Remember that grogginess you feel when the alarm clock goes off?

Is there a worse feeling than NEEDING more sleep but knowing you HAVE TO get out of bed? Knowing that you have to struggle through the grogginess and mental fog in the morning.

It’s painful, isn’t it?

You can even feel it when you’re setting the alarm on the night before— “Tomorrow morning is going to suck!”

Of course, most of the time you fail to get up at the alarm time and snooze at least a few times.

And then the guilt comes…

We feel like we wasted the whole morning yet again. We feel powerless to change. We feel like we’re a hopeless case because we fail at a simple thing as getting out of bed early.

And it’s not for lack of trying.

You’ve probably read a ton of tips and tricks about how to do it. And most of those boil down to: “Use more discipline!”

Push harder!

But it’s easy to say for people with strong discipline. They just make it happen. And those people don’t really need to be told how to do it anyway.

They just get up early.

However, what if you don’t have strong discipline? What if you’re naturally lazy?

Do you need to work hard for years to develop your discipline just to be able to do a simple thing as getting out of bed when the alarm goes off?

No!

At least not if you’re using a smarter approach.

I managed to overcome the snoozing habit exactly when I stopped following the traditional advice. When I stopped trying to push harder.

And I’ll share with you that smarter technique in a minute, but first let me tell you something that might surprise you…

You are NOT the One Who Decides to Snooze The Alarm

See, getting out of bed in itself isn’t difficult.

I mean, it’s just getting out of bed, right? How hard is that?

If you’re sitting or lying right now reading this article, how hard is it going to be to just get up?

You don’t have to use discipline to do it.

But that’s because now your mind is fully in control. You’re feeling fine, you’re wide awake and you can easily control what you do. So you’re consciously making the shots.

But what happens in the morning?

Usually, you’re in a completely different state—you’re sleepy, groggy, and brain-fogged. You feel like you need to get more sleep to feel better.

So your mind loses the control that it had when you were wide awake and feeling good.

You’re now under the influence of your body, emotions, heart, or whatever you wanna call it. Anything but your conscious, rational mind.

You can say that your body is calling the shots.

And that’s what discipline is—forcing yourself to do something your mind wants to do, but your body doesn’t feel like.

So something as simple as getting your body to stand up becomes much more difficult because your mind and body are in conflict.

We have that problem not just with waking up but with pretty much all productive habits that we want to build.

E.g. your mind is telling you, “Go exercise.” And your body is saying, “Nah, I don’t feel like it, let’s watch Netflix.”

Or…

Your mind is telling you, “I’ll cook a whole, healthy, organic meal tonight.” And your body is like, “A pizza sounds so much better.”

The problem is that we do most of our goal-setting when we’re in that good feeling place and our body is satisfied.

But when we’re actually supposed to do the actions, things like getting out of bed early, exercise, or eat something healthy—we’re in a completely different state.

At the time of action, our body is calling the shots.

So the obvious solution is, if we want to make it happen we have to use discipline. Force our bodies to do what it doesn’t feel like it.

But there’s a problem with that.

Most of us are not naturally disciplined. And sure, you can slowly build up your discipline with time and become better at it.

But that approach takes a long time, and it just isn’t fun.

How enjoyable is your life going to be if you had to struggle, and push yourself every single morning just so you can stop hitting snooze and get out of bed early?

Luckily, you don’t have to do that because there’s a better solution.

But before we get into that let’s see why usually discipline doesn’t work in this case.

Why More Discipline Will Never Help You to Stop Snoozing

So discipline is doing something that our mind wants to do but our body doesn’t feel like.

And to understand that better, let’s see how our body (or subconscious) makes decisions.

It doesn’t use logic and rationalization. It mostly does what it did the day before. And the day before that.

It does it out of habit.

There is an automated, habitual response to a stimulus (a physical sensation or an emotion.)

E.g. we feel hot searing pain and the automatic response is to immediately get our hand away from the fire.

We feel fear and the automatic response is to run away.

We feel hunger and the automatic response is to look for something pleasurable to eat.

So if you feel tired and groggy in the morning the automatic response is to snooze and get more sleep.

And since our alarm usually goes off while we’re in that state, our subconscious associates that sound with grogginess.

Its automatic response to the sound is to snooze and get some more sleep. That response is just a habit.

And habits, of course, can be changed.

But habits are all about momentum.

The longer that automatic response has been going on, the more momentum it has. And you’ve probably been snoozing for years, if not decades.

There is so much momentum towards the automatic snoozing response that reversing it with more discipline is difficult.

It would be like trying to push a car uphill—a ton of struggle, and not very fun.

I tried to do it with more discipline for years and it always failed long-term.

So how do we start reversing that momentum in a fun way, that doesn’t require pushing hard? That’s exactly what the technique I’m talking about will help you do.

It helped me to completely reverse that momentum and build it in the direction that I want—jumping out of bed immediately when the alarm goes off, regardless of how my body feels.

And here’s why it works so well…

From Chronic Snoozer to Early Riser—What’s the key?

What we’re trying to do with this technique (we’ll finally get to how you do it in the next section) is reverse the momentum.

We’re trying to:

1. Stop the automatic response of snoozing when the alarm goes off.
2. Recondition the response of jumping out of bed immediately.

That automatic response can also be called an unconscious decision—an action that our body (or subconscious mind) decides to take without involving any rational thought at the moment.

And a decision can be seen as a choice between two or more options. It’s like a fork in the road—you either go left (snooze) or right (get up).

Now you might make the conscious decision in the evening to take the right path—to get up immediately when the alarm goes off.

But in the morning, when you’re supposed to take action, you’re NOT making a conscious decision. Your body is calling the shots.

And which path is it going to take? That’s right—the right one.

Why?

Well, because the right path is what it’s been taking every day over and over again.

That path is easy to walk.

It’s paved well and there are no weeds in your way. So it’s not going to take less effort to choose the right path.

And that’s a very important point—your body is always going to choose the path that feels easier at the moment. It doesn’t care if it leads you to a bad place eventually.

And what about the left path?

You haven’t walked that path for a long time. It’s not paved and there are tons of weeds and fallen logs along the way. In other words, it’s going to be much harder to walk that way NOW.

Yes, it might lead you to a great place in the future, but your body doesn’t care about the future.

It only cares about easy and fun NOW.

So there’s our problem—our conscious mind wants us to take the right path and get out of bed, but when you’re tired and groggy you don’t have control of your actions.

Your subconscious mind does.

And it does that in insidious ways. It will give you thoughts like:

• “Just 10 more minutes in bed wouldn’t make a big difference.”
• “Being late to work just one day doesn’t really matter.”
• “We can skip your morning exercise, just for today.”

And you KNOW that these are just excuses. They’re short-sighted and they’re leading to a bad place in the future.

But again—your subconscious doesn’t care about the future as much. It cares about fun here and now.

So what happens on most days? — You end up snoozing despite your good intention the night before.

What can we do to change that?

If we want to stop snoozing, we have to stop trying to use our conscious mind to take control with discipline.

That doesn’t work long-term.

Instead, we have to figure out a way to get our body (who’s calling the shots in the morning) to make the right choice automatically.

We have to find a way to make the right path more attractive.

And that’s what the technique I mentioned before is all about—it’s about pre-paving the right path and plucking out the weeds beforehand.

It’s about reversing the momentum.

Let’s take a look at how it works…

The 7-Step Technique That Changed My Mornings Forever

So how do we change that automatic, subconscious response and move it in the other direction?

The answer is simple—you do it by practicing the opposite response. You start by walking the right path over and over again and pre-paving it.

But there is a trick.

Doing that every morning when you’re groggy doesn’t work.

Instead, we do it when we’re wide awake and feeling good. When getting out of bed isn’t a challenge and your mind is still in control.

So here’s what you do…

This is going to sound ridiculous and you’ll feel like a lab rat when you’re doing it, but bear with me…

It’s very powerful and it works—it was the only thing that got me to stop snoozing and jump out of bed immediately every morning.

The 7 practice steps:

1. Pick a 15-minute period of the day when you know you’ll be at home, wide awake, and feeling good.
2. Re-create the morning conditions as closely as you can. (Prepare your bed for sleep, put on your pajamas if you wear any, turn off everything around the house, lower the blinds/curtains, etc.)
3. Set your usual alarm clock for 2 minutes from now. (Away from the bed so that you have to get up to turn it off.)
4. Go to bed and relax your mind and body as if you were going to sleep. (You don’t have to actually fall asleep.)
5. After the alarm goes off, immediately jump out of bed and turn it off. The alarm has to be in the same place and using the same sound as you usually use.
6. Start doing the very first thing that you usually do in the morning, like brushing your teeth. (You don’t actually have to brush, just go to the bathroom and pick up the toothbrush.)
7. Wait one minute and then start again from step #1.

Sounds weird huh?

That’s how I felt when I first heard it. But everything changed once I actually tried it.

So why is this technique so effective?

It’s effective because you practice the way you want your body to respond to the stimulus—the alarm clock.

You start to reverse the momentum in the direction that you want.

In other words, you’re walking the right path. Consciously pre-paving it, and taking the weeds out. So when it’s your body is at that fork in the road again, the right path looks more attractive and it’s the one it automatically takes.

See, the technique might sound weird when we’re talking about waking up early and snoozing, but it’s nothing more than intentional practice.

And we’re doing it every single day for other habits and skills that we want to improve:

• What do you do if you want to get better at dancing? —You practice.
• What do you do if you want to do well on a test or an interview? —You practice.
• What do you do if you want a muscle to get stronger? —Take steroids. Nah, just kidding. You get the point…

E.g. Basketball players practice for hours making free throws so they teach their body the right movement. Does it matter if they make the free throw in the practice session? No, not really. At least not short-term.

But if they do it over and over again, they get better at it. And when the big game comes and they have to make that key free throw they’re conditioned to make the basket and win the game.

In the same way, when you practice getting out of bed during the practice session, it doesn’t really.

It might even feel like a waste of time.

But if you continue to practice this technique. If you continue to pre-pave that right path—in the morning, when it actually matters—your body is going to be conditioned to make the right choice.

It’s going to automatically jump out of bed.

The technique sounds simple enough, but there are a few tricks to make it really effective.

Let’s look at those next…

6 Tips to Make the Technique Even More Effective

1. How long should a practice session be?

Building that momentum towards snoozing didn’t take you one day. So it’s not going to take one day to reverse it.

And yes, we have to pre-pave the right path but it doesn’t happen in one big chunk of time.

It’s all about consistent action over time.

And practicing for hours at a time isn’t fun anyway. Since it’s repetitive you’ll be bored quickly.

So the key is to spend just 15 minutes on it every day. That’s easy and it doesn’t take discipline to do.

In those 15 minutes, you’ll have time to do 3-4 repetitions, which for one day is enough.

If you do that over and over every day, within a week you’ll notice that jumping out of bed in the morning is much easier.

If you do it for 2 weeks, it will get even easier.

And once you get the momentum going, you don’t have to keep up the practice. It’s self-reinforcing since you’ll be taking the right path every morning.

2. When should I do the practice?

It’s easier if you schedule the 5-minute period at the same time every day and set a reminder, so you don’t have to remember to do it.

The best way I’ve found is to anchor it to another activity you’re already doing.

Obviously, you have to be at home.

So it might be right after you get back from work. After you put your kids to sleep. After dinner. Etc.

Just make sure it’s far enough apart from your wake-up/bedtime so you’re wide awake and not tempted to fall asleep when you practice.

If it’s difficult to get up when the practice alarm goes off you’re defeating the purpose of the exercise.

The practice is supposed to be easy so you don’t have to use discipline to do it.

3. What if I start snoozing again?

What if you go on a vacation or a long holiday and start snoozing again?

That’s why this technique is so great—you can use it again in the future. It doesn’t have diminishing returns.

And since you’ve already done the practice before, some of the right path will already be pre-paved.

It will be easier and faster the second time around.

So if you find yourself snoozing again at any point, schedule one week of practice sessions and you’ll be back on track before you know it.

4. Do I have to physically do the practice with an alarm or visualize myself doing it?

Visualization is powerful.

It’s almost as good as the real practice in terms of results. That’s why many sports professionals use it too.

E.g. Using the basketball example again, you’ll get a similar benefit from visualizing yourself making the successful free throw as you would from actually doing it.

But doing it physically is stronger.

I recommend, at least for the first one week to physically go through the practice sequence and build your muscle memory as well.

5. Do I have to re-create the morning conditions perfectly?

In one word: No.

The main thing that we’re trying to link is the sound of the alarm with your body jumping out of bed.

But the more of those morning conditions you associate the better.

So to get the best results, make sure your bed is the way it usually is in the morning. You’re wearing what you’re usually wearing when you wake up. The light conditions match the morning ones. Etc.

6. Should I put the alarm away from the bed?

The whole point of the automatic response is to do it immediately.

And putting the alarm clock away from the bed forces you to get up right away (or listen to the annoying sound).

Yes, there’s nothing stopping you from going back to bed once you turn it off. But usually, it’s easier to stay up than trying to get up in the first place.

Also, if you practice the whole sequence, you’ll also be conditioning your next action after turning off the alarm—to immediately go and do the first thing in the morning like brushing your teeth.

So staying up will become easier too.

Getting Out of Bed Every Morning Doesn’t Have to Be Painful or Hard

You don’t need to experience the guilt of losing your precious morning hours every day and then beat yourself up about it.

If you follow the right plan it can be easy and fun.

But you have to do some work beforehand. Not the disciplined, push-harder work that hasn’t worked so far.

If it hasn’t, why do you keep doing it?

It’s time to try something new. Something that I guarantee will work if you give it a shot.

And what does it take?

It takes just 15 minutes of practice every day.

Are you willing to invest 15 minutes of practice for 2 weeks to reap the benefits?

To start every single morning on your own terms. To feel in control of your body in mind when you wake up? To replace the feeling of guilt and hopelessness with one of satisfaction?

If so, open up your calendar now and schedule 15 minutes every day for the next 2 weeks. Show up every day, do your deliberate practice, and watch the transformation happen.

Productivity is becoming more and more important in our lives. We want to get more done, make more money, be more in control, and have more time to spend with our friends and family.

No doubt, if you want all these things, you have to be more productive.

The easiest way to do it is, of course, to build better habits and get rid of the time-wasting ones. But there are so many habits that seemingly affect our productivity. Where would you even start?

Well, most people go with what’s currently popular.

I work with many people 1-on-1 on improving their productivity. And by far the most common habit that people want to work on is waking up early.

There is so much hype around it lately that it’s perceived almost like a superpower.

Most people think that once you start getting up early you become an unstoppable productivity machine and nothing can slow you down.

But is it just hype, or does it actually work?

More importantly, is it going to work for you?

Let’s look at some of the positives of waking up early that made it such a popular trend.

The 5 Reasons Why Waking Up Early Won’t Work For You

If you read books or articles from early risers, you’ll find every one of them reporting tons of amazing benefits.

Also, the plethora of waking up early quotes doesn’t make it easier to question it either…

“It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.”

– Aristotle

“I never knew a man come to greatness or eminence who lay abed late in the morning.”

– Johnathan Swift

“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”

– Benjamin Franklin

I mean, Jesus… is there a famous dead person who didn’t write a brilliant quote about waking up early?

Anyway, let’s get back to the real, practical reasons for waking up early and see if those apply to you.

1. Get More Productive Hours

This one makes sense right? Wake up two hours earlier and you’ll add two more hours to your day.

Think of how many hours that adds up to. Two more hours every day, 14 more hours every week. If you do the math, that is more than 90 (8-hour) days in a year!

C’mon… how could that much extra time not make you more productive?

Why It Might Not Work For You

Okay, why are you waking up earlier in the first place? To be more productive right? Right!

So 2 more hours per day means more time to work on your stuff, hence more productivity. Right!

But wait, what happens to those 2 hours of sleep that you were getting before?

They’re gone.

You end up with 2 fewer hours of sleep every day, which leads to sleep deprivation.

And you know what is terrible for productivity? That’s right — sleep deprivation. It dramatically reduces your focus and ability to perform.

So what’s the whole point of getting 2 extra hours if you’re going to be delirious the whole day? If you’re sleep deprived, you’ll end up wasting not only those 2 hours but the rest of the day as well.

2. Wake Up Before Everybody Else

Another logical argument — get up before everybody else and you can get a ton of stuff done before they’re even awake.

You can also start the day on your own terms. Not get distracted by other people’s agenda, because they’re still asleep.

Why It Might Not Work For You

This one makes a lot of sense. It’s all about avoiding distractions from other people.

If you wake up late, everybody else is awake already and they start bugging you. You have to rush for work. Your boss gives you tasks. Your kids need attention.

Whatever it is, you don’t have the time to focus on yourself and make yourself strong.

But, guess what?

What if you don’t have kids? Or you don’t have to go to work early? Or you work from home?

If you control your own schedule none of these benefits apply to you.

In that case, you can start your day late and avoid the morning traffic. You can do your shopping when there are fewer people in the store. Or go to the gym in the afternoon, instead of the morning when it’s crowded.

So this benefit only matters if the early morning is the only time when you can avoid distractions from other people.

3. Improve Your Willpower

We’ve all heard of this one — willpower is a limited resource. A resource that is replenished with sleep. Every morning when we wake-up we’ve got a full tank.

As we go through our day and make decisions or work on tasks we spend willpower. As the day goes on the more we lose the ability to make good decisions or stay focused.

It’s a good idea to wake up early so you can work on the important things first, while your willpower tank is still full.

Why It Might Not Work For You

This one makes sense only for people who start work early and come back from work exhausted — low on willpower.

In that case, it helps to wake up early and focus on yourself first. It’s the only option really because you don’t have the willpower to do it after the work in the office is done.

But again, if you’re not constrained by an exhausting job schedule, it wouldn’t make a difference if you wake up early or not.

Also, have you considered that you need willpower to become an early riser in the first place?

If you’ve been a night owl all your life, learning to wake up early is going to take time and effort. It’s not something that you get for free so “you might as well do it anyway”.

Don’t put the time and effort to become an early riser unless you get a real benefit out of it.

4. Better Sleep Quality

You know those days when you oversleep and feel terrible when you wake up? And I’m not talking about feeling guilty, but physically terrible. The grogginess seems to last for hours and you can’t get anything done.

So why sleep so much in the first place? Just wake up early and avoid the grogginess instead.

Why It Might Not Work For You

We’ve all had those episodes when we oversleep and feel terrible when we wake up. It seems like getting less sleep and waking up early is a good idea.

But more sleep isn’t what is making you groggy. The lack of consistency is.

You’ve probably heard of sleep cycles before. When we sleep our bodies go through deep and light sleep cycles. And if you wake up during a light sleep cycle, everything is fine. You’re alert and getting out of bed is easy.

But if you wake up in the middle of a deep sleep cycle you’ll be groggy as hell.

Our bodies are pretty good at adjusting the cycles if we have a consistent schedule. If you wake up at the same time for a week or two, your body will adjust and you will be in a light sleep cycle when your alarm goes off.

But if your sleep is all over the place, your body will have a tough time getting used to it. So you will often wake up in the middle of a deep sleep cycle and feel groggy.

It’s not the extra sleep that made your morning time harder but the lack of consistency.

5. More Social Time

This is the best one yet — If you get to work before everybody else, you will be done early. You can go home earlier and spend the whole afternoon at the bar with friends, or at home playing with your kids.

It’s much better than starting late and work in the office until midnight, right?

Why It Might Not Work For You

Before you commit to that early schedule think of the sacrifice that you’ll be making in the evenings. As we said, if you want to be productive you have to get enough sleep every day. Which means, an early wake-up time equals an early bedtime.

Say your wake-up goal is 5 AM and your bedtime goal is 9 PM (to get the recommended 8 hrs of sleep). To be able to fall asleep at 9 PM you’d probably have to be in bed at 8:30 PM.

So yes, you wake-up 2 hrs before everybody else, but you also have to be in bed 2 hrs earlier too.

That automatically rules you out for most evening events. If most of your friends work late and go out in the evenings, your social life will be kinda messed up.

You’ll have to pass up most invitations because it’s after your bedtime.

Oh and also, when you do make an exception and stay up late, you’ll be sleepy as hell. Your body will be trained to put you to sleep at 8:30 PM, which is probably when your friends get off work.

So before you commit to that early sleep schedule, think about the sacrifices you have to make.

What Actually Makes You Productive

The time of your wake-up isn’t directly related to your productivity. Here is what will actually make a difference.

Getting Enough Sleep

The amount of sleep is directly related to how focused and disciplined you will be throughout the day. There are many studies proving how bad sleep deprivation is for performance.

But even if you ignore the studies, just look at your own past experience.

You can get a ton of work done if you’re focused and alert. Compare that with being sleepy and distracted all day long, but you have 2 extra hours in the day because you woke up early.

Who cares about the 2 extra hours if you’re going to spend them drooling on your desk, not being able to keep your eyes open?

A Consistent Sleep Schedule

Another thing that is critical for your productivity is how much your wake-up/bedtime changes from day to day.

Our bodies are not designed to work well when our sleep is all over the place.

That’s why jetlag is so hard to adjust to.

The more often you change your sleep schedule, the poorer your sleep quality will be. And the poorer the quality is the more hours of sleep you’ll have to get just to compensate.

So instead of worrying about making the wake-up time earlier, focus on making it more consistent.

If you train your body to be up and running at the same time every day, you will get that energy and focus every morning.

Also, the more you get used to the consistent schedule the more organized you will be. You will get used to the routine and you’ll be able to predict how much time everything takes. You won’t have to “wing it” every time, which is a recipe for disorganization.

Consistency is what makes you more organized, not waking up early.

How Are You Using Your Mornings?

Which one of these two are you more likely to do?

1. Do you open up your email first thing? Do you get on YouTube or Facebook and spend half an hour watching funny cat videos?
2. Do you already have an established morning routine with healthy habits? Do you have a plan for the first task you want to do that day?

The second scenario is always going to be much more productive, regardless of when you woke up.

The key to having a productive start of the day is not to get more hours. It’s to utilize the time effectively.

Waking up early and wasting that morning time makes you less productive. If you do that, it’s much better to get some extra sleep instead.

The Ability to Control Your Sleep Schedule

Getting enough sleep, having a consistent sleep schedule, and a productive morning routine are all great habits. You will be much more productive if you nail those.

But doing it once and hoping that it will stay that way forever isn’t realistic.

We live in dynamic times. Our responsibilities and goals change constantly. Creating a good sleep schedule just once isn’t going to cut it.

You have to learn the skill of controlling your sleep schedule and do it again when things change.

Here are a few things that typically throw people off:

• New Job — Usually that comes with a change of schedule.
• Changing time zones — Jet lag is a bitch.
• Long trips — Take two weeks off and your routine and habits will be off track.
• Getting sick — If you get sick your sleep schedule will probably suffer as well.

So when you’re working on creating your good sleeping and morning routine habits — think long term.

Create a checklist of what works for you and what doesn’t. Come up with a strategy that you can implement every time your sleep schedule is messed up, so you can easily get back on track.

Here are a few strategies that always work for me:

• Morning accountability — Get an early riser friend to call you in the morning, or set up an early meeting to force you out of bed on time.
• Start your morning routine with joy — Start with something you’re looking forward to. It’s much easier to get out of bed if you’re doing something fun first thing.
• Melatonin — If you’re pushing back your bedtime by a few hours, it’s difficult to fall asleep. Getting some melatonin or chamomile tea helps most people.
• Enforce a digital curfew — Get rid of your digital devices at least an hour before bed. You might have to use an app to block the device after curfew if you can’t control yourself.

To Become More Productive, Focus On What Matters

The whole point of this habit is to make you more productive. But don’t fall into the trap of thinking that waking up early will directly help you get more done.

Don’t believe in myths like cutting your sleep for the sake of getting more hours in the day.

The tips above work great for me. I’ve also tested them with more than a 1,000 people that I’ve coached.

But just because something works for others doesn’t mean it will work for you.

Test it yourself and measure your results. It’s the only true way you will become more productive.