Buster Benson I need more goals.
My morning routine has sort of fallen apart. Oops. Help! So I’m going to try another tactic and work on my waking up skills.
I’m pretty good at waking up already, but I think I could be a whole lot better. I think the area that needs the most work is the “getting out of bed” phase. Once I’m out, I’m golden. But getting out is the problem. Over time, my wake up strategy has evolved into a bit of an embarrassment. I have two alarms on my clock set at, respectively, 90 minutes before I have to wake up and 45 minutes before I have to wake up. The snooze routine is a celebration of procrastination. To top it off, just in case, downstairs I have an alarm on my computer to start playing the radio at an irritating volume 60 minutes before I wake up. All of these sounds represent a symphony of wake up calls… all equally effective.
I think the faulty thinking is that it requires SOUND to wake me up. If I have trouble waking up, double down on MORE SOUND. What I need to do is work on the wiring between wake up signals and ACTUALLY WAKING UP.
So, to this end, I’m going to bring the waking up ritual back to its basics and solve the problem where it actually exists.
- I’m going to remove all but the simplest of sounds. One alarm, and no radio.
- No snoozing, so the alarm will be set at the exact moment I want to wake up.
- I’m going to wake up and scream the first thing that’s on my mind. No going back.
The screaming is just for fun… but I tried it this morning and I think I screamed “FUCK THIS WAKING UP BUSINESS!” And that actually seemed to do the trick.
Andy Warhol used to call someone every morning and have a short conversation with them. I might start doing that. So, if you get an early morning call from me in the next couple days or weeks, consider yourself special.
If this helps get me back on track, then I’ll re-integrate the rest of my morning routine. Baby steps baby.
