Last week, I slept with a potato. Actually, that’s misleading. The potato was on the nightstand near my alarm clock, and I can’t with certainty say whether it was sleeping or not.
The potato’s purpose (just in case you were wondering) was to remind me that if I got up early enough, that potato could be fried up as some fresh hash browns (yes, hash browns can be fresh. Because they’re from my neighbor/colleague’s garden, that’s how!).
People are always giving me advice when I tell them I have a hard time getting up early.
- Work out first thing to get my heart rate up
- Eat a nutritious breakfast
- Meditate to start my day with intention
- Hot coffee or tea to give myself a morning ritual to look forward to
I’ll tell you why NONE of the above works for me. Because when my alarm goes off, I have one thing on my mind: going back to sleep. 40-60% of my brain is probably still inside my dream world, where there’s an alternate reality and something probably really important to that reality is happening. The other 40-60% is calculating exactly how much time I have before I really MUST get up in order to dash into work on time. I’m lucky if I remember if there’s anything on my calendar before work. I manage to do it for #portsbkfstclub every week, but that’s usually because I’ve learned I’ll be publicly shamed if I don’t show up on time.
So trying to solve oversleeping by coming up with things to do AFTER I get out of bed is fairly useless. The only things that work are things that I can do to alter my mornings BEFORE I get out of bed. Sometimes I edit the Alarm Label in my iPhone to say why I need to get up at that time, but I find I don’t read the alarm—I just hit whatever needs to be hit or unlocked or slid sideways to shut on that consarned noise. Sometimes I leave myself notes—written notes near my alarm clock. Those work well when I see them, but again, I have tunnel vision until I am fully awake.
The potato would be different. I would notice the potato.
And it worked! I mean, I still didn’t get up early enough to cook it for breakfast, but I did wake up early enough to shower, dress, and get to work EARLY and fully awake. So.
Sleeping with a potato helped me nail my morning routine.
If you have similar sleep/morning struggles, please share anything that might have helped YOU below in the comments. I’m always open to morning tips!
