Hello evening people! Some people love waking up early, have great morning motivation, and the early bird catches the worm vibe, while others hate the thought of putting their alarm clock on before 8 am, those people are called evening people.
I am an evening person to the bone. As a child, I always thought it was too early to go to bed and got most active during the evenings, and this morning-hating vibe continued through high school and college.
Fast forward to work life where I and many others have no choice but to wake up early to start the day before or at last at 9 am.
I could use some tips to change myself into a morning person so I researched this topic and explored the internet for the best tips and tricks. I’ve tried many myself and would like to share them with you!
When you are an evening person, you will probably stay this way forever because it’s how you were born, but you can help yourself to fit into the working life a bit more easily.
Let’s try to wake up a little earlier while feeling a lot better!
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Morning Person vs Evening Person
Are you a morning or an evening person by nature? It’s all about your energy when you feel the most active, the most energized, and the most focused during the day.
I don’t think many people like waking up early, but for some people, it comes more naturally than for others. If you have an inner clock that lets you feel good, energized, and productive in the morning, you are probably a morning person. Morning people use most of their energy during the day and slow down in the evenings.
Evening people have more trouble waking up early and shouldn’t have to do this, because it’s against their nature, but most jobs need you to wake up early and be productive early in the morning. So I guess we have to find a way around it to not get sleep-deprived every day.
There is no good or bad, but morning people have it easier with what is expected from most jobs and work/school life when you look at the waking times.
So tips and tricks are very badly needed to get more morning motivation for the evening people out here! Let’s dive in.
13 Tips to Find Morning Motivation When You Hate Waking Up
1. Daylight to wake up
It feels so much better and so much more natural to wake up when it’s light outside. In spring and summer, this might be possible when the days are longer, so try it out. Open up your blinds a little when you go to sleep and let the daylight come into your bedroom in the mornings. It’s truly a much softer awakening.
When the days are dark and short, there are alternatives to real daylight but I don’t think they work as well as the real thing. But if you want to give it a go, I found this great daylight lamp used for light therapy that can help you feel more awake during the dark days in winter!
2. Figure out how many hours of sleep you need
If you want to feel well-rested in the morning, you need to know how many hours of sleep you need to feel this way. The hours you need might vary between 7-9 hours, this is what is normal for most people, but some exceptions need less sleep than that to feel good. Lucky bastards.
Your morning motivation highly depends on getting enough sleep throughout the night. Having a good night’s sleep is so important to feel good.
You can figure this out when you have some free time and don’t need to set an alarm to wake up every day but you need to do this for a period to see the true results. Look at the moment you naturally wake up every day and calculate how many hours you sleep you did have generally.
For me, this is about 8,5 hours of sleep, which is a lot, but I know I need this amount to be my best and most productive self during the day.
3. Change your sleep/wake schedule gradually
When you go to sleep on the weekends past midnight and wake up closer to noon than to the morning, it speaks for itself that it will be more difficult to wake up at an early hour on weekdays. That’s only logical.
It’s best to keep the same sleep/wake schedule throughout your week and weekend or at least don’t make too much of a difference during your weekends. With a sleep/wake schedule, I mean going to bed at the same time every night and waking up at the same time every day.
When you are used to sleeping in, set your alarm clock a quarter to half an hour earlier every day, until you get to your desired waking time. At first, you will find it more difficult to fall asleep at a reasonable hour at night, but when you get up early every day, you will naturally feel more sleepy at an earlier bedtime hour.
If you can keep this up, your body will start to wake up more naturally at the early hour that’s needed for work and it will feel better after some time.
But if you are not a morning person, it doesn’t make sense to wake up at 5 am, so don’t force yourself to. Try to find the latest acceptable hour to start work and get up early enough for that.
4. Drink coffee at the right times
When you just wake up, your body produces a hormone named cortisol which makes you feel more awake, so the moment you wake up, you might not need your cup of coffee immediately for the energy boost. You might not need a cup of coffee but you can drink it if it’s part of your morning ritual.
The best moment to drink coffee would be in the late morning, your cortisol levels begin to drop a bit and you can use a little bit of extra energy and focus.
Beware of not drinking too much coffee during the day, as this can interfere with your sleep at night and if you are already an anxious person, it could increase your anxiety levels as well.
Drinking coffee is a big morning motivation for me, as I love this beverage so much, I always look forward to this part of the morning.
5. Hydrate your body with a glass of water
Drinking a big glass of water as soon as you wake up, will help you to feel more awake pretty quick. Your mouth feels dry and sticky because you produce less saliva during the night so it will make you feel better and fresh to drink some water straight away.
Since you need to drink 1,5-2 liters of water a day to provide enough water for your body to function properly, it’s also a good idea to start drinking water from the moment you wake up.
The sooner you start, the sooner you’re done and then you don’t have to jug a liter of water before bedtime which can cause a bad night’s sleep because of all the overnight toilet visits.
6. Get a fun or non-annoying alarm
Is there such a thing as a fun alarm? I’m not sure. But I do know that there are plenty of alarms that go BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, and that are soooo annoying. It can get you in a bad mood instantly and ruin your morning motivation.
I have an alarm on my Garmin watch that just vibrates around my wrist instead of making noise and I like this a lot. It wakes me up so more gently than a loud alarm clock would do.
If you are looking for an alarm clock to put on your nightstand, this Amazon Echo Spot Smart Alarm Clock works great and has a beautiful minimalistic design!
You could also use your phone as an alarm clock and select a nice song instead of the ordinary beeps. However a legit warning, you might begin to hate the song because you associate it with waking up after a while.
7. Have something exciting to wake up to
Have something to look forward to every morning, this will help you immensely with your morning motivation.
This can be anything that gets you excited. A yummy breakfast, a nice cup of coffee, reading a few pages from a book or paper, watching an episode of your favorite show, listening to your favorite songs, walking in your garden feeding the birds, cuddling with your pet, etc.
Doing something you like is an act of self-care and will help you get more morning motivation.
8. Don’t snooze
It can be so tempting to use the snooze button, I know, but it isn’t in your best interest to do so.
When you use the snooze button and you fall back asleep, you will have to wake up again and go through the struggle all over again. You won’t feel better after hitting the snooze button 3 times or more and maybe now you are even running late for work and have to rush through your morning routine. How awful!
So, resist the temptation, or if your alarm allows it, you can set the function to snooze off entirely so you won’t be tempted to use it. It’s best to power through and listen to your alarm the first time it goes off.
9. Prepare the night before
When you are not a morning person, you should prepare yourself the best you can the night before so you won’t have to do some things in the morning and safe time to sleep longer. Create a productive evening routine to help with this.
Things like selecting your outfit and putting it out so you only have to dress yourself and prepare your breakfast and lunch for the next day if you can do this. You could also prepare your work bag and make sure that everything is ready for you to take off in the morning.
Taking a shower or bath in the evening also helps you save a lot of time in the mornings. Do what you can to give yourself the least amount of tasks when the morning comes.
10. Having a plan for the day
My morning motivation is non-existent if I don’t have anything planned, I just want to stay in bed all day if that’s the case. But if you planned too much for the day, you might also lack morning motivation because you just don’t want to get started on all these tasks.
Find the perfect balance between boredom and overwhelm. It’s nice to have a good plan for the day, achievable time frames, and now and then something fun to look forward to and to reward yourself for your hard work. Use a weekly planner to write down the tasks you want to achieve every day.
Try to plan activities during the times that fit you best, meaning if you are super productive later in the day, plan the harder things then and do some easier tasks when you have little to no energy. Use the time-blocking method to boost your productivity. You know what tasks need your full attention and which things you can do when you’re still a bit sleepy.
11. Take your time
An evening person needs more time to feel awake and focused in the morning. So it’s best to start your job as late as possible but to take your time in the morning to wake up properly, certainly if you need a lot of focus to do your job right (and if it’s a position with tons of responsibilities).
As mentioned previously, you should also have something to look forward to in the morning, and rushing out of the house just isn’t the most fun thing to do. Take your time to wake up, splash some cold water on your face, drink your coffee, do a little dance, and off you go.
You can also use your time commuting to wake up even more, especially with public transport as you don’t need to focus on driving.
12. Think about the benefits of waking up early
When you wake up early and start your day early, you also get to end your workday a lot earlier than when you would start late and waste that time sleeping in. You can get more done when you are off work early.
You also have more time to spend in daylight, which energizes you and when you have had a productive morning, you will feel more productive and successful than when you were lying around in bed.
13. Create a routine
Creating a morning routine and sticking to it will make your life so much easier. At first, you might need morning motivation, but when the routine kicks in, every step seems to go more automatically.
This routine starts from the moment your alarm clock goes off and you jump (or fall) out of bed.
When you have a great routine, you also know exactly how much time you need and you can try to be more efficient every day to save more time until your routine is optimized for your wants and needs.
A morning routine will also help you remember everything that needs to be done or taken with you to work, which will help if you are forgetful.
Conclusion
So that’s it! Plenty of tips to help you wake up earlier with less effort and struggle than you are used to!
When you are wired to be an evening person, you won’t turn into a morning person, but you can help yourself appreciate the mornings more and find some morning motivation when following these tips.
If it’s in your possibility, you can start your workday later than the usual 8-9 am to reap the most benefits of being an evening person. Unfortunately, most people can’t, so I hope you find the early mornings more tolerable with everything I listed above.
Let me know in the comments which tip works great for you or if you have more tips to add to this list! I’m sure every evening person will highly appreciate them! 🙂