Over 10 years after I broke the habit of hitting snooze every morning, I recently sat down to write out the exact steps and strategies I have used to sustain my practice of getting out of bed when the alarm goes off.
Repetition is the mother if insight, and over the years, I’ve continuously refined my approach in an effort to make this sustainable and foolproof.
As I reflect back on what works and doesn’t work, a clear differentiator jumps out at me. It has nothing to do with the specific steps or how I’ve set myself up the night before.
The differentiator exists outside of the strategy; it’s a pre-requisite:
You need a place to go and a target time to be there.
For me, that place is typically the gym. For others it might be the office or carpool or making a flight.
Will my strategy work without having a place to go?
Yes.
This strategy worked for me during the pandemic when gyms were closed and I was relegated to home-based workouts. But it was a lot more difficult and require a lot more discipline. I would often shut off the alarm, roll over, and go back to sleep.
Once out of bed, I would end up puttering before starting my workout.
Making a commitment to be at a certain place by a certain time helps pull me out of bed and keeps me moving without delays.
Some people may prefer a more leisurely approach to their mornings, and I usually allow myself one weekend morning when I adopt a slower pace.
But I have found that my “race” to get out the door helps kickstart the dopamine production that my brain needs to focus. This may be a particular need for my ADHD brain, but I’ve found that what works for people with ADHD often works for neuro-typical people as well.
This principle isn’t limited to a morning routine.
Hitting snooze is, at its core, a habit of procrastination.
Procrastination is often described as a problem of emotional regulation. There may be some truth to that, but I think it’s far more simple: it how we respond to a lack of clarity.
When you have clarity on where you’re going, what you need to do, and the timeline for getting it done, it becomes easier to get right into it and do it.
The key to getting started is to know where you’re going.
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