10 Ways to Turn Yourself Into a Morning Person

Hi everyone! Welcome back. Today I’ll be sharing with you 10 ways to turn yourself into a morning person. I’ve realized that being productive in the morning is extremely important when you graduate from college. Instead of having my earliest class be at 11:30am, I now have a a job to get to by 7:30am (yay teachers!). Because of this, I’ve had to make myself a morning person, so that I’m not completely miserable and tired every day when I get up at 6:30am! Below are my best tips and advice on how to become the morning person of your dreams! Most are super simple, so you can get started right away!

1: Put your alarm on the other side of the room

This is a great way to make sure you get out of bed on time in the morning. I don’t like to sleep with my phone anywhere near me, so I always keep it in the corner of the room or in the hallway. This means when my alarm goes off I have to get up out of bed to go turn it off. Once you’re out of bed, there is a significantly lower chance that you’re going to get back in bed and fall back asleep.

2: Customize your alarm

The pre-set alarm on iPhones seriously gives me anxiety. If you set your alarm tone for something less *alarming* you’ll wake up more peacefully. There are a ton of options to choose from, personally, I like the one that sounds like little bells. Another good option is to wake up to your favorite song, to help you start the day happy!

3: Sleep train yourself

Yes, I know this sounds strange, but let me explain. In college, when I wanted to start waking up earlier, I’d set my alarm for 30 minutes earlier every week. This means, that if on June 1st my regular wake up time was 9am, and I wanted to eventually start waking up by 6am, each week I would set my alarm for 30/45 minutes earlier until I finally started easily waking up at 6am. The second week of June I’d be waking up by 8:15, the third week of June by 7:30, and so on. This is a slower process, but it’s a good way to ease yourself into waking up early.

4: Go to bed at a similar time each night

I’m not saying that you need to give your adult self a bedtime. But what does help is going to bed at a reasonable time each night so that you get enough sleep and aren’t tired in the morning. Say you need to wake up at 6am, and you want 7 hours of sleep each night, you should plan, and prepare to be in bed by 10:30. If you always go to sleep around the same time, you’ll naturally also begin to wake up around the same time each morning.

5: Try to wake up at the same time every day

Like trying to go to sleep around the same time every night, waking up around the same time each morning helps you create routines. Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell you to also stick to these routines on the weekends, even though that’s probably healthiest. I know most of us will stay up way later on the weekends, and wake up later too. Personally, this works for me, and I’m able to be a productive morning person throughout the week, and still stay up late and sleep in on the weekends if I want to.

6: Sleep with your blinds open

I never sleep with my blinds closed, and this helps me a lot. When I wake up to natural light I automatically feel more energized. Waking up in a dark room will make you feel more tired and like going back to sleep (kind of like a rainy day), so keep the blinds open and let the sun wake you up!

This may be an adjustment for some people who like to sleep in complete darkness, but give it a try!

7: Clean up your house/apartment the night before

This is something that helps me so much! Knowing I’m about to wake up to a messy apartment makes me want to stay in bed. Therefore, every night I try to make sure everything is picked up before I go to sleep. I do all the dishes, wipe down the kitchen, pick up the living room, etc. This only takes about 15 minutes, and it makes my morning so much better.

I also do this after parties, even if it’s 4am. I hate waking up to messes.

8: Drink water first thing in the morning

I’m still working on this. But I always try to drink a glass of water before my coffee. This helps me feel refreshed, wakes me up, and obviously keeps me hydrated.

9: Set your coffee to auto-brew

This is life changing. Anyone who grew up before the days of Keurigs probably knows this, but since I didn’t, I’ve just now discovered it. A few months ago I got a coffee pot (quarantine purchase), as k-cups are super bad for the environment, and brewing one refillable k-cup at a time wasn’t working in our household of six people. The best thing about the coffee pot, besides the huge amount of coffee, is that you can set it to auto-brew! This way you can wake up to a delicious pot of hot coffee all ready to drink! This will also save you time in the morning. I seriously can’t recommend this enough.

10: Give yourself a few minutes in the morning to relax

I know most people don’t want to wake up any earlier than they have to, but giving yourself a few extra minutes in the morning so you don’t have to rush is so helpful. Even if it’s just 5-10 minutes to enjoy a cup of coffee can make a difference. I find that when I can calmly get ready in the morning I feel so much better than when I’m rushing to put on my mascara and running out the door with a to-go coffee. Giving yourself just a few extra minutes will set you on the right track for a great day!

Thanks for reading – I hope this list will help you become a morning person too!

If you’re looking for more tips, click here for College Study Tips and here for Tips for Choosing the Right College!

♡Kate