How do those early birds rise with the sun? Erik Krueger is here to help you get the worm.

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Bio – Erik is the founder of BetterMan, a website dedicated to high performance living. He has formal training as a physical therapist and lives to inspire and motivate people to live life in full measures.

You can read and even hear about the benefits of being a morning person echoed all over the Internet. Such expressions as “the early bird catches the worm” reflect the benefits of being an early riser.

What if you are just not a morning person?

What you first need to realize is that you will never “become” a morning person. You will merely become someone who does not dislike mornings as much as you did before. When you understand the value of the extra time that waking up early affords you, you will love mornings.

As with almost everything in life, you need to plan to be successful. Anything is achievable if you have the right motivation and focus. So, let’s dive straight into this subject.

1. Define your reason

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of this step. Waking up early simply because you have seen other top performers do it will get you nowhere. You need to define exactly what it is that will move you out of your comfort zone.

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Your alarm alone will not be enough to get you going in the morning. The drive has to come from deep inside. It has to beat in your chest and leave you wanting to get out of bed to accomplish something and be productive.

2. Start the night before

If you are changing the time you wake up, you will need to change the time you go to bed. Your body is used to a certain amount of rest. You will already feel lethargic and tired when you shift into your new routine. You should not compound this feeling with insufficient rest.

So if you currently sleep for seven hours a day, then be sure to stick to that schedule. Move your bedtime back to allow for a full night’s rest.

3. Do it in increments

When I initially tried waking up earlier, I failed horribly. Why? Because I tried to wake up two hours earlier right away.

Waking up earlier in increments is a much better strategy. Even when you follow this plan, though, do not rush it.

I recommend that you try to wake up earlier in increments of 15 to 30 minutes per week. So, if you are currently getting up at 7 a.m., then for a week get up at 6:30 a.m. Then get up at 6 a.m. the next week and so forth.

The trick, though, is to adopt an early sleep pattern. Do not move your sleeping time in increments too.

4. Focus on your quality of sleep

Have you ever noticed how well rested you feel after spending a night in a hotel? Although there could be many reasons for this feeling, such as a fully stocked bar fridge, the holiday you are spending thousands of dollars on, and the time you’re away from work, what is especially pertinent is that your quality of sleep is better because of such factors as less noise and the room being darker than your bedroom at home.

How you can improve your quality of sleep:

Make your room as dark as possible

Switch off electronics an hour before bedtime

Meditate

Drink ZMA

Avoid caffeine after 2 p.m.

5. Skip the snooze button

The snooze button is your enemy. As we have drive and purpose for waking up early, don’t postpone it.

6. Move your phone/alarm

If you really lack willpower, then move your phone a few yards away from your bed, and be sure you have the most irritating alarm known to man.

You will then be forced to wake up and get up to shut off the blaring alarm before you punch a hole through your bed.

7. Nap in the afternoons

While your body initially adjusts, you might find yourself tired in the afternoons. It is OK to go ahead and have a nap, but keep it short.

The trick to napping successfully is to keep it under 20 minutes because you want to avoid entering deep sleep. Once you do that, it will be harder to wake up, and you will feel lethargic and possibly even more tired when you do.

Napping too much will also affect you when you’re ready to go to bed, as you might feel very rested when night rolls around.

8. Do not indulge over the weekend

You might be tempted to sleep in over the weekend, but it could destroy everything you have put into place during the week. Sleeping in for an hour or so is harmless provided you maintain the same bedtime schedule. But let’s be realistic. Weekends are for fun, and you do not want to be tied to a specific bedtime and even less so to a ridiculous alarm schedule.

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The solution?

Be strong. I have learned over time that my natural clock favors getting up early. Accordingly, even if I go to bed late, I still wake up rather early. To counter weekends, though, I have scheduled a “cheat day” for myself.

Every Thursday I wake up an hour later, which serves two purposes:

Mentally, it makes it easier to accept three days of getting up early followed by a rest day and then one more day of getting up early. It gives my body a break and recharges my batteries a bit.

As I mentioned in the beginning, you will never become a true morning person. I hope, however, that these tricks will help you wake up earlier and lead to positive changes in your life.

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Photo: docoverachiever/Flickr