Want to become a morning person?

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be a morning person. Not necessarily in the “5 a.m. club” sort of way, I just simply wished to start my day with enough time to eat a well-rounded breakfast, workout, journal, read a book, and do my makeup before heading to work. But for reasons that felt somewhat out of my control, I would find myself hitting snooze for 30 extra minutes of sleep again and again.

Working from my computer has its perks, but I constantly find it hard to get up in the morning. I was tired of always saying I would wake up early or start shifting my mindset to become a morning person. I even researched ways to become a morning person, but nothing really helped until I decided it was time, I took action to turn things around once and for all.

Though I’m admittedly still a night owl at heart, there have been a number of things that have made waking up in the morning significantly easier and, at times, a delight. Here’s everything I’ve done over the past few months that have actually helped me become more of a morning person.

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Shift your mindset

“You need to have a clear why when making a shift like this,” says life coach Mhairi Todd. “Ask yourself, ‘What am I going to use this extra time for? What am I going to gain from this?’” She also cautions against underestimating how hard a change like this can be to make. “Easy choices, hard life, hard choices, easy life,” is a quote she lives by. To help get you started, start by setting yourself tiny challenges–think managing to leave the house without looking at your phone in the morning, or counting to 10 under a cold shower–and relishing the sense of accomplishment you feel when you achieve them.

Transform your bedroom

Being able to wake up early is only possible if you’ve slept well. You've probably seen people telling you online, you should not use digital products at least two hours before you go to sleep, and to be honest, at first, I thought it was crap, but when I started doing so, I saw a change in my sleep quality. To set a nighttime mood in my room, I light candles, and if I have time, I’ll take a relaxing bath as well. I'll basically do things to relax my body and mind.

Sleep before midnight

This is a big one. As a night owl with combined overthinking, quieting my mind and drifting off to sleep can be difficult at the best of times–but getting to bed before the stroke of midnight really is key, as our production of melatonin peaks before midnight. If you go to bed earlier- you wake up earlier. Sleep is so important for the immune system, performance, and pretty much everything else.

Get moving

Personally, I like working out in the morning rather than in the evening. The satisfaction of getting in some movement at the beginning of the day is unparalleled. Not only did it help me with my metabolism issues, but it actually increased my productivity as well.

Send positive energy out

No one wants to start the day with negative energy, so try sending positive energy everywhere you go. Whether it's your office, meeting rooms, gym, or to your colleagues. Look at your journal (if you have one - and if you don't, you should go get one) and visualize the best outcome for each meeting, discussion, class and project. As esoteric as it may sound, the overall attitude towards starting the day early will change immensely after incorporating this into my routine.