Gain Motivation, Lose Procrastination
Dragging yourself out of bed in the morning and getting on with your day is incredibly difficult, no, nearly impossible, for some people. I am one of those people. On top of that, I am an expert level procrastinator. However, depressing as it is, I have found that getting up early helps me to get more things accomplished. So, here are a few of the things I do to help me get motivated in the groggy mornings without procrastinating my day away.
1) Set your alarm according to your natural sleep cycle.
Everyone has certain amounts of time during the night/morning when they are in a heavier or lighter sleep period. If you set your alarm during one of the lighter sleep periods, it will be MUCH easier to get up in the morning. If you don't know when those times are you can use an app that will track it for you or you can learn it from trial and error and seeing if you repeatedly feel more tired or awake when you wake up at specific times.
2) Plan something you enjoy first thing in the morning.
This doesn't have to be an event or anything drastic. In fact, it's probably better if it's something of a relaxed nature to help you slowly wake up (but not relaxing enough that you go back to sleep). Personally, I like to get up and make a cup of tea and practice my French on Duolingo. Usually, I'll grab a granola bar to go along with it as a light easy breakfast.
~Side note: washing your face as soon as you wake up can also help to make you more alert~
3) Go to bed at a reasonable time.
This point in particular is important, but the most annoying. I would prefer to stay up until one in the morning watching my favorite show, but getting in a good eight hours of sleep IS more important I suppose. I've found it to be extremely helpful to wash your face, brush your teeth, and complete the rest of your nighttime routine before getting in bed to watch any shows. This way, when you get tired you can just shut your laptop and go to bed rather then having to get up; which then makes you less tired. It also helps to watch or read something more relaxing closer to the time you want to fall asleep that way you aren't as invested in the show or book.
So, those are some ways to get motivated when you are waking up, but how can you avoid procrastinating once you get going?
4) Make a to-do list, but include small seemingly insignificant things to quickly mark off.
This will encourage you as it makes you feel more productive. Also, once you actually start marking things off the list it will be easier to move on to the harder tasks. Most people say to get all of the tasks you hate out of the way first, but I find it works better to start small and move up to help avoid getting overwhelmed which then leads to procrastination.
5) Set break times to look forward to.
I usually take a break from sitting at my desk at around 1 in the afternoon to make a lunch and watch an episode of a show or do something fun.
What do you do to avoid procrastinating? How do you keep the momentum of motivation?
