Transcript - AI Generated
The Importance of Going to Bed Earlier
[0:18] Okay, in the last episode I told you six reasons why you should be getting up at 5am.
So today I'm going to give you seven tips for a successful 5am morning.
Morning so this is yeah it's one thing to know why you should be getting up another thing to go how do i go about making sure that this morning process is actually successful for me so tip number one very obvious go to bed earlier okay if you are going to start waking up at 5 a.m you can't be staying up to midnight okay you should not be functioning off five hours sleep you want to make sure you're dedicating enough time for seven and a half to eight hours sleep is ideal for you as a human being as an adult right you want to be getting that there's research that shows if you get too much more than that you're actually going to wake up tighter right if you get less than that you're going to wake up tired so that's what you're aiming for is that kind of seven and a half to eight hours of sleep so you need to go to bed basically by about 9 30 10 o'clock at the latest to get your seven and a half hours to eight hours of sleep next is to use the 10-3-2-1-0 formula.
The 10-3-2-1-0 Formula for a Successful 5am Morning
[1:27] Now, you don't have to memorise that, but it's 3-2-1-0 with a 10 at the beginning.
The way it works is basically no caffeine, 10 hours before you go to bed.
[1:39] That's just to make sure it's essentially not out of your system, but lower in your system, and it's not going to have a huge impact on your sleep.
You also want to have no food or alcohol three hours before you go to bed because that can disturb your digestive system and give you a shallower form of sleep.
Alcohol particularly is going to impact your sleep. It's not as good a quality.
You'll fall asleep faster and easier but the quality of the sleep is a lot lower if there's alcohol in your system then two hours before you go to bed you want to make sure you're not doing any work okay so don't work two hours before bed you want to have kind of a shutdown routine maybe instead where you're like okay i'm done this is my list of what i'm going to do tomorrow.
[2:18] And i've shut down this i'm not working anymore today two hours before bed and then no screens one hour before bed is really important too you want to get off your phones stop watching netflix and stuff one hour before bed sit there being some darkness maybe or being low light so you're going to read a book in bed for an hour before you go to sleep and then the zero is basically the zero is for you never never use snooze that's that's what the zero is so 10 hours no caffeine three hours no food or alcohol two hours no work one hour no screens and then zero times of using snooze and the reason for that is that when you first wake up to your alarm or whatever your body releases some hormones that help you to wake up and to be awake if you then tell your body nope I'm not getting up I'm going to start going back to sleep your body then readjusts and starts sending the hormones that you need to go back to sleep and that makes you more tired when you get out of bed so you snooze and then you know you might snooze a few times let's say 15 minutes later you're out of bed that's giving your body 15 minutes to start trying to get it's trying to get you to go to sleep but you keep waking up and it sends more and more of the hormones that are causing you to be tired and hopefully putting you to sleep and so when you eventually get out of bed you're actually more tired than you would have been if you had have actually.
[3:43] Just gotten up when the alarm went off in the first place so never ever use snooze that's our 10 3 2 1 0 formula.
Make a Plan the Night Before for a Productive Morning
[3:53] Tip number three is to make a plan the night before as to how you're going to use your time in the morning.
Now, this will actually get you excited. This is what you might do.
You know, no work two hours beforehand.
So you're going to sit down and you're going to write a list in that two hours of what you're going to do in the morning when you wake up.
And so it can be, right, I'm going to get up and the first thing I do is do my exercise. I'm going to have a coffee.
Then I'm going to sit down and here's the three bits of work that I want to do.
I'm going to meditate on this or something whatever it is right you might I'm going to read a chapter of this book as well in the morning so you outline what you're going to do with your morning before you go to bed so that when you wake up you actually don't have to think about it you just go right this is what I'm doing sweet and it also gets you excited the night before because you're like oh I can't wait to get that done I I'm often excited as I go to bed I'm like I can't wait to the morning I'm going to be doing this and this and this and it's going to be great it's It's going to get me well and truly on my way to where I want to be.
So that is our third tip.
Make that plan the night before. It'll help you to have a good night's sleep.
It'll help you to get up excited in the morning and also make sure you utilise that morning as best as you can.
The fourth tip is to automate what you can.
[5:07] So basically, this kind of comes out of the atomic habits thing.
So when you're trying to create new habits, you want to make things as easy as possible.
And so you're basically taking the path of least resistance.
And you will always be your body wants to your brain wants to take you on whatever path is the least resistance and so if you for example want to go to the gym and you want to start to create a habit of going to the gym every day okay you will do a lot better job of getting to the gym let's say you're going to do the gym in the morning right we're talking about morning routine so okay we're going to go to the gym in the morning if you go to sleep in your activewear ready for the gym with your shoes right next to the bed so that when you wake up in the morning you slip on your shoes your drink bottle is full already right your bag is packed for the gym so you just get up and pick up that bag and you go to your car and off you go path of least resistance whereas if you wake up and you're like where is my gym clothes i'm going to find my gym clothes i'll wear my shoes wear up at my keys i'm going to pack my bag fill up my drink bottle right you're less likely to do that because it's not the path of least resistance the path of least resistance on that okay and with that is if you get up is to sit on the couch or let's not get up at all.
[6:22] So you want to automate as much as you can. Have your clothes ready. Have water ready.
Have whatever it is that you're doing ready, okay? So if you're going to be working in the morning, have your computer set up. Have it ready to go.
You might even have the things open that you're going to be working on so that when you sit at your desk, you're not distracted by other things that are going to come up. Don't check your emails first.
Don't ever check your emails in a 5 a.m. morning routine. That's like a big no-no.
In the first chunk of your day, you do the things that matter most.
You do the 20% tasks that have the biggest impact. packed that's what you want to do first thing in the morning and that can be your professional development type stuff it can be your exercise your health it can be your family it can be food.
[6:58] Be all kinds of stuff but you want to focus on that not doing things for other people getting distracted by emails so automate things make it as simple and straightforward as possible if you want to have a coffee make sure everything's ready to go that your coffee beans are ground already that they're ready maybe you should turn on the coffee machine and press the button and it spits it out i remember staying at someone's place and they had a coffee machine that would make a coffee on the timer and so they can just say at 5 a.m there'll be a coffee made and so before they go to bed they just put the coffee there they go to bed they wake up at five o'clock they walk out there's a freshly made coffee from the machine right there for them okay so that is tip number four right that's four tips so far so going to bed earlier the 10-3-2-1-0 formula making a plan the night before automating what you can the fifth tip is to throw out your excuses all right don't god it's not going to work or i'm going to be too tired or whatever just throw them out get up and get stuck into things okay nothing will slow you down more than excuses you don't want to be living your life based on excuses but you want to be living your life and achieving things and being.
Overcoming excuses and setting up for a successful morning
[8:05] Someone who makes progress and is having the impact that they want and enjoying things and this sets you up right if you have a successful 5 a.m morning you are set up well for the rest of of your day and it's going to compound over a long period of time, right? So let's chuck out those excuses.
Don't stay in bed and go, oh, I stayed up too late or I'm tired or just get up.
As soon as that alarm goes off, up you get and you'll find it a lot easier to do the rest of your morning.
Tip six, start with something that you absolutely love.
So the first thing that you do in the morning should be the thing that you are most excited about.
So when you wake up, you're like, oh yes, I'm going to be doing this.
So if you love going for runs, then that's the the first thing you do in the morning you wake up shoes on and go for a run or maybe you love sitting down and reading a good book so you wake up in the morning first thing you're doing reading a good book okay put the thing that you love most as the first thing it will help motivate you and excite you to get up and do uh have a great morning that morning and then the last tip that i have for you to make a successful 5 a.m morning is to tell people about it all the time and that That may make you feel like you're going to be an annoying person to people, but.
Share your 5 a.m routine to make it stick
[9:13] Make it so that the people around you know that you're a 5 a.m person okay most of the people in my life know that i get up at 4 30 and that's when i normally do my work they all know that and i actually have people ask me all the time how's your how's your mornings going what are you doing in your mornings at the moment and i get to chat about the things that are exciting me in my mornings right the things that i love doing and that helps me get motivated but what the other thing it does is it helps it stick for me it helps it turn into a habit for me because i've started to attach it to my identity i've started to say i am an early morning person i am a person who gets up who gets things done before anyone else does and who is on top of life as everyone else is waking up and that is who i like to be i've made that who i am other people know and hold me accountable basically because they're going to ask and i'm like if you know my friend vanessa if she asked me and i don't have an answer to her i'm like oh no i haven't been doing it this morning i feel like a bit of a hypocrite because i encourage people like i am now i'm encouraging encouraging people to get up early because it helps them to be successful.
It helps them to be efficient. It helps them to be effective.
[10:17] And that's what you do when you start to tell people is you're holding yourself accountable basically and setting it up and attaching it to who you are.
Stop saying that you're not a morning person.
Switch your language. I am a morning person. I can be a morning person.
If you're not a morning person, then you're not a morning person yet right and growth mindset there so they're my tips seven tips for a successful 5 a.m morning go to bed earlier use the 10-3-2-1-0 formula make a plan automate as much as you can throw out your excuses start with the thing that you absolutely love first and tell people all about it i hope that sets you up for success i hope that it benefits you and helps you to become an effective teacher.
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