If you wake up to a morning that isn’t 100% clear thoughts, smiles and motivation, you’re not alone. In fact, only one-third of all people surveyed consider themselves a “morning person,” according to Research House. However even for creatures of the night, the benefits of a motivated morning are hard to deny.
According to MedPage, “a new study has found that college students who consider themselves ‘morning people’ are more likely to have better grades than those who are ‘evening people’. In fact, the benefit of being a morning person was a full letter-grade difference.” So, whether you are a student or a 9–5 business professional, psyching yourself up to work awesome is crucial!
Prepare the Java
Standing in line at Starbucks is such a drag. Set your coffeemaker to brew before your alarm. You will wake up to the nice smell of coffee and have a perfect cup ready to go. If your coffeemaker doesn’t have the ability to auto-brew, it may to time to check out new ones.
WebMD states that people who drink coffee regularly “have fewer cases of certain cancers, heart rhythm problems, and strokes.” If that isn’t enough to psyche you up, I don’t know what is!
Set the Wake up Mood
Waking up in a peaceful and uncluttered location is one of the best feelings in the world. However, a messy, cluttered room makes for a messy cluttered head. You don’t want to wake up thinking, “Gosh, I need to clean my room.”
The best mornings are the ones where you don’t have a worry in the world. Set the ambiance in your room before you doze and you will be surprised how cleaning up a few socks and towels from the ground can clear your head and make your sleep better.
If you want to wake up with a fervent passion for life, put a motivational poster in your bathroom. During your morning shower, you will be able to think about what you can do during the day to better yourself.
“That One Song”
What song are you currently jammin’ to? Be careful in your song choice when setting your alarm. Don’t choose just anything that gets your body moving; choose a song that you aren’t afraid to get sick of (you don’t want to hate Bohemian Rhapsody for the rest of your life). That one song should be something that has a positive spirit, and is vaguely recognizable to you.
Phone Alarm
When setting your phone alarm, the section of the song, volume and mp3 format matter most. Each of your individual settings depends on the type of your phone; however you can edit your audio files to suit your needs with Audacity.
Audacity is an open source, free tool to edit and modify audio. Think about making a mash up of your two favorite songs, think: Eye of the Tiger meets Eminem. You should never wake up to a boring cell phone alarm again!
Computer Alarm
Setting an alarm on your computer is a potentially better option. For instance, you are allowed more flexibility in your wake up options; you can play Pandora, flash a bright screensaver, or blast a random track from iTunes. If you are a proud Mac owner, Alarm Clock Pro can be set to open any application. You can set it to play a YouTube video or Pandora, the possibilities are endless. Experiment with what works best for you.
Create a Habit
Formalizing something in to a habit in the morning can be a positive or negative thing. A bad habit is hitting the snooze button, and a good habit is waking up before the alarm to read your newspaper.
Create something that will positively impact your life and formalize it into a habit. I know someone who wakes up, and before touching his feet to the ground cranks out 25 pushups—he is the best morning person I’ve ever met!
Get to Work
Sitting in traffic on your way to work can be super frustrating. According to Businessweek, Harvard University public policy professor, Robert D. Putnam says, “the costs of commuting — in gas, congestion, pollution, sprawl — are high.
Commuting is also associated with raised blood pressure, musculoskeletal disorders, increased hostility, lateness, absenteeism, and adverse effects on cognitive performance.”
Get your commute under control! Go to Google Maps, and route out alternative directions ways to get to work. If your commute consists only of driving, leave 15 minutes early take the back roads, enjoy the scenery and get there on time!
If you are a hybrid commuter, taking some form of bus/train/taxi combo, think of ways to optimize your commute. If traffic is an issue, maybe it will save you 30 minutes every morning to leave an hour earlier? You could grab breakfast, hit up the gym or get some extra work done. There are easy ways to bypass the stresses of commuting.
—
How do you wake up to an awesome day every morning? Share your tips below.
Photo by alancleaver_2000 via Flickr
aWEsome DAy, how to wake up, songs that will wake you up, how to wake up at work, wake up and be awesome, how to make your day awesome, awesome songs to wake up to, an awesome day
Discussion