In order to feel more like an Accomplished Adult, I have decided to start getting up earlier in the mornings. This would have been a better resolution if I hadn’t made it right after a holiday weekend in which I stayed up until the early am’s (reverting to my natural sleep patterns). So I’m counting 7 am as a success, since I spent most of the night trying to convince my brain that no really, I was going to work tomorrow. *yawn*

One of my favorite posts from Zen Habits is How I Became an Early Riser and the one point I took to heart was that you have to have a good reason to get up. I can (and have) slept through alarms in different rooms, I don’t do well with going to bed before I’m sleepy, and if I don’t make drastic changes… then my normal wake-up time is only a snooze button away.

So I’ve got to find a motivation to get up earlier than I need to for work– Something more appealing than hitting the snooze.

I thought about the things I’ll be able to do with the extra time, but honestly hitting the treadmill and cleaning are about as palatable an alternative to napping as mud is to chocolate. I need either something that was so much fun that I can’t wait to wake up in the morning, or something so scary that I’d never let it happen– like missing work. Since I couldn’t come up with a way to simulate the release of Starcraft II every morning, I turned to fear.

Thus I came up with my master plan…

I wrote a really stupid blog post, a really really stupid blog post. I scheduled it for 8am and went to bed.

This morning I got up at 7 am as planned, because I knew that if I didn’t get up and get some diet coke in me there was no way I was writing a replacement post before 8 am. This may not have been the best plan I’ve ever had (and may not be the best post I’ve ever written), but it got me out of bed and writing.

And now I’ve scheduled it again for tomorrow. At 7:00am.

This should be an interesting week…

Other Posts From Other Folks on Early Rising

• Steve Pavlina How to Become an Early Riser
• Glen Stansberry 24 Tips To Becoming An Early Riser
• Seth Simonds 5 Tips For Becoming An Early Riser
• Clocky (hehehe)