Two Simple Alarm Hacks To Start Your Day Without Hitting Snooze

Waking up in the morning is the first battle of the day. The convenience of hitting snooze or turning off the alarm and going back to bed is very tempting.

You want to sleep more by hitting the snooze button, but sometimes you hate yourself for doing it. The time you use up to snooze is the extra time you wish you had to get up and start your day, especially if you are trying to get somewhere, like to work on time.

One simple trick that I have found that has increased my odds of waking up and starting my day without hitting snooze is putting my alarm clock outside my bedroom.

I used to use my phone or Google Home as my alarm clock, both beside my bed. This made it easy to hit snooze and go back to bed since I didn't have to get up.

With my alarm clock right outside my bedroom, I now have to get up and turn it off, and at that point, I am closer to the bathroom, where I can start getting ready for the day.

I recommend buying a dedicated alarm clock for this. I purchased a portable battery-powered alarm clock, shown below, that I can place anywhere in my place, no matter if an electrical outlet is nearby.

This is an alarm clock that I can use at my place and take with me when spending the night somewhere else where I would like to wake up at a specific time.

Set a bedtime alarm

In addition to setting up an alarm clock outside your bedroom, I recommend setting an alarm on your phone or other device that will go off to let you know that you should start getting ready to go to bed.

I am not always successful in following through with it, but it has helped create a trigger to guide me in the direction I want to go.

Setting a bedtime alarm will help nudge you toward getting to bed on time so you can get the hours of sleep you are trying to get.

Example

Goal:

• You want to get 7 hours of sleep
• You want to wake up at 5:15 AM
• You want to get an hour in the evening to close out the day and to get ready for bed

System:

1. To get 7 hours of sleep, you want to be in bed by 10 PM
2. You set a bedtime alarm clock on your phone at 9 PM to remind you to get ready for bed
3. Once you hear the bedtime alarm go off, you wrap up what you were doing and start getting ready for bed
4. You set an alarm for 5:15 AM and place it outside your bedroom
5. When you wake up in the morning, get out of bed, turn off your alarm, and visualize how better you will feel for starting your day and not hitting snooze.

Conclusion

Waking up and getting started with your day is the day's first battle. Overcoming it will help you start your day with a small win, building positive momentum.

Create barriers that make following the path of least resistance less convenient, i.e., hitting snooze and returning to bed. These barriers are your guardrails that will help you align what you say you want to do with the actions that you do.