Why snoozing is bad for you, along with some thoughts on how to avoid it
“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise”. -Ben Franklin
I believe we would all be a whole lot better off if snooze buttons didn’t exist.
Each time we hit that button, we’re telling ourselves that we don’t have enough willpower to get out of bed at the time we had already agreed upon with ourselves just a few hours before.
I was a victim of the snooze button for pretty much all of my life, having to set countless alarms each morning and snoozing each of them for often hours on end.
The more I read though, the more I realized the importance of getting up right when your alarm goes off.
The evidence out there is clear — waking up early is key to a productive morning and energetic day overall.
Some strategies I’ve found to be helpful are to keep your phone/alarm clock out of reach from your bed, and go to sleep at a similar time each night.
While I’ve definitely gotten better at getting out of bed in the morning, it is still very much a work in progress for me.
That’s why I’m going to introduce a few more changes to my morning routine in hopes of making it easier for me to get out of bed.
- I’m going to promise myself to do one minute of bodyweight exercises as soon my alarm goes off, consisting of 10 pushups, 20 squats, and a 30-second plank. I’m not a science guy, but this apparently gets your nervous system working right away and provides a quick boost of energy.
- Immediately after the one-minute exercise, I’m going gulp down 1L of water. We tend to become dehydrated throughout the night which affects our energy levels in the morning, and downing a lot of water right away is apparently a great way to revitalize yourself.
- Lastly, before I go to bed each night, I’m going to tell my brain to “wake me up at __ a.m.” the next morning. To be honest, I’m not totally convinced that this one will do anything, but I read on Medium that people who do this often start to wake up naturally just before their alarm clock is set to go off, which sounds pretty great to me.
I’m going to give all three of these changes a fair shot to see if they make waking up a little bit easier each morning.
What I do know for sure is that my absolute best days are the ones where I have the willpower to force myself to get out of bed early and push through those first few painful minutes.
For those reading, I’d love to hear what tips you might have for making it easier to get out of bed when your alarm goes off.
A few months ago, I realized that I wasn’t satisfied with where I was in life and wanted to do something about it. The only problem was that the gap between where I was and where I wanted to be seemed daunting. That’s why I decided to start making micro-changes in my life on a regular basis*. On March 11, 2017, I decided to start making at least one change in my life each day.
*Note: if you improve yourself by 1% everyday for an entire year, you will grow by 38x (1³⁶⁵=37.8)
Here’s what the journey has looked like so far:
11-Mar-17: Starting taking cold showers (for the last 60 seconds)
12-Mar-17: Set goal of learning one new song per week on the guitar
13-Mar-17: Started listening to Audiobooks at 3–4x the speed
14-Mar-17: Started keeping my shoes organized
15-Mar-17: Decided to learn to juggle, practicing a few min daily
16-Mar-17: Began reading 3 book summaries (~10 min each) daily
17-Mar-17: Limit eating out to bare minimum, learn new recipe weekly
18-Mar-17: Limit alcohol to a bare minimum
19-Mar-17: No more snoozing alarm clocks, no more than 7 hrs sleep/night
20-Mar-17: Build tracker for bills as a reminder
21-Mar-17: Limit TV usage to 2 hours per day
22-Mar-17: Saying people’s names when I say hello, brushing teeth with weak hand, do one charitable thing a day, stretch for 10 minutes a day, spend 15 minutes a day on personal improvement
23-Mar-17: Picking up one piece of litter a day
24-Mar-17: Drink 3L of water a day
25-Mar-17: Start keeping track of calories with myfitnesspal
26-Mar-17: Try a day without the internet next weekend
27-Mar-17: Start attending weekly Toastmasters sessions to become a better public speaker, start meditating 5 minutes daily, take one online course at all times, learn to play the game “Go”
28-Mar-17: Sketch one thing at least once a month for the rest of 2017
29-Mar-17: Find a mentor by the end of April (to chat with on a regular basis)
30-Mar-17: Make it to work on time everyday, and start posting on Medium in the mornings
31-Mar-17: Start volunteering at least once a month (look into options and find a place by April 7th)
1-Apr-17: Start quizzing myself in Chinese for 10 min daily using a flashcard app; start shampooing hair every other day (as opposed to every day)
2-Apr-17: Explore downtown Toronto by riding bike each weekend in spring, summer, and fall of 2017; Bike the 24km to my parent’s place uptown and back at least once this summer
3-Apr-17: Start donating blood, register as an organ donor, use less energy heating and cooling home, start buying some fair-trade products, start using reusable bags when grocery shopping
4-Apr-17: Eat an orange in the shower each morning, keep kitchen clean, jot down 10 ideas every day
5-Apr-17: Read fiction for 5–10 minutes a day
6-Apr-17: Ignore eNewsletters until the end of the day, and write down lesson learned from each book I read
7-Apr-17: Strike up a 1+ minute conversation with a stranger each day, read over Medium posts for grammar
8-Apr-17: Include a header image on all Medium posts
9-Apr-17: Drink a class of kefir each morning
10-Apr-17: Run at least one mile every single day
11-Apr-17: Plank once a day for as long as possible
12-Apr-17: Substitute baby carrots for regular carrots for morning smoothies
13-Apr-17: Buy a foam roller and start using for 5 minutes daily
14-Apr-17: Take the stairs (as opposed to escalator) wherever possible
15-Apr-17: Climb the stairs in my apartment building from ground to 50+ once a week
16-Apr-17: Play Spikeball with friends on at least 10 occasions this summer
17-Apr-17: Take one picture every day
18-Apr-17: Hold the door open for others for one straight minute each day
19-Apr-17: Wearing earplugs from now on at loud events
20-Apr-17: Add a “quote of the week” to the whiteboard in my room for inspiration
21-Apr-17: No longer dispose of cardboard in the recycling chute (which we are not supposed to do)
22-Apr-17: Recording and posting a one-minute video each day
23-Apr-17: Using an RSS reader for news consumption
24-Apr-17: Set a timer for 5 minutes before bed and spend the time jotting down all the things I want to accomplish the following day
25-Apr-17: Stop cracking knuckles
26-Apr-17: Stay disconnected for the first hour after getting up each morning
27-Apr-17 to 9-May-17: Quit my job to start non-profit, drink green tea at least once a day, write down one mistake I made each day that I can learn from, do at least one run and one bike for the cure each year, call grandparents at least 3 times a week, get a compost bin and start using it, start standing while playing the guitar, start cutting my own hair, spend 25 minutes a day on self-improvement, become a vegetarian within 100 days, made rule to never accept more than $75k annually in personal income, spend 5 minutes a day learning to type properly, learn to drive stick
10-May-17: Spend a few minutes each day reviewing this growing list of changes
11-May-17: Take daily mood quiz on moodscope.com
12-May-17: Writing down 3 things a day that I am grateful for
13-May-17: Draw something every day
14-May-17: Add a slice of lemon to a glass of water daily
15-May-17: Creating a Vision Board and reviewing it monthly
16-May-17: Stop using Instagram
17-May-17: Smiling & saying hi to strangers in the elevator
18-May-17: Putting my phone and wallet/keys in opposite pockets
19-May-17: Reach out to one new person a day for advice on my startup
20-May-17: Using the pomodoro technique to manage time
21-May-17: Start 30-day wall sit challenge, and then continue to do one 5-minute wall sit a day
22-May-17: Learn one new word a day
23-May-17: Brainstorm and write down 10 uses for a random object each day
24-May-17: Write at least 100 words daily on any topic
25-May-17: Use the Rule of 3 to identify the three most important things I want to focus on accomplishing each day at work
26-May-17: Using the ‘5 Why’ technique to get to the root cause of problems
27-May-17: Switching my iPhone wallpaper during work hours as a reminder to leave my work at work
28-May-17: Try again with online iOS development course and commit to 15 minutes of learning per day
29-May-17: Only checking and responding to emails once each morning
30-May-17: Only visiting Medium once a day
31-May-17: Always climb the stairs two steps at a time
1-June-17: Watching one new TED talk a week
2-June-17: Asking each person I chat with about my startup if they’d be willing to connect me with someone from their network
3-June-17: Use the iPhone app “Daily Dozen” to track my eating habits daily
4-June-17: Spend 5 minutes each night reflecting on my day
5-June-17: Listening to NPR’s “How I Built This” weekly podcast
6-June-17: Going for a short walk each day without my phone
7-June-17: Using the 80–20 principle to evaluate my schedule/use of time every two weeks
8-June-17: Experiment with limiting news consumption with a one-minute video/world news update from BBC each day
9-June-17: Watch one iTunes U video a day
10-June-17: Take a Vitamin D supplement daily
11-June-17: Eat fish at least once a week
12-June-17: Get 8 hours of sleep each night
13-June-17: No longer work from home
14-June-17: Buy some spices and start using at least one a day
15-June-17: Use https://pumpn.net/mag/randomgenius/ to discover a new song at random each day
16-June-17: Replacing “let’s catch up over coffee/a beer” with “let’s go for a walk”
17-June-17: Do one minute of bodyweight exercises immediately after my alarm goes off
18-June-17: Drink 1L of water immediately after alarm goes off
19-June-17: Each night, tell my brain to “wake me up at __ a.m.” the following morning
