bedtime only.
5. Lay out your clothes for the morning, the night before.
6. Do not get out of bed cold unless you find that invigorating. I bought 5 long-sleeve cotton shirts and sleep in those and some comfy pants and short socks. If I get hot, I use fewer blankets. I also keep a coat ready to put on.
7. Make breakfast or a cup of tea/water beforehand.
8. Make a fun routine. I bought a nice radio for early morning use. It picks up stations far away and I listen to it while I work.
9. Plan to take a nap later whenever needed. Schedule in the downtime.
10. Lay out a plan for your entire tomorrow. I do a mind map on paper. With this done the evening before, there should be nothing left to avoid thinking about in the morning, making it easier to consider getting out of bed.
Edit: And yes, it will change your life and people will wonder how you do it. Also I consider this practice a great burnout-prevention tool if you can keep work out of it (or out of the rest of your day).
I can't give exact figures but even being conscious that early in the morning seems to be some sort of amazing life hack, like you are sitting there going "I did it. I did at least that much today." There is some holistic benefit outside of the spreadsheet, in other words.
But regarding planning in general, I know I have made some astounding productivity gains with planning. The first time a planning session saved me four hours of work off of a six hour estimate, I put away my hotshot coder/designer mentality, redoubled my planning efforts and started flow charting, mind mapping, etc much more frequently. I don't plan everything out with exactitude, but let's just say that while I used to laugh at those obsolete books on flow charting, now I pore through them to see if I've missed any tips. And I use them for all kinds of things, not just coding. A design agency asked for my template a while back and I made it available on the web for libreoffice users.
So as parent said, it was "brainless peace and harmony" all the way to the airport.
It was easy when everything was easy... When my clothes were laid out, when the car was full of diesel, when even my coffee was ready, just needed to boil the kettle. On those days it was really simple to just get up shower dress and leave and before I knew it the 3 hour drive was over and I was getting on a tube to work ready for some London time. But if anything tiny thing was left to be done in the morning, that I would tell myself wouldn't take 2 minutes, it always seemed to take 20.
> is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?
The mental barrier of throwing off the warm covers can inspire a lot of time wasted snoozing in the morning.
It may take some adjustment, but wearing warmer pyjamas with a lighter blanket is one of the few things that can make the very act of getting out of bed easier.
I do a slight variation of the same concept: I've set the a/c timer to raise temperature to an almost tropical heat 20 minutes before alarm time.
I sleep under heavy covers and a somewhat low temperature, which is also part of the program.
The idea here is to sleep tucked in and warm like in winter, then wake up to a excessively warm but welcoming environment. If I remain in bed, I'll start sweating profusely and I'm forced out of my covers. So getting out of bed to me is actually inviting while undressing and getting into the shower is less painful.
6. This is terrible for sex and sensual cuddling. You need skin contact. I'd say have a bathrobe ready close to the heat source so that you can sleep naked, but don't suffer from cold when you get out of bed by getting inside its heat.
4. It's terrible advice if you have trouble getting asleep. You should be in bed only to sleep, otherwise you associate bedtime with being awake. Following this advice worked wonder in reducing the time it takes me to fall asleep.
9. Naps don't work for everybody, and can reduce sleep quality for the temporary gain of efficiency, so I've mixed feelings about it.
You seem to have scheduled your life well, but I wonder how you manage things that break the routine. Friends, exceptional crunches quickly break the good patterns and I find it difficult to come back to cruise mode after a lost night.
4. I had read about this too. However, it isn't true for me, or at least I associate my bed with general pleasantry and I sleep great. The biggest sleep aid I found back when I had insomnia was writing 1,000 words before bed every night, but I don't have that problem now.
9. Not sure what to say; I read a lot about naps and as a result I think it's OK to have mixed feelings about naps. If you don't want to nap, there are lots of alternatives depending on your schedule. Some people slow their schedule and get more done. Others meditate. I hope you take whatever steps necessary to maintain optimal cruise mode.
Morning habits are important because when people wake up in the morning they are extremely tired which impairs their cognition and willpower, which often leads to bad decisions like the snooze button.
1. Going to bed early. I switched to 9.00 PM instead of 12 midnight.
2. No TV/screens for the last hour to help with that.
3. When the alarm rang, no snoozes. Get up no matter how shit it feels. It gets better.
4. When I get up, no screens near the bed. That stuff just left me in bed with the phone.
Took me two weeks of work, but I started getting up earlier after that. Lasted for about half a year and then I went on vacation and it lasted partway through that. I've been working remote on a different timezone for the last month and that's gone and ruined it.
It seems like a worthy goal.
I became a father!
others considering should be aware that this approach does come with its tradeoffs as far as your productivity goes. :)
The best alarm I had was an old cell phone (pre-smart phone days) where the alarm would start off nearly inaudible and slowly get louder over the next minute or so. The gentle nudge awake was much better than a sudden jolt of noise.
The only better alarm would be one that is arrhythmic in nature. That's the only type of noise I can't sleep through.
Straight: Use your legs, flexing one under your butt, extending the other, and then flexing it down to lever your torso up.
Best: Combine them, and shoulder roll off the bed ;)
By the time my actual alarm goes off the caffeine has kicked in and I really have to get up and pee.
Then find a kindred spirit who will provide you with a little peer pressure. The dog will be happy he got to poop, and your friend will be happy to see you at the gym.
I use an alarm clock, my iPhone, set to the obnoxious "alarm" sound, and keep it on the desk across the room where the phone charges, next to it as a large glass of water. Alarm goes off, while it's still going off drink the water and look out the window at the light. I've been doing this for ~5 years and it works really well.
Thought it was pretty useless until I actually tried it for a week and realized it was a lot less jarring and stressful than an ordinary alarm clock.
I still tend to hit snooze and only get up on the second round, but by then I'm usually awake enough to enjoy real sunshine and looking forward to it.
Light tends to have a very positive effect on me in the mornings, so taking as much advantage of it as possible would be my advice.
2. Swing left leg towards the right so it dangles off the bed.
3. Plant right hand palm down on mattress.
4. Push down into the mattress with your right hand, lifting up your upper body while moving your left foot to join the right one firmly planted on the floor.
5. You should now be sitting upright on the edge of the bed.
6. Stand up.
Congratulations, you have gotten out of bed.
The day before lie down on your bed and practice standing up and starting your routine (brushing teeth).
When you wake up you shouldn't give yourself time to think because then you will start procrastinating, instead autopilot should kick in and before you know it you're brushing your teeth.
Or get a cat. No better alarm clock than a hungry cat.
The only advice that is guaranteed to work: "Just do it."
"I got up" -> "you just did it"
"I didn't get up" -> "you didn't just do it"
The useless homeopathic woo-woo of advice.
Someone who needs to get out of bed and struggles with it, is not helped by someone saying "just get out of bed". That's not 'advice', It admits no reasons for being unable to get out of bed, when there clearly are reasons - otherwise the person would already be getting out of bed. It doesn't care about the person or the causes of their problems, or ways of working around them. It only serves to be dismissive and make the person saying it feel better. That's what makes it smug.