Stop hitting snooze

You wake up to the crowing of your alarm first thing in the morning.

As you’re wiping the crust off your eyes, you reach for your phone, turn off the alarm, and tell yourself “5 more minutes.”

A rookie mistake.

What felt like “5 minutes” was actually 20.

You wake up in a flash, check your phone and your heart sinks.

No time to shower, no time to brush your teeth, no time to make a lunch.

You make like the flash and dash out the door.

As you pullup to your workplace, you’re already 10 minutes late.

Sound familiar?

I’ve been there as many times as someone who says “I’ll start my diet tomorrow”.

My shift would start at 8 am and I still had difficulties waking up at 7:20.

If I had to guess, it was probably because I stayed up for another late night Call Of Duty session with the boys.

And because I lacked sleep, I wanted to get more.

And that meant hitting snooze on my alarm for “another 5 minutes.”

Hitting snooze on my alarm was as common to me as doing last-minute school work because I chose video games over studying.

I was in this cycle of staying up late, waking up on time, hitting snooze, and showing up to work late.

This e-mail is not about how I fixed my sleep schedule.

Rather, it’s how I stopped showing up to work late.

And it all happened when I read a book called “Make Time: How To Focus On What Matters Every Day” by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky.

In it was a tactic that would change everything for me.

The tactic was simple.

Instead of having my phone within arm’s reach when it wakes me up, I would leave it across the room.

When I did this, I forced myself to get up out of bed, walk over to my phone and turn it off.

If I didn’t turn it off manually, the alarm would just keep crying and crying.

To my surprise, it actually worked.

I did this regularly, and before I knew it, I wasn’t hitting snooze on my alarm anymore.

I would wake up whatever time my alarm was and actually show up to work on time.

Before you go to bed tonight, make sure your alarm is on.

Next, you’ll want to set your phone across the room.

Make it so you have to get up out of bed and turn your alarm off.

So, if you’re tired of hitting snooze on your alarm, give this a go and lemme know how it goes.

I hope this helps you as much as its helped me.

Till next time my peeps,

Alex out.