How (and Why) to Become a Morning Person in College

Welcome to the second post in our #ptmclass – the free productivity and time management (PTM) workshop that I’m co-hosting with Kayla Blogs and Dani Dearest! For the month of October, Kayla, Dani, and I will be improving our productivity and time management together and help you do the same. Now that “prep week” is over, we are making the most out of our mornings together! Read on to find out how and why to become a morning person in college!

I believe in early mornings. A good, early morning can set the tone for a great day. A peaceful morning can leave you feeling well-rested all day long. A productive morning can put you in a great mood for hours. A healthy morning can make you feel awesome until you go to bed.

Imagine if the first few hours of your day were that happy, healthy, productive, and peaceful – every single day! It’s possible, even for college students with our random schedules and occasional lack of self-control. Here’s what you and I can both do to become morning people. (And yes, I will be struggling right alongside you this week – I woke up at 10:24 today.)

Scale back your bed time

So, you want to be a morning person. That means waking up earlier, which means going to bed earlier. Of course, a change like that can’t happen from one day to the next – the only way to do it in a way that’s sustainable is to take baby steps. I will be starting by going to bed 15 minutes earlier every night, and waking up 15 minutes earlier every morning. My ultimate wake-up goal is between 5 and 6:30, depending on what makes the most sense for my bed time. Rather than jumping straight to that, I’ll be scaling back over time, no matter how long it takes.

Have a morning routine

This is something I care so much about! I would love to one day have as productive a morning routine as Courtney from As We Stumble Along. Something so intense seems a little extreme for my own life, but I definitely admire it! Personally, I think having a morning routine consisting of few different elements like fitness, school work, and mindfulness would work best for me.

Make a reward for yourself

Coffee! Tea! An outfit that makes you feel good! Find a small reward that will get you excited about starting your day. I’ll be starting each morning with peppermint tea or a phone call with the boyfriend to get me out of bed. Finding something that makes you want to get up will make the getting-up process a lot easier!

Avoid bright screens at night

This one will be hard for me! Ken and I tend to call on the phone late at night, so using the phone can sometimes keep me up longer because the bright screens convince my brain that it’s daytime. Not using my phone for an hour or so before I go to bed will be hard, but it will make me sleep better and fall asleep more quickly. That, in turn, will make it easier for me to get up!

Why take all these steps to become a morning person? Ultimately I want to use that morning time to be more productive and start my day off with a positive and happy time. The average American woman lives to be  81 years old. That’s around 29,500 days. 29,500 mornings. 29,500 chances to start the day right.

I’ll be waking up just a little earlier tomorrow morning so I can do just that. Will you?