Saturday, October 6, 2012

31 Days off Your Duff {Day 7} - Just Get Up!

Because I have a busy day today, and didn't plan ahead, today's post is going to be short and sweet. It's about the greatest struggle I have in my life:

Getting out of bed.

Everything else, I can shrug off or eventually find a way to deal with. Getting out of bed? That's a horrific, internal battle every single morning.

BUT! There is hope for people like you and me...

Just do it.

I know, this sounds like terrible advice, or not even advice... I've researched techniques or asked friends before, and I remember a lot of,

"You just have to make yourself do it!"
"Set your alarm for the same time every day!"
"Have a schedule you must adhere to!"

Hmm, helpful.

But you know what? One day not too long ago, I started doing just that.

My alarm would go off... and I just got up. Wow!

Tips

Well, I was going to give you my newfound wealth of tips to make this a little easier, and I looked it up online just to see if I was as smart as I feel.

Nope. Turns out GeekDad kinda beat me too it... a long time ago. Where was this article when I was searching for help?

Anyway, you can go check out his humorous post, but here is my list of tips as well.

Don't keep your alarm next to your bed.

When my alarm was right beside me, I could just turn it off and not realize I had even woken up. I moved it away from me, and that has definitely made things easier; its not as hard to keep from going back to bed, as it is to get out of bed.

However, I may be moving it even farther soon. My morning self has realized that she can kind of slither and stretch to reach the alarm without fully leaving the bed.

Sneaky woman.

Get your clothes ready beforehand

WOW, it was always stressful for me to stumble around, half-conscious, and pick out sane outfits. Once I finally got something together, usually 20 minutes had passed and I was already frustrated with my day.

Picking something out the night before is fun, takes 6 minutes, and I can look forward to wearing it when I wake up.

Tea

Ooh, tea. I love tea. With all that outfit-choosing time I've saved, I started making a little cup of tea in the mornings. It's important for me to have that tiny bit of alone time before I go to work, I've come to realize. And again, having something to look forward to makes getting up all that much easier.

Bathroom

This is where I was really laughing at GeekDad's post. He said he gets tons of reading done in the bathroom, and looks forward to doing so in the mornings.

I guess I do kind of the same thing. The bathroom is usually good for more time alone; half the time that's why I'm in there in the first place.

After I've gotten up, I'll give my eyes a few minutes to un-blur as I check the couple of things I need to on my phone. THEN, it's off for tea!

Exercise

This is my last tip, but it's a very important one. If you are like me, it can sometimes take hours to expel that tired feeling out of your head and muscles.

However, I've recently started exercising in the morning. The moment I turn off my alarm, I drop down and do 10 pushups. The rythmic moving tries to put me back to sleep again, but it loses out to the muscular wake-up call.

I will then do 10 reps of squats and one other miscellaneous exercise. Then, I start my tea water boiling, do 10 more reps of each, and it's off to the bathroom!

All Done

There you have it. This didn't turn out to be that short, but oh well.

As I've just given you all my morning wisdom, I have nothing exciting to say for the ending. It's up to you now!

Get off your duff and... well, just stay that way! No going back to bed!

6 comments:

  1. I so agree with everything you've posted here. A long time ago, I moved my alarm clock across the room...and I don't hit snooze and climb back in bed...no matter how tired I am. I turn it off and make my way to the bathroom. I've discovered something else that I cannot do without now...a one minute cold shower every morning. If I can withstand that I am ready for anything! It has really helped me with my morning fog and just plain lack of energy; I've been up for 5 minutes, but feel like I can conquer the world.

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    1. If I knew a cold shower was waiting for me, I would spend the rest of my life in bed.

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  2. I'm looking forward to changing the clocks. That first morning when I feel like I'm getting up at 7, but it's 6 on my clock... oh, I'm gonna do a happy dance!

    I do much better when my clock is far from the bed. I moved it back after cleaning a couple weeks ago, and I hit that snooze from 6 to 7:15 every morning... all the while my husband is hitting HIS snooze button for about 30 minutes also. We apparently are not bothered by annoying buzzers enough to get our butts out of bed.

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    1. Ohhh I love changing the clocks too. I always forget when that is though.

      Ha no, I am so not bothered by buzzers either. I even slept through a fire alarm once.

      This is why I should never live on my own.

      Hopefully you moved your alarm farther away again!

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  3. I am terrible for not getting out of bed in the morning! My alarm is as far from my bed as the cord will allow and I still get up, hit the snooze, and repeat 9 minutes later, minimum of twice a day!

    I really need to take your advice and "just do it". Maybe I should try the exercise thing...it can't hurt, right?

    Oh - no reading in the bathroom though or I'll be in there all day! ;)

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    1. No, exercising SHOULDN'T hurt, hopefully. ;)

      I couldn't take the "just do it" advice for a while... unfortunately, I'm not sure what changed. Just got tired of my rushed mornings I guess.

      But I know you can do it!

      By boyfriend stays in the bathroom for forever reading too...

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