How to wake up Early - but with your life together

How to wake up for School with your life together.

Tired of waking up early for school with your teeth half-brushed, and no lunch packed? Well, hopefully this article will help you change that!

But today I’m cutting the B.S. - I’m not going to tell you any extra things that you should do like “You should meditate, stretch, journal, practice gratitude, and workout - all before 5 A.M! 🥰”.

Let’s be real, you probably don’t want to do any of these things in the early morning. This is especially true if you’re a high school student with a circadian rhythm that’s shifted later than an adult’s. Plus, if you really wanted to do any of these other tasks, you could just do it after school.

So all we’re going over are the different components of setting up a minimalistic morning routine. And if you do want to do the other stuff mentioned before, setting up a minimal morning means you'll have more time to do the things that are important to you.

Prepare ahead of time

Choose your clothes ahead of time

Choose all your clothes ahead of time - don’t be paralyzed last minute trying to choose a nice shirt or skirt that matches each other. Preparing ahead of time also means you’ll be more likely to remember to dress for spirit days or awareness days.

To be really efficient you can choose all your outfits on the Sunday before the week! It saves a lot of decision-making skills that you’re going to need for the actual school days.

 

Shower the night before

If you shower the night before, you won’t have to shower again in the morning. However, if you want to try waking yourself up you should try a quick cold shower.

But, don’t shower in the morning and the night before - you don’t need to shower twice a day - it just makes your skin SUPER dry (trust me on this one)!

Write a To-Do List or Time block

If you know what homework you’re going to do tomorrow evening and all your required tasks, you’ll probably feel less stressed in the morning. It also lets you think out what else you might need to bring in your backpack for school!

I recommend putting this on your phone, so you won’t forget it at home, like if you write it in a paper planner.

Pack your backpack the day before

Once you’re done with any homework, make sure to pack your backpack. Doing this means you won’t have to shove random folders and notebooks into your bag last-minute.

Place time limits on your phone

If you want to wake up early without being tired, you have to actually sleep enough - and for a lot of us, that means limited time on our phones. I think many of us love to go on our phones until 3 AM - until it’s the next morning and we feel DEAD.

That’s why try putting time limits on all your social media apps for about eight hours before you want to wake up. For example, if you want to wake up at 6 AM., limit all your apps starting at 10 PM.

And don’t make excuses for yourself! even if you’re still awake well after 10 PM, you should not be on your phone - maybe finish up your homework and extracurriculars and go to bed. Do not look at your phone.

Not only that, but excessive screen time throughout the day can make it harder for you to sleep because of the blue light it emits. So try limiting the amount of time you spend on your screens.

Prepare low-effort and healthy meals

All of the following linked items are breakfasts and lunches you can make the day before. These recipes are pretty simple and take only 5-10 minutes to prep the day before.

Plus - we all know that American school lunches are nasty AND unhealthy. So you might as well make your own!

(Also don’t forget to click “Jump to Recipe” OR scroll directly to the bottom)

Breakfast ideas:

• Regular Overnight Oats
• Brownie Overnight Oats (For my fellow chocolate lovers 🥰)
• Chia Seed pudding
• Yogurt with cut fruit

Lunch ideas:

• Sandwich
• Salad
• Veggie wrap
• Avocado toast with veggies
• Baked veggies and a protein source

Strategies to wake up on time

Set up alarms

• If your alarm is on your phone, place it far enough from your bed that you have to get up to switch it off.
• Use unpleasant alarm sounds! Using sweet sounds like birds chirping will probably put you back to sleep, so choose alarms that are blaring and loud.
• And just in case you love the snooze button in the early morning, make sure to put MULTIPLE alarms in place.

Mindset

Even if you end up falling asleep at 3 A.M., tell yourself that you’re going to wake up energized and ready for the new day - regardless of how many hours you sleep. This is an integral idea in Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod, and might really help you out on the days you sleep late.

Want to start waking up earlier?

Just in case you need more time to do other things in the morning like workout or finish homework, you can gradually shave off 15 minutes each week. I can guarantee you that you won’t miss those 15 minutes, and over time you can work your wake-up time way up to an hour before or even two hours before if need be.

The actual morning

Drink Caffeine

If you're super tired in the morning, try making some coffee if you have time. If you don’t have time to actually drink it, you can put it into an insulated tumbler for your first class.

The Basic Schedule

Since you prepared the night before, you only have a few things to do in the morning:

(Not including other things that are important to you like homework, early morning sports practices, working out, etc.)

• Brush teeth
• 1-minute Cold shower OR Splash your face with COLD water
• Change
• Drink Water
• Eat breakfast (or grab and go!)
• Grab your lunch and backpack and GO!

Related Articles:

5 EASY Steps to Stop Procrastinating

How to stay Happy during the School year

How to create good Study Habits

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