
Tricks for Getting Out of Bed in the Morning - peter123
http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2009/02/10-tricks-to-ge.html
======
rads
I don't get much from productivity "tricks". I get excited for a little while,
but the excitement wears off a week, maybe a few days later, and I'm back
where I started.

The best long-term advice I know is to just do it fucking now. If you have to
get up, then get out of the bed and get ready, whether you feel like it or
not. It's not what you wanted to hear, but maybe you'll feel better hearing it
from Paul Graham:

"But if you're trying to choose between two theories and one gives you an
excuse for being lazy, the other one is probably right."

~~~
timcederman
Couldn't agree more, although some of the suggestions make sense.

The best way to get out of bed, and to make it easier, is to have something
decent to get out of bed for, and to know that the night before (point 6).

Flight I need to be up at 6am for? No problem getting up at 5.

Exciting day at work? Up at 8 no worries.

Also recognize your internal body clock's desired times (which I suppose is
point 1). 1am-9am is my preferred sleep time, and although I can temporarily
get around it, it's easier to adapt my schedule. Who wants to feel tired all
the time?

------
jrockway
I don't really understand the obsession with getting up in the morning. When
everyone else is awake, they just distract me into not working. When everyone
is asleep, it's dark out, and everything is closed, there's nothing to do but
work.

I can't think of one useful thing I've ever done during the day, actually...

~~~
josefresco
Since you're now asleep, I'm free to trash your comment here and accuse you of
all sorts of bad behavior, and I have 12 hours to get away with it :)

------
tdavis
The _real_ trick is to never have to get out of bed in the morning.

~~~
kqr2
Descartes was accustomed to working in bed until noon.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descartes>

~~~
zer0
Even in his portrait René Descartes looks somnolent.

------
prakash
couple of steve pavlina articles on the same topic:

[http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/05/how-to-become-an-
ea...](http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/05/how-to-become-an-early-riser/)

[http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/04/how-to-get-up-
right...](http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/04/how-to-get-up-right-away-
when-your-alarm-goes-off/)

------
comatose_kid
Have young children.

~~~
josefresco
Yeah I laughed when I saw the headline, thinking to myself "some people need
_tricks_ to get out of bed?, how silly". My daughters wake up at 6:30 every
morning, that means I'm up too no matter what. Problem solved.

~~~
sethg
I take my four-year-old to preschool in the morning, which means I have to
wake _him_ up so he can get dressed and have breakfast in time to catch the
bus. Which means I have to get up before he does.

On weekends, the boy stays in bed until 8:00. Unfortunately, his brothers do
not follow his example.

------
danohuiginn
Morning news on the radio works for me. Within 15 minutes, there's guaranteed
to be something infuriating enough to make me leap out of bed in an angry
funk.

~~~
RK
I like to listen AM talk radio to keep me awake on long road trips for the
exact same reason.

------
paul7986
Does anyone else here use a computer desktop or online alarm clock, like the
author?

 __Note/disclaimer Im curious because this is my start-up's field.

~~~
gommm
I used to with software called awaken but I stopped ever since my macbook's
fan started to spin all the time... I love silence when sleeping and fan
noises go against that

~~~
doctor
Awaken is great, it gets me up every morning. You can put your Macbook to
sleep and Awaken will wake it up, so you can have it turned off during the
night. You can get it at <http://www.embraceware.com/products/awaken/>

------
kicker
I'm surprised everyone here dances around the issue rather than using brute
force.

I own 4 alarm clocks, which I set to go off at 5 minute intervals. I also
stuff small wads of paper into the alarm on-off switch, to force myself to use
the snooze button. 20 minutes from the first alarm, I have 4 alarms going off
a few seconds apart.

~~~
jskopek
I'd hate to be your S/O

------
snprbob86
Reading on the toilet can cause you to spend way more time on the toilet than
you really should. Bad things can happen, especially if you have a family
history of digestive problems. I'll spare you all the medical details and
obligatory puns: Google it yourself.

------
jamii
What helped me most was having food easily available. I always have oat-shakes
ready in the fridge to minimise the amount of time between the alarm going off
and having enough blood sugar to think rationally.

------
drewcrawford
Had to become a morning person this semester (early classes). My tactics are
twofold:

Coffee by the bed. Literally within about two feet. I'm a little crazy, so
I've hacked my coffee machine together, but programmable store-bought stuff
works too.

iPhone by the bed. It's really bright, I hold it a few inches from my face and
start going through my RSS reader. Gets my mind in gear and my pupils to
contract.

~~~
krav
I bought one of those pod coffee machines. Set it up next to my alarm clock.
(In theory), when I stumble over to my alarm clock to shut it off, I just hit
the button on the machine and my coffee is ready in 4 seconds.

Usually, by the time I get up to snooze it a second time, the coffee is
sitting there, smelling all coffee-like (yummy). That's my Pavlovian trick.

------
flashgordon
actually i am more of a stick person (though not always)... so i find that
reminding myself of a failure motivates... especially when its 5AM and
freezing - the reminder of having to spend all my hours at a sucky job and not
doing anything useful, just springs me out onto my laptop!!! and not to
mention the "zone" is just brilliant...

------
rektide
Light is the only thing thats done it for me, ever. In high school I made
myself get up and turn on a light, which was permission to go back and lie on
the bed for another 15 minutes. Without light, I've never been able to get up.

The funny part is I sometimes forget this for extended periods of time and
suffer awfully trying to get up in the morning.

~~~
narag
Skin has light receptors that help the body changing states. It helped me a
lot to find out this.

------
davidw
The low tech version that was supposedly used by native americans was to drink
a lot of water the night before. I agree with "comatose_kid" though - young
children are a great way to get up early - my alarm goes off at 7:15, but our
daughter usually goes off about 20 minutes before hand.

------
kqr2
Here's an interesting list of alarm clocks that might help:

[http://www.uberreview.com/2006/03/top-ten-most-annoying-
alar...](http://www.uberreview.com/2006/03/top-ten-most-annoying-alarm-
clocks.htm)

------
mynameishere
Sleep on the floor. Bang. You're out.

~~~
blackguardx
Actually this is pretty good advice. I can pretty much sleep anywhere, floors
included. When I wake up in bed, the warmth and comfort prevents me from
leaving. When I wake up from sleeping on the floor however, I want to leave
because it isn't very comfortable.

------
HeyLaughingBoy
Reasons to get out of bed early:

1\. Young child as stated earlier 2\. Dog that needs to go out NOW or will
crap on the floor. 3\. Sunlight streaming in through the East-facing window.
Bonus if it's a subzero morning and I'm curious if there are sundogs. 4\.
Roosters crowing reminding me chickens want to be let out(I live on a farm).
5\. Wife still too sleepy to be in the mood.

After all this I usually just yell at child(1) to put dog(2) outside and roll
over and go back to sleep until wife(5) is awake enough :-)

------
teuobk
Get to the shower as quickly as possible. I find that I tend to snooze or go
back to sleep if I don't immediately get out of bed and go directly to the
shower when my alarm goes off. If I give myself any time to think about it,
any time at all, I can usually rationalize another 10-60 minutes of sleep, and
then I'm done for.

On a similar note, I always place my alarm clock on the opposite side of the
room, which forces me to get out of bed to stop the noise.

------
dcheong
I've previously written two popular articles on the same topic which may also
be helpful:

[http://www.davecheong.com/2007/06/15/waking-up-
early-15-tips...](http://www.davecheong.com/2007/06/15/waking-up-
early-15-tips-that-work/)

[http://www.davecheong.com/2006/06/14/waking-up-early-and-
con...](http://www.davecheong.com/2006/06/14/waking-up-early-and-
consistently/)

------
DTrejo
These help me with early wake-ups (3:00am):

* My pre-alarm goes off 15 minutes early. After this alarm, I start thinking and worrying about what I need to do. When the real alarm sounds I'm ready to jump out of bed.

* I don't use the bathroom in the morning when I'm sleepy. A full bladder helps me stay awake.

* I nap whenever I can't work.

------
TrevorJ
My problem with the "going to bed when tired" suggestion is that I've found
that the most effective way to manage my ADD is to do most of my productive
work after a long day because by then my brain has settled down enough to
allow for extended periods of concentration.

------
Goladus
1\. Don't drink coffee, ever. Don't drink alcohol, or use any other drugs that
mess with sleep.

2\. Sleep in a room with lots of morning sunlight.

3\. Don't use an alarm clock unless you have a hard deadline you absolutely
can't miss.

4\. Plan your day the night before, at least in your head.

5\. Find a breakfast you enjoy.

------
peregrine
Best thing I do is wake up and go to the bathroom or shower. I mean showering
is practically sleeping anyways, white noise, quiet, warmth. Your just
verticle for it.

------
DannoHung
Here's my method:

1) Remove sheets 2) Move to an upright position 3) Place feet on ground 4)
Stand up

Now, if anyone could help me with falling asleep again in the shower...

------
time_management
If you have a programmable thermostat, set it to drop to 64 around bedtime and
rise to 72 when you want to wake up.

~~~
gnaritas
Why?

~~~
quantumhobbit
This really does work. On a cold day my inclination is to stay underneath the
covers. I've even gotten my laptop and read e-mail from quite often.

It may also be biological. Rising temperature indicates that the sun is coming
up and the day is starting. On the same idea light helps. Turning on the
lights can wake me up, but natural sunlight coming through the blinds is even
better.

