How to Become a Morning Person

Hello and welcome to the Curiosity Chronicle, a weekly podcast where I provide actionable ideas to help you build a high performing, healthy, wealthy life. Today's podcast is brought to you by AG1 by Athletic Greens my all in one daily supplement seriously, this stuff replaced an entire cabinet of supplements for me in one Daily Scoop. There's a reason it's been a staple of my morning routine since 2011. To find out why, go to drinkag1.comsahil and take advantage of a limited time offer. Now onto today's how to Become a Morning Person I'm not a morning person. At least not naturally. For most of my childhood, I'd hit a snooze button a million times and my mom would have to drag me out of bed to make it to school on time. In my college years, the morning hours were forced upon me by pre class baseball practices and lifts. At first I struggled mightily with the adjustment, but I knew that if I wanted to perform, I had to figure out a system. I had to become a morning person. Somewhere along the way it clicked and for the last 10 years I've started most mornings with a 4am alarm. Today I can't imagine anything different. I wouldn't change a thing. I've officially become one of those annoying morning people who seem excited to be awake. My firm belief is that the early morning hours offer unparalleled beauty. No emails or texts coming in. No social media notifications, children, spouses or roommates still asleep. Whether you have the freedom to structure your day as you wish or you're in a traditional role that requires you to be in the office from 9 to 5, I think that everyone should at least try an early morning routine to see how it suits them. Here are five actionable strategies that I have used to turn myself from a night owl to into a morning person. Five actionable strategies to use 1. Create a repeatable evening routine. Your evening routine sets you up for a great morning. I spend 15 minutes in the evening preparing myself for whatever that first focus task of the morning is going to be. Note this is particularly important if you aren't a morning person because any friction in the morning is going to hurt your experience. Fifteen minutes in the evening reduces your morning friction considerably so so you can immediately get into the flow. I also spend a few minutes going through my 1:1:1 journaling method. 1. Win from the day one point of tension or anxiety. 1. Point of gratitude. It gets things off my brain and onto a piece of paper so I can unwind and fall asleep quickly. 2. Move your alarm clock. The snooze button is enemy number one in the quest to become a morning person. If it's easy to hit the snooze button, you'll hit it. Make it hard. Move your alarm clock. I use my phone into a nearby room or location that's at least 10ft away from your bed. When it hits, you're forced to get out of bed to turn it off. You will be much less likely to hit snooze if you had to get up already. You've forced the subconscious snooze into a conscious decision. If you keep the volume low enough, you you'll hear it because you're subconsciously listening for it, but your partner and spouse won't. My wife is a light sleeper and I'm a heavy sleeper, but it still works for us. 3. Use my 55530 method if you struggle with morning energy as I did, you need a jolt as soon as you turn off your alarm. Do this five push ups, five squats, five lunges per leg, and a 30 second plank. It'll jumpstart your engine and give you a natural boost. I call it my 55530 method. I've been doing it since those early morning college practice days. It just plain works. Do not do the exercises next to a bed with a sleeping partner or spouse. Go into another room. Trust me. 4. Front load the Energy Creators when you're trying to become a morning person, having things you're excited to do early in the morning is crucial. Structure your early morning hours such that they involve at least one energy creating activity. Maybe it's going to the gym. Maybe it's working on that side hustle. Maybe it's focusing on that interesting creative project. Whatever it is, having an energy creator to look forward to is always a good way to give yourself an intrinsic boost. And five Go to bed earlier. Okay, this may seem obvious, but it wouldn't feel right to ignore the most impactful yet somehow overlooked strategy for becoming a morning go to bed earlier. I would never condone trying to wake up at 5am if it meant cutting your sleep short by two hours. I used to follow a sleep when I'm dead mentality in my early career years. I regularly worked until 10pm and woke up at 10 3.45am but studying the science, I realized that sleep when I'm dead is actually a great way to end up dead sooner. A few tips that help with falling asleep if you struggle Read light fiction before bed. I like sci fi or historical fiction. Warm shower or sauna before bed. No cold water, which triggers your body to warm itself up. The opposite of what you want as you go to sleep. Blackout shades to keep your room dark. White noise machine. You can find solid cost effective options on Amazon. A cool sleeping environment. Create a solid, regular structure to your sleep. Establish a fixed sleep and wake time that you try to follow 90% of the time. Sleep regularity has a lot of health benefits. Wake up and conquer. There's no such thing as a loser who wakes up at 5am Waking up early is the easiest way to improve your odds of success. You don't have to wake up early to be successful, but you rarely find an early riser that isn't winning. It's hard to get up early. If you develop the discipline to do it, you're a winner. You may not see it yet, but that discipline muscle you're building is going to bear fruit. Now it's your turn to give it a shot. Wake up and conquer. That's all for today's piece. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you learned something, and I hope you'll share it with others. As always, until next time, stay curious. Friends.