efbee

It’s been three weeks and I still haven’t done this. I still think it’s a good idea and something I want to try, but I haven’t had the motivation so far.

Maybe I’ll get around to this eventually…

Spending time on the computer is easily my favorite thing to do, so I’m fortunate to have a job where this is how I spend my time. But I want to try having a computer-free weekend and see how it fits. Should be an interesting experiment.

So, uh… What else is there to do? I need ideas.

And I don’t mean just once. For the past couple weeks, my success rate in this area has been extraordinarily high. I had a hard time marking this “Worth it” because, yea, in the morning I definitely like my bed.

I do think the pros outweigh the cons, though. Getting up with the alarm gives me an extra sense of control of my day that I didn’t have before. Hitting snooze until you reach “oh-crap-i’m-late” throws you headlong into the day without any chance to collect yourself; getting up at some pre-specified time provides a nice transition time. Also, somehow I’ve gotten the impression that getting up early is a common behavior of highly successful people; maybe effective utilization of this extra time should be my next goal.

I’ve tried for a very long time to wake up when the alarm goes off, and I feel like actually accomplishing this is a very big deal for me. The key to making this happen was more or less just visualization. Before I go to sleep, I imagine the sequence of hearing my alarm sound, immediately shutting it off and standing up, and feeling accomplished and ready to attack the day. I repeat this visualization a few times, creating 3-way association with the alarm sound, the act of jumping out of bed and standing up, and the feeling of having accomplished something and being off to a good start. I try to actually feel that feeling of accomplishment while I’m doing this visualization and creating this association, and I really think that’s been the most important component. Works for me…