Become an Early Riser in 5 Minutes a Day

Picture by Andrew Leigh

 Waking up earlier is one of the habits that my husband and I have picked up this last year. We got inspired by the early sunrise in the summer here in East China, and by the habits of the people around us.

It's not uncommon for us to hear people moving around around 5:30, or to get someone to check the gas meter at 6:30.

If we teach at the college in the morning, we leave by 7:15 and we like to have some time to ourselves before that.


Now, we get up around 5 (if we managed to get to bed around 9, which is the requirement if you need 8 hours of sleep, like me), then I check my emails (which is a habit I'm trying to quit as a first thing in the morning), do my yoga, cook and eat breakfast, clear some stuff away, get dressed properly (I even have time to do my hair!) and pack our stuff. We do all of this at a relaxed pace, and it's one of my favorite times of the day!

Waking up earlier can be a challenge. Your sleeping pattern can be difficult to turn around all at once, so ... don't. Make little changes. You could start with as little as - you guessed it! - 5 minutes! Instead of setting the alarm at 6:30, try 6:25. Two days later, change it again. It's how I changed from waking up at 6 to waking up at 5. 
Even when we have time off, we still wake up early. I love to rise with the sun and get my work done sooner. I find I'm more energetic in the morning, and much more productive than in the afternoon. I sometimes take an afternoon nap, but only if I didn't sleep enough at night (we have thin walls and loud neighbors!)


If you're not a morning person, you could still benefit from moving the alarm clock a little earlier, just to give yourself more time to wake up and get your mind going. Having to rush early in the morning is something I haven't missed once. I could fix that problem with only half an hour extra. The same goes for being able to cook a proper breakfast (eggs, slice of toast, piece of fruit) instead of grabbing something on the go.

There are many advantages to waking up early. You can check out this Zen Habits post on the topic, this LifeHack article, or this article on The Bold Life.

Or give Google a go and you'll find tons of information!

If you're not sure about the whole thing, no one's saying you can't go back to mornings in bed after a short experiment, right? But if you do try it out, give yourself at least a month or so to let your body adjust. Then tell me if you still want to go back to waking up at 8 or 9.