How to be a morning riser

Everyone all thinks that they aren't morning people, but in reality you can choose to be a morning person if you would like. So here are some habits to create if you want to become a morning riser.

1. Don't make major changes

You are never going to wake up earlier if you try to get up more than an hour than you usually do.  You have to ease into it. I would suggest waking up 15 minutes earlier every week. Maybe write it down to physically leave yourself liable to get up earlier.

2. Go to sleep earlier

The earlier you go to sleep, the easier it will be to wake up. One of the worst things you can do is play on your phone for an extended amount of time before going to bed. The light doesn't allow your brain to fall asleep. By playing on your phone you are physically not allowing yourself to fall asleep. Instead of playing on your phone, I would suggest reading a book. Reading a book is much more valuable than playing on your phone. When you read a book at night your body naturally tells you when your tired because you will start to doze off.

3. Get out of bed as soon as you shut off your alarm

I found this to be one of the most important points in waking up earlier. There are many problems that come with the snooze button so please don't ever hit snooze. Just shut off your alarm and get up immediately. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to put your alarm out of reach so that you have to get up to shut off your alarm. Once you get up you are more apt to do something and not fall back asleep.

4. Do not rationalize staying in bed

Doing this accomplishes nothing. You get no benefit from staying in your bed longer than you should.

5. Allow yourself to sleep in every once in a while

If you still find it hard to wake up earlier or you just want it to be easier to wake up in the morning than it would help to sleep in every once in a while. Maybe you could designate a certain day on the weekend to sleep in. Warning: I would strongly discourage you to sleep in on everyday of the weekend because it will make it hard to wake up again like you are starting the early morning process all over again.

6. Take advantage of all that extra time

You can get so much done in the morning if you just put your time to good use. One reason why I choose to go to bed earlier especially on the weekends is because you can get much more accomplished in the morning than you can at night, but you have to use your time in the morning for this statement to be true. Something that I find helpful is to take a shower right when you wake up to help you be more aware of what is going on and not feel like a zombie.

7. Enjoy the break of dawn

You can get much pleasure from the break of dawn. If it is cold you could just watch the sunrise from your window, but if it is nice out you could enjoy nature by going outside to watch the sunrise.

Waking up early has been one of the best habits I have created recently and I don't think I will ever habitually sleep in again because of the surplus of benefits I recieve from waking up early.