When I wake up, the last thing I want to do is get out of bed. It’s cold, it’s early, and I’m tired. But I have a nine a.m. class, so I must get up. Throughout my years of dreading leaving the comfort of my bed, I’ve managed to pick up on a few different tricks to make starting my day just a little bit easier.
1. Obviously, coffee.
A cup of coffee is a great way to start your day. It’s tasty, it has caffeine, it warms you up, and it smells great. Making coffee motivates me to get out of bed, and even if I lay back down immediately after getting a cup, the thought of my coffee growing cold keeps me awake. The energy jump-starts my day on the right note.
2. Open the blinds.
For most people, it’s hard to sleep with light in the room, and the sun also serves as a natural reminder to our bodies to wake up. I like to leave my blinds open before I go to sleep, so that the next morning, the sun is the first thing to greet me.
3. Countdown.
This is something I learned about in a Reddit thread about productivity. It can help you start on anything you don’t want to do, and it’s really simple. Either aloud or in your head, all you do is say, “3, 2, 1… Go!” On “go,” just start whatever you need to accomplish. It doesn’t always work for me, but when all I need is the tiniest sliver of motivation, it works wonders.
4. Drink water before you go to sleep.
Drinking water before you sleep means you’ll have to go to the bathroom in the morning, and sometimes, that’s the only thing that will get me out of bed. It might take a bit of trial and error to get the exact time and amount of water perfect.
5. Put your alarm clock across the room.
You’ve probably heard of this trick before, but it works. When your alarm clock is across the room, you have to get out of bed to go turn it off, and you can’t just ignore it. Not only does it get you out of bed, but that little bit of movement may wake you up a bit.