As someone who quit competitive sports after high school, I never thought I would willingly wake up early to train ever again. I was done with the 6 a.m. dry land practice and loud, blaring alarms while it was still dark outside.
It wasn’t until the second semester of my first year that I realized just how important those routines were to me.
When the first rounds of midterms were announced, I made it my mission to get work done, even if it had to be at nocturnal hours.
A couple of all-nighters and monsters later, I was sleeping in until noon almost every single day, sometimes missing classes just for an extra hour of snoozing.
Not only did sleeping in cause me to miss lectures, but I found it impossible to pay attention to my nighttime courses.
I was only able to study late at night, but I hardly retained the information enough to carry it to the next day.
Aside from the productivity issues, my skin also broke out and reacted easily to almost everything. I fluctuated in weight and had mood swings that occasionally left me unable to spend time with my friends.
I felt trapped by my own routines, and when I tried to fix my sleep schedule, I would just end up tired during the day and awake at night.
By the middle of my second semester of my first year, I decided that I needed to make a change.
I set my alarms for 8 a.m., 8:10 a.m., 8:20 a.m., and 8:30 a.m. For the first couple of days, none of the four alarms were enough to wake me up or cause much more than a stir from my slumber.
But by the third or fourth day, it worked and I made it to my 9 a.m. class.
I can’t lie and tell you that this was the best time of my life and I suddenly gained all of my energy back. It was hard and I walked around with dark circles under my eyes for a while.
I was still tired during the day and awake at night, even after limiting my caffeine consumption.
But I stuck to it and with time, my energy levels normalized. I found that I was able to wake up around 8 a.m. without an alarm and sleep by midnight.
This worked for me and my focus was up again. I started smiling and laughing more, and I was able to find joy in learning again and not every little thing felt like a chore.
With the success of this routine, I decided that for this school year, I would try to wake up at 5:30 a.m. every day and start my morning with a gym session.
It was rocky at first; navigating showers, classes and limited bag space was enough of an issue — let alone waking up. But, with adjustment and the right encouragement from people in my life, this became my norm.
I can now say, with certainty, that without this daily set of habits and rituals, I would be struggling with school a lot more than I am and I would have less time to enjoy doing the things that I love.
I’m not telling you this to say that you need to wake up early to be productive or that this perfected my life.
What I am telling you is that finding your routine and staying disciplined enough to stick to it will help you develop the skills you need to be confident in yourself and your capabilities.