be an early riser

I was never one of those morning people.

However, when I quit my job at the library to play at being a writer – as Bukowski would say – I realized I had all the hours of the day available to me to do with what I pleased. Did I really want to spend them sleeping and smoking?

Some days? Yes.

Overall? Also yes.

But I knew that wasn’t going to get me anywhere other than exactly where I was.

So I started getting up earlier. One week I’d get up at 7, then the next week it’d be 6:55. The following week would be 6:50 and so on and so on, earlier and earlier until I was getting up at 4 most mornings.

If present-me told college-me he’d regularly be getting up at 4 in the morning he’d have probably slapped me – especially if present-me told him before noon.

If you’re also not a morning person, Five Minutes in the Morning offers some other suggestions to get you up and going:

• Get up at the same time each morning
• Put your alarm clock out of reach so that you have to physically get up to turn it off
• Use the natural daylight to help you wake up by going to the window
• Get everything ready for the next day the night before
• Practice looking forward to the morning and all the productivity it brings
• Imagine your perfect morning.

A perfect morning predemic saw me rising at 4 and immediately journaling about my dreams and/or anxiety about the day ahead (how ridiculous to be worried about the day when it was only minutes-old, I say now with the benefit of hindsight). Then, I’d meditate and be working out by 5. I’d take a quick (cold) shower while my bacon baked, make the rest of my massive breakfast and be writing or working by 7 or 8.

What’s your perfect morning look like? Do you hit the shower first? Get t h e b i g g e s t cup of coffee? Trade stonks? Workout? Meditate? What’s your ideal breakfast?

Feel free to share in the comments below!

And check out my friend’s website – he took the photo up there!