How can you make space in life to go after dreams: write a book, train for a triathlon, or start a side business?

This is what works for many people: get up early. It’s not exciting or glamorous to get up before everyone else in the house, but it is effective.

I’ve vacillated back and forth many times in my life from early riser to not. But the periods of time I’ve gotten in a habit with it have been some of the most productive and successful. Now as a mom of young twins who just started sleeping more at night, I anticipate more early mornings in my near future.

Here’s how to accomplish getting up early as pain-free as possible so you can make it your best, most productive day ever.

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Get Up Early Now

Fitting time for exercise or other big goals into your schedule often involves early mornings. If you’re not naturally a morning person, making the transition can be tough. Here are some of the responses I’ve heard from others and in my own head:

“Training in the morning is hard!”

“I’m not a morning person!”

Very few people are stoked the moment their alarm goes off. Realizing this fact lets you off the hook. I like knowing that very few people jump out of bed excited to face the day at 4 AM. It means you can do it anyway even if you “hate getting up early.”  It means you don’t have to wait until it sounds like a fun prospect, because it’s likely that day will never come. “I didn’t have the motivation” isn’t a good excuse. If it was, many people wouldn’t pay bills, do chores, or go to work.

Working as a personal trainer then running a cycling studio for years, I frequently got up early but never enjoyed it until recently. Sure, I liked how much I could accomplish. I loved that it made me feel “ahead,” and the security that my activity, whatever it was, wouldn’t be supplanted by obligations later in the day. But that didn’t mean I was ecstatic when the alarm went off!

It’s okay if you’re missing the gene that enables you to be as peppy as a modern-day Richard Simmons at six a.m..  A warm bed will always sound better than getting up to goal-get. So with that pressure gone, let’s explore some ways to set ourselves up for success.

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Early Morning Writing

If your early-morning goal is writing, here are a few tips that have worked for me:

• Automatic coffee maker
• Community- I’m partial to #5amwritersclub on twitter, but I’m sure there are other great communities out there
• Small Goal- Think about what you’d like to accomplish the night before, then make a tiny percentage of that your write goal.

Early Morning Exercise

Let’s say your big morning goal is exercise. You consistently run out of time at the end of the day to train. Trust me, I’ve been there.

Want to know how other morning exercisers make it happen? I asked some of our 6 AM instructors at our cycling studio, Energy Lab, for their best tips. Some of these folks have dutifully been attending 5:30 and 6 AM classes for as long as we’ve been open!

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What are your best tips for working out early?

“Sleeping in workout clothes, setting alarm away from bed, coffee brewing, meeting an accountability partner.”

– Carolina

“Join Classpass, where they charge you $20 if you miss a class.”

– Heather

“Visualize a fitter, faster, happier self. I know that after my workout I’ll be pumped and feel great the rest of the day!”

– Tim

“Put the alarm clock away from the bed; allow for time to wake up and drink coffee.”

– Ted

“Eating helps shift your sleep cycle. So if you eat in the morning when you wake up, your body will start to expect it…and it wakes up earlier.”

– Ed

“Have a morning workout in Training Peaks. The power of green. I also found an alarm app that requires you to do a math problem or solve a puzzle before you can turn it off; kind of ridiculous and annoying but also kind of genius.”

– Michelle

The most creative ideas came from instructor Sara, who offers several suggestions:

“Think about the breakfast you get to have after. Become a coach; you can’t slack when you have to unlock the doors. Move an hour away so you have a long drive to “wake up.” Eat chips and wine for dinner so you feel guilty enough to drag your butt up or your clothes won’t fit. Know that if you don’t, your day will probably turn to xxx and your hopes of an evening workout goes out the window (see: chips and wine). Or remind yourself how GREAT it feels to show up for the rest of your day already accomplished with a clear head and full of crazy workout energy.”

Sara

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Plan to Succeed With a Bedtime Routine

A successful early morning routine requires planning the night before. Here are some ways to set yourself up for get up early success:

•  Lay out everything you will need in the morning––If you’re running, find your running shoes and your (charged) watch. For swimming, have everything laid out plus something warm to wear to the pool.  For extra credit, wear your workout clothes to bed! If you’re writing, lay out your charged devices, headphones, cozy blanket, etc.
•  Set up equipment––If you’re cycling, set your bike up on the trainer, or lay out your equipment for an outdoor ride.
•  Driving and traffic plans––If your plans involve driving somewhere to write or work out, then consider traffic patterns. For instance, one athlete saved a lot of time by training near work, knocking out the commute before rush hour.  Instead of getting up, prepping for a workout, training, showering, then driving to work, he saved nearly 30 minutes of commute and 15 minutes of prep time this way and used the drive time to “prep” with coffee and breakfast.

Takeaway: There are areas in life you can’t cut back—your job, your commute, sleeping, taking care of kids and pets, and working. However, there are likely other things you can cut back on, delegate, say no to, or outsource.

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Do you have other tips for getting up early to goal-get? If so, share them in the comments!

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