How to Setup Your Windows Global Hotkeys in 10 Minutes

By George Halachev

Setting up custom keyboard hotkeys is one of the things that saves us a lot of time every day. Not only that, but it makes working with a computer more fun because you feel in control.

Imagine that every time you needed to launch your favorite app or website, you do it with the push of a single button. No browsing folders, no icon clicking, no address typing. Push a button and you are exactly where you want to be. Pretty cool right?

Cool, but setting up the hotkeys and remembering them in the first place is tedious. Plus, there is no easy way to synchronize them between your devices. So if your machine dies or you decide to work from a different computer, it’s as if you haven’t set up hotkeys at all.

I was struggling for years to find a good software to meet all these needs:

Easy setup and installation
Easy change and remapping of hotkeys
Easy backup and synchronization between devices
Flexibility to use all keys and key combinations

I finally found a great solution that fulfills all of the above: AutoHotkey.

NOTE: You don’t need any coding knowledge to follow this guide, but you need to know some basics like creating a text file, changing a file extension, and basic software installation.

Global vs Local Hotkeys

Before we go into details, let’s define global and local hotkeys.

A global hotkey is a combination of keyboard buttons that execute a command in any application or window, like launching your calculator app for example. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Word, Excel, in a browser, or on the desktop. Pressing that keyboard combination will execute the command just the same and launch the calculator wherever you are.

A good example of global hotkeys are the custom play, pause, stop, and mute media buttons on some fancy keyboards.

No matter which application you are in, these hotkeys will work just the same. The downside of those extra physical buttons is that they have a single function and they’re not easily remappable.

Local hotkeys, on the other hand, are application specific. They work only in specific applications, and only if the application is open and in focus. For example, Ctrl + T will open up a new tab in Chrome, but in Word, it will do something totally different.

Since most applications offer enough customization for their local hotkeys, we’re not going to focus on those. Instead, let’s look at how to create and customize the global ones.

AutoHotkey

Autohotkey is a scripting language, which is a simplified programming language that allows people that are not programmers to be able to use it.

For the non-tech savvy folks, it might be intimidating at first. It looks like you have to be a coder to be able to understand anything. But if you get the right template file and learn what the basic symbols mean, it takes just 10 minutes to set up your hotkeys and you’re good to go.

You need just 3 steps to get started:

Download and install AutoHotkey
Download the template .ahk file and customize your hotkeys (find the template file below)
Start the .ahk file and put it in the Windows startup directory (so it automatically launches after each restart)

Do just these 3 steps and you’re done. Let’s go through each of them in detail.

Setting Up And Customizing Your Own Hotkeys

The installation of the software is just like any other, there’s nothing special worth mentioning in this guide. After you download it from the link above and install it, you’ll be able to launch all AutoHotkey files (.ahk).

So to begin with, let’s create the template file, that we’re going to use as a base to customize your own hotkeys. All you need to do is to copy the code below and paste it into a text file.

^+!1:: ;Chrome
Run C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe
Return
^+!3:: ;Firefox
Run C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe
Return
^+!5:: ;Skype
Run C:\Program Files (x86)\Skype\Phone\Skype.exe
Return
^+!Q:: ;Winamp
Run C:\Program Files (x86)\Winamp\winamp.exe
Return
^+!W:: ;Word
Run C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16\WINWORD.EXE
Return
^+!E:: ;Evernote
Run C:\Program Files (x86)\Evernote\Evernote.exe
Return

As you can see I’ve used common applications like Chrome, Skype, and Evernote as an example. Of course, you can delete and replace those with as many of your own applications or websites as you like.

Again, the code above probably looks daunting to you if it’s the first time you see AutoHotkey. So let’s use some color coding below to explain what each component means and how we can customize the hotkey for each application.

There are just 3 parts for each application that you have to be concerned with:

Hotkey — the very first 5 characters for each application (e.g. ^+!1 and ^+!F). This is the key combination that is going to start your app.
Comment — the comment is the text highlighted in green (e.g. ;Facebook and ;Word). This is just a label to tell you what the paragraph is about.
Application path — the line after the blue keyword “run” (e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Evernote\Evernote.exe)

Hotkey

The hotkeys are the combination of keys that are going to trigger a specific command, in this case launching an application or website.

In most hotkey combinations we use the modifier keys in the keyboard — alt, shift, and control. It’s exactly the same way in this setup, but instead of alt, shift, and control AutoHotkey uses characters like !, +, and ^ to describe those in the code. Here is how they’re mapped out:

! = alt
+ = shift
^ = ctrl

The symbols are used for brevity, just so we don’t have to type the whole word every time, similar to how we sometimes use “&” instead of “and” in English. So if we wanted to use the key combination alt+shift+H, here’s how the code would look like:

!+H::

The double colon at the end means that the hotkey part is over and another part of the code begins.

You’ll notice that all of the examples in the template file above use all the modifier keys ^+!. In my setup I use all three deliberately to avoid overlap with local hotkeys that already exist in an open app.

For example, if Word was open and I used Ctrl+B as a global hotkey, besides launching an application the hotkey would also make the selected text bold in Word. Very few applications use all 3 modifiers for local hotkeys so using that setup you won’t have the overlapping issue.

Comments

The comments in the code, the green highlighted part, are just a label. They’re used so we can easily see which hotkey the paragraph is about. They do not have any effect when executing the code, so you can write anything you want after the ; character. It’s just for you and the person reading the code.

Application Path

After each comment follows the command that AutoHotkey executes. In this case, the command is “Run” which is marked in blue. The command simply means that AutoHotkey will start an application after we press the key. We just need to provide the path to the application after the keyword “Run”.

Most Windows applications will be installed in the “Program Files” directory by default. All you need to do is to go into the specific application directory and find the .exe file. In the code above, you can see a few of the paths for common applications like Skype, Word, and Chrome.

Launching Websites

If you want to use the hotkeys for launching a website instead of an application, all you need to do is provide the code for the browser you’re using, followed by the website address you want to launch.

In this example, pressing Ctrl+Shift+Alt+F will open Facebook in the Chrome browser:

^+!F:: ;Facebook
Run C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe facebook.com
Return

Return

Put a return keyword at the end of each paragraph to make sure you end the command there. If you didn’t put a return keyword, AutoHotkey will continue reading the code and run not only Facebook but all the other applications below it.

Creating your AutoHotkey File

After you’re done editing and customizing your hotkeys and applications, we have to save the text into an AutoHotkey file. You can do that by saving it with an .ahk extension like the example below.

After you save the file, you can double click to launch it. It will show up as a tray icon on your toolbar, next to the clock.

If you can see the green “H” it means the script is running and you can work with the global hotkeys that we just set up. Give it a shot.

It’s very likely that you’ll get an error in the first couple of tries, especially if it’s your first time setting it up. Don’t panic, it’s most likely because of a typo in the code. Open the .ahk file again in a text editor and check carefully all the symbols and keywords.

Synchronization Between Devices

When our hotkeys are set up and ready to go, we want to make sure they’re identical on all our Windows machines. The best way to do that is to use your favorite cloud software like Dropbox, Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive.

For this to work, you need to have the cloud software installed on the computer and automatically synchronizing a folder, not just using it in a browser.

Put the .ahk file in the folder that is synchronized, so every time you make a change to the file it will be reflected on all your computers.

Running Your AutoHotkey File On Startup

Now that we have the same identical file on our machines, we want to make sure it launches every time the computer is restarted. To do that we have to put a shortcut of it in the windows startup folder.

You can make a shortcut of it by right clicking on the file and selecting the “create shortcut” option.

Then open the startup folder with the “Run” window by pressing Windows key+R (or typing Run in the start menu). When the Run window starts just type “shell:startup” and hit enter, like the example below.

Copy and paste the shortcut in the startup folder and restart your computer to make sure it’s working.

Mapping Out Your Hotkeys Visually

Mapping out 3 or 4 applications on a keyboard is easy to remember. But what if you’re a power user and want to map out your entire keyboard? It gets tricky to remember all the keys and which applications they launch. That’s why mapping it out visually is very helpful.

Before creating any of the keys in my AutoHotkey file, I created a simple Photoshop file to assign applications to keys visually. Here’s how it looks:

In the layout above you’ll notice that the modifier buttons ctrl, alt, and shift are highlighted to show the key combination for this layout. You can create as many layouts as you want for the key combinations that are convenient for you, like holding the Win key for example.

Feel free to use the base file below to create your own visual layout:

AutoHotkey for Power Users

Setting up hotkeys is actually a tiny part of the functionality of AutoHotkey. If you’re a power user and you’re willing to fiddle with it, you can create wonders. Here are some functions that I often use with AutoHotkey custom scripts:

Turn the selected text into lowercase or UPPERCASE
Display the number of characters or words in the selected text
Paste the selected text without formatting
Set the volume to 20, 40, 60, 80, or 100% using the Win+Shift+1, 2, 3, 4, 5 keys respectively
Increase or Decrease the volume using the Win+Shift+Mouse Scroll Up/Down
Swap local hotkeys in specific applications (e.g. F5 does the function of F9 and vice versa)

Setting up something like that up does require more time and learning, but it’s well worth it and the principle is the same — assign a hotkey to a command and run it with one click.

AutoHotkey has a great reference page and a great forum community that you can learn from. A lot of the scripts are already created for you so you can just copy/paste them into your own .ahk file and you’re ready to go.

Synergy: How to Achieve Your Goals in Half the Time

By George Halachev

The typical advice when trying to build a new habit or achieve a goal is to do it one at a time. It’s good advice considering that building habits takes willpower. The more you spread out that willpower the less chance you have in succeeding. However, after working on many different habits myself, I’ve noticed some habits are easier when done simultaneously.

Synergy

The definition of synergy is a creation of a whole that is bigger than the sum of its parts. In other words, sometimes 1+1 doesn’t equal 2 but 5.

Similarly, sometimes working on two habits simultaneously will get you better results – synergy. Other times, the effect is exactly the opposite – discord, because one of the habits makes it difficult to do the other one.

My main goal this year is to work on gaining more muscle mass and reducing body fat. To get there, one of the habits I’m working on is eating healthy and eating a lot. I started doing it earlier this year, but a month later I also decided to get braces to fix a crooked tooth problem. Anyone who’s had braces knows that eating is a pain in the ass. Food gets stuck and you have to clean your teeth all the time. In hindsight, getting the braces at that time was a terrible choice since it made my other goal harder. This is a great example of discord.

Another big goal of mine this year was working on quitting my job and doing my business full-time. That turned out to be very synergistic with the new exercise habit since now I can set my own work schedule. I can do my workouts whenever I want without rushing. Doing that when I had a full-time job and running a side business would have been difficult.

Since I work with clients on goals and habits all the time, both of these examples above got me thinking what habits and goals are synergistic with each other and what are some of the discords that we should avoid. Let’s look at a few common habits and how we can combine them.

Exercise

Any type of exercise is going to require extra time. Even if it’s just a short jog in the park you have to set aside the time for it. If you’re currently working on another goal that is taking a huge amount of time, like a work project, it’s probably not the best time to start your exercise. If the time you spend exercising comes from cutting your sleep, for example, it’s a terrible idea. Your body needs even more sleep to recover and renew your muscles after a workout.

On the other hand, if you combine improving your sleep with working out, it’s going to make your recovery faster. Because of that synergy, maintaining the workout habit is going to be easier too.

Another big discord with exercising is currently having an injury. Earlier this year I injured my back and that made it more difficult to do my workouts. I had to be very careful, have perfect form, and make sure I don’t put any weight on the injured part. Again, in hindsight, it would have been easier to let the injury heal for a few months and then start the exercise program.

Diet

Eating healthier foods will help you do better with just about everything in your life – exercise, focus, productivity, etc. However, having a healthy diet usually costs more.

Many times I’ve started a healthier diet without thinking about if I can afford it and it ended up taking way too many resources.

A great habit to do alongside the healthy eating is budgeting. Creating a simple budget of how you’re spending your money is a great way to make sure you have enough to invest in your new diet.

A big discord with healthy eating is the people and environment around you. It’s much easier to stick to your healthy diet if the people around you are doing it too. So if you’re planning to take a vacation and go see your family for a month, and they’re not big on healthy eating, it’s probably not the best time. Even if you have very strong willpower you’ll constantly be tempted by the people around you. You’ll be better off waiting for a time when your environment will be more supportive.

Reading / Learning

To some reading and learning is enjoyable and comes naturally. Others have to work hard to do the habit consistently and continue growing.

One of the best ways to do your reading consistently is to set aside a period of the day that is dedicated only for that. Since life is so dynamic nowadays, that’s easier said than done. For me, the best time to read is in the evening before going to sleep. It’s a great habit to wind down, relax your mind, and get ready for sleep. At the same time, you’re staying away from bad habits for sleep like watching TV or browsing the internet. Doing both the reading and “no screens at night” habit is actually easier than doing them separately.

A great example of discord is the new season of your favorite TV show just coming out. You’ll be so tempted to watch it every night that the reading/learning habit will always be a second priority.

Waking Up Early

Getting out of bed in the morning as a night owl is hard, especially in the beginning. So to be successful we have to do anything we can to make getting out of bed in the morning and staying out easier.

One of the most effective things to stay out of bed is to go outside as soon as you wake up – also a great opportunity to get some exercise and get your heart rate up. True, you need extra discipline to work out, but at least you won’t be tempted to go back to bed. Even if it’s just a simple walk in the park, it makes the early rising much easier.

On the other hand, if you try to start meditation after waking up, you’ll find a lot of discord. Your mind will be foggy because of the grogginess and you’ll be tempted to just nod off and go back to sleep.

There are countless examples of discord and synergy. The ones above are just to get you thinking in that direction.

The best way to find out if two habits or goals are good together is to figure out what are the resources that you’ll need.

For example, one basic resource is time. If both new goals require extra time, they’re not a good match. On the other hand, if one of the goals frees up extra time for the other, they are synergistic.

6 Accountability Apps That Will Skyrocket Your Success

By George Halachev

Self-discipline is crucial for achieving any goal. However, there is a limit to what you can accomplish just with willpower. Even the strongest-willed people run out of juice eventually.

That’s why the most successful people get external help to make sure they’re supported when they run out of willpower. In most sports, the accountability in the form of a trainer or a coach is a no-brainer. It’s the industry standard and everybody does it. If you were without a trainer you would be way behind.

It’s the same with most business executives. The ones that want to take their game to the next level hire a business or an executive coach.

Luckily nowadays there are great tools that will give you a similar level of accountability for just a fraction of the price of a professional trainer or coach. You can easily get accountability without having to pay thousands of dollars.

Let’s look at the best accountability tools on the market today.

1. StickK

StickK is one of the most popular accountability apps. It helps you set a goal and stay on track with a financial incentive. If you fail your goal you have to pay the price.

The stats that its users have achieved collectively are mindblowing.

Being a part of such a successful community alone is a form of accountability.

How it works

StickK offers a 4-step process to set your goal and accountability:

Everything starts by selecting and defining your goal. You can choose from a few popular goals or define your own.

If you want to start exercising, for example, you define how many times per week you will exercise, the length of the commitment, and the day of the week you have to submit a report.

This is where you define what happens if you don’t meet your goal. Committing money is optional, though it’s the most common choice. For example, your commitment is to lose $50 if you don’t meet your exercise quota this week.

If you don’t complete the commitment and submit a successful report on StickK you will be charged $50 from the payment method that you defined (also in step #2 of the process.)

The great thing about StickK is that you can define what happens to the money you lose. You can send them to a friend, foe, charity, or an anti-charity. An anti-charity is a cause that you personally don’t like.

Making sure the money you lose goes to a good cause is very noble. However, if you want to get some extra accountability pick a foe or an anti-charity. Knowing that your money will go to a person or cause that you don’t like will push you to work extra hard to achieve your goal. Here is the list of the anti-charities that you can sign up for in stickK:

Abortion: Americans United for Life
Abortion: NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation
Environmental: Nature Conservancy
Environmental: The national Center for Public Policy Research
Gay Marriage: Gay & Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD)
Gay Marriage: National Organization for Marriage
Gun Control: Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence
Gun Control: NRA Foundation
Political: American Crossroads (Super PAC supporting Republican Party)
Political: House Majority PAC (supporting House Democrats)

In this step, you can invite the person who will determine whether your report was genuine or not. It can be a friend, coach, or a family member. No matter who you choose, it should be someone who can tell whether you did the commitment or not. If the referee has no way to find out if you’re lying or not it defeats the whole purpose of the accountability.

You also have the option to skip this step and do the commitment “on your honor.” So if you’re internally motivated enough and you only need a tool to track how you’re doing with the goal you don’t have to involve other people.

If you want to go one step further with your accountability you can invite more friends and family to hold you accountable or cheer you when you’re making progress. Sometimes staying accountable to just one person isn’t enough. The more people you involve in your process the bigger the sense of accountability is going to be.

• • •

StickK takes privacy seriously, so you are in control of who can see the goal you’re working on. You can share it only with the people that you want.

2. GoFuckingDoIt

GoFuckingDoIt is a simplified version of StickK. If you want to get a similar functionality but don’t want to bother with registering an account or setting up your goal, GoFuckingDoIt is for you.

How It Works

The goal setup process here takes less than a minute. You go through 6 quick steps and you’re ready to go:

Write down your goal
Set the deadline
Set the price
Set the supervisor’s email
Set your own email
Set the payment method

When you complete the process your supervisor will get an email asking them whether you succeeded at the goal or not. If your supervisor marks the goal as unsuccessful you will lose the money.

3. Beeminder

Beeminder is a reminder with a sting! Meaning if you don’t stay on track with your goal you pay money. The difference with StickK and GoFuckingDoIt is that you don’t need a referee to determine your success. Instead, Beeminder works by connecting to other apps that track your goals like Fitbit, RescueTime, Todoist, and many others.

How it works

The setup process is similar — pick your goal, set the deadline, and define your payment method.

Once you define the goal you have to set your pledge amount. When you fail once the pledge increases, so failing a second time gets more expensive.

However, Beeminder is not as harsh as it sounds. It gives you some leeway and time to get back on track after you fail. It uses a yellow brick road as a metaphor for you staying on target.

As you track your goal every day the data is logged on the graph. As long as the data points are within the yellow brick road it means you’re on your way to achieving the goal.

However, if you veer off the road the data point becomes red. Then you have until midnight to get back on track or you’ll get charged the pledge amount.

At any point in time, you can change your goal to be easier or harder and adjust the yellow brick road. It seems like this defeats the whole purpose of the accountability, but there is a catch — any changes you make will take effect after 7 days. That way can’t cheat due to short-time weakness, but you can still adjust the goal long term.

4. Pact

Pact is a phone only app that lets you earn money from staying on track with your goals. Granted you’re not going to become a millionaire but you will be getting some extra cash by doing what’s good for you anyway.

How it works

Because of the way Pact works you can only track 3 types of goals:

Going to the Gym
Eating Your Veggies
Logging Your Food

To make sure you’re not cheating Pact tracks your data accurately. Say your goal is going to the gym. Pact uses the GPS data on your phone to figure out if you’re actually at the gym. The Pact team manually approves every gym location to make sure you’re not lying.

For Food Logging the app connects to MyFitnessPal to track your meals.

Similarly to Beeminder, you can change your pact but the changes will take effect next week. Even if you delete the account, the app gives you one week to reconsider and to make sure you’re not giving up in a moment of weakness.

Once you start a commitment there is no way to back down and if you fail you will pay the price. So make sure when you’re making the pact you’re a 100% committed to achieving it.

There is some leeway in the form of a medical emergency. So say you get injured and can’t go to the gym for a while, you can put your pact on hold so you don’t get charged unfairly.

5. Pavlok

The heart of Pavlok is a wristband that gives you electrical shocks when you’re doing something you’re not supposed to be doing. It’s a great way to break bad habits by giving negative reinforcement to your brain.

Say you want to stop smoking. Every time that you feel like lighting a cigarette you give yourself an electrical shock (zap) and train your brain that it’s a bad behavior.

The app has a few defined presets for the most common negative habits like snacking, nail biting, cravings, and hair pulling.

The app has a great habit tracker that logs your negative habits and gradually trains you to give them up.

How it works

There are 3 ways that you can trigger a zap:

Manually by pressing the lightning bolt on the band.
Automatically by setting up conditions in the app.
Giving control to another person.

If the electrical shock is too negative for you, you can also use a simple beep or vibration as a reminder.

One of the best features of Pavlok is the Google Chrome extension. You can link it directly to your Pavlok and use it to give you feedback on your browsing habits. For example, make it zap you when you go to a website that you use for procrastination during work time. Or zap you when you open more than 5 tabs. You can also link Pavlok to RescueTime or Todoist and set up zaps or reminder based on the parameters from those apps.

6. Coach.me

Coach.me takes accountability to the next level with personal coaching. It’s very helpful to have friends, family, and apps supporting you with accountability, but nothing beats hiring a professional coach that is an expert on a specific topic.

The problem is that not a lot of people could afford to pay for a personal coach to help them on their goals. Coach.me changes all that by offering affordable online coaches that specialize in various self-improvement categories like exercise, diet, meditation, writing, productivity, and breaking addictions.

There are thousands of coaches to pick from online, so using their find a coach function, coach.me helps you find the best one for you by ranking the coaches based on client feedback. In addition, there is a description and an introduction from every coach so you can decide if he or she is the right one for you.

A coach will message you every day with reminders and helpful suggestions to keep you on track.

In addition to the coaching, the app has a great habit tracker that you can use to keep track of your progress. Once you pick a coach, he also has access to the statistics for your goal. He can review your progress and give you reminders and nudges.

The price for most coaches is $14.99 a week.

• • •

When we set a new goal we feel very enthusiastic and motivated, so setting accountability seems pointless in the moment. We feel on top of the world and confident that we can achieve the goal no matter what.

That initial motivation, however, is short-lived. There are many pitfalls along the way like getting sick, a breakup, or losing your job. If you don’t have accountability supporting you through these challenges it’s more likely that you will give up the goal. So don’t wait until it gets hard, set it up now.

How to Double Your Influence with One Simple Trick

By George Halachev

Have you had one of those conversations where you just can’t get through to the other person? No matter how well thought out your arguments are the person in front of you always disagrees.

For example, you’re trying to show your friend Jack the benefits of fasting.

You have done a lot of research on the subject and you know the benefits and challenges of fasting. You can give proof with scientific studies and you have experimented with fasting and you’ve seen the positive results from your personal experience.

Even with such strong arguments Jack still disagrees and thinks “fasting is unhealthy.” What do you do then? Should you just assume that Jack is a moron and there’s no point to talk to him at all? Or is there a smarter approach?

Why Convincing Someone with Logic Rarely Works

Logical arguments work pretty well when you’re writing a scientific paper or a book. If we want to write a paper on how good fasting is, we have to present facts, which lead us to the logical conclusion that fasting improves our health.

To make this clear and simple let’s look at what a fact is:

An objective consensus on a fundamental reality that has been agreed upon by a substantial number of experts.

A fact is a statement that everybody can agree with. For example, we can say that Jack is taller than Elizabeth. If we measure their height, everybody can agree that is a fact.

What is a logical conclusion?

The relationship between statements that holds true when one statement logically follows from one or more statements.

A logical conclusion is something that we deduct from two or more facts. For example, we know that Jack is taller than Elizabeth, it’s a fact. We also know that Elizabeth is taller than Susan, it’s also a fact. Therefore, we can conclude that Jack is also taller than Susan, even though we haven’t compared their height directly.

It seems like if we present the logical facts to someone they should always agree and come to the same conclusion. Therefore, the more logical facts and arguments we have the more influential we will be. However, as you probably know, it usually doesn’t work that way. That is because we assume people are mostly rational beings. The reality is that most of the time we’re irrational because of our emotional states.

Instead of logic being our first priority, frequently we care more about our current emotional needs, like the need for approval or higher social status. Being in an intense emotion also takes us from a logical into an irrational mode. If Jack is angry right now, good luck trying to convince him with a logical argument.

I’m sure you have noticed that in yourself when you’re feeling a strong emotion. Have you had a situation where you were pissed off at somebody and even though they were bringing up a very good point, you just acted irrationally to get back at them? It usually happens with parents or in romantic relationships where the emotional connection is deep. Subconsciously we know they’re right but in that moment logic is the last thing on our minds.

How to Convince People More Effectively

So if beating Jack over the head with logic doesn’t work, what does? What will make Jack think rationally about the argument and consider changing his point of view?

Well, nothing will until his irrational needs and emotions are met first. Unless we figure out what Jack’s current state of mind is and help him get to a more rational state, nothing is going to change.

So what is an example of a need that Jack has that will put him into an irrational state of mind?

Social Status

Jack is subconsciously perceiving himself as smarter than you. He might indeed be smarter and know more about most subjects, however, that mindset prevents him from seeing that you do have more information on this particular topic.

But for Jack to admit that he will have to change his whole mindset, which is a hard thing to do. He will have to admit that in some areas you are smarter than him. Since Jack has a lot of emotion around his social status and his intelligence, his first reaction is to reject the argument, no matter how reasonable it is. His first reaction is to assume you’re just not that smart and you’re somehow wrong.

Unless we help Jack change his view of his social status and intelligence, we’re not going to be able to get him into rational thinking again. We have to show Jack that his current mindset prevents him from learning.

However, we can’t just say, “You’re acting like a child, get over your ego.” That is going to inflame his ego even more. Instead, we have to put ourselves in his shoes. Why is he feeling that way in the first place? Why is he so attached to his social status? Why is his intelligence so important to him? Maybe he had a family that didn’t acknowledge his intelligence as a kid and he has the need to overcompensate. Maybe he is trying to win your respect and admitting that he’s wrong will make him feel stupid.

All of these needs and emotions are irrational but they’re there. In order to get through to Jack, we need to approach his needs and emotions with sensitivity and empathy. Ridiculing or belittling his emotions is only going to make the problem worse.

Emotional History

Being in an intense emotion is another thing that puts us into an irrational mindset. If Jack is angry at you for some reason, he will subconsciously look for a way to get back at you. Disagreeing with something that you say is a perfect way to do it. So unless there is a clean emotional slate between you, logical arguments are very likely to fail.

Besides your emotional relationship, Jack might also have strong emotions with somebody related to the subject. For example, what if Jack has tried a detox product a few years ago and it was a complete rip-off? It was very expensive and it actually made Jack’s health worse than before. In that case, it’s very easy to generalize all fasting and detox and make the assumption that it’s all unhealthy.

Until we approach Jack’s mindset with sensitivity and empathy and help him overcome his grudge for the rip-off company, he’s not likely to listen to any logical arguments.

Attachment to an Idea

Often we attach our identities to a single idea that we assume is a fact. For example, “I’m a very realistic, down-to-earth person. I don’t do woo-woo stuff.”

If Jack is very practical and thinks that fasting is something that only religious people or health fanatics do, he’s not likely to listen to a logical argument. He would have to change his whole identity to “someone who is willing to try unorthodox things.” Changing your whole identity can be a hard thing to go through emotionally. We have to admit that we have been wrong up until now and something else can be better for us.

No wonder we’re not able to get through just with facts if somebody has to change their whole identity to accept our rational argument. Imagine what would happen if Jack was very religious and you start giving him facts that disprove his belief. It would be at least counter-productive, and at most fatal depending on Jack’s religion.

Sensitivity and Empathy

To be able to convince someone with logic, first you need to get them into a logical state of mind with sensitivity and empathy. You can’t just say, “Here are all the facts, you should believe me now,” that never works. But the combination of the logic with the empathy has a huge impact.

However, that’s easier said than done. The advice “get in his shoes first” has been around forever and we would all do it if it were easy. So what are some ways we can get better at it empathy and sensitivity and as a result improve our influence?

Notice your own irrationality

As much as we like to think of ourselves as rational beings, we all just like Jack. We all have just as many irrational needs and emotions. When you start noticing these in yourself, it’s much easier to react with empathy and sensitivity when you see it in others.

If you regularly think of all the situations in which you act irrationally, you will begin to recognize yourself in other people. Then instead of ridiculing them, you will react with empathy.

Notice Your Inner Judger

We all have a view of how the world should be. We all have our preferences, likes, and dislikes. So when we see a person that is different than our current view of how reality should be we automatically start judging. We put labels on people like he’s an angry person, or she is very arrogant. Putting a label on somebody gets you pretty far from putting yourself in their shoes.

If you want to develop your empathy for people that you tend to judge don’t think about the “what?” Thinking about “what” a person is like is just putting a label on him.

Instead of the “what” ask “why?”

Why is he so angry all the time? Why is she depressed? Why is he a Christian? Asking “why” is the first step to begin putting yourself in their shoes. It gets you out of thinking “what they should be like” and into “why are they where they are”?

Find Common Ground

When we have a disagreement, the first thing we do by default is to focus on the differences. How does their opinion differ from mine and how can I change it? That’s helpful to clarify your logical argument, however, it doesn’t help you with empathy.

Instead of looking for the differences, look at where you are the same. Look for the common ground. Only by finding a point that you both agree on you can start to connect with the other person.

Let’s say Jack doesn’t agree with doing a water fast. But what about a juice fast? What if it was a short one, just for one day? What if the fast is just excluding meat from your diet for a few days? As you keep digging you will eventually find something that you both agree on. As soon as you do, you will feel like you’re on the same side trying to discover the truth, instead of on opposing sides fighting a battle. You can never be influential if the other person perceives you as an enemy.

Getting into someone’s shoes is a skill and it takes time and practice to build. You can’t just read a book and start being empathetic all the time. However, the more you notice your own irrationality, your judgments and the more you try to find common ground, the better your empathy skill is going to be.

As your empathy skill grows and you become more sensitive to the other people’s state of mind the more you’ll notice your influence growing. You will know what the appropriate times to use logic or empathy are.

Building Habits: Why Some People Succeed and Others Fail

By George Halachev

As a coach, I’m fascinated by why some people can easily build new habits while others fail miserably.

I’m sure it’s something you’ve noticed in your own life too. You probably have a friend who is very successful. He always accomplishes what he sets out to do. Just listening to him talk about his goals, you think, “Yeah, he gets it! He will really make this goal a reality.”

For the sake of this article, let’s call that friend Mike. Mike the successful.

You probably have another friend who is the exact opposite. He rarely accomplishes what he says he’s going to do. Hearing him talk about his goals you think, “It’s just wishful thinking. He’ll never make it.”

Let’s call him Jim. Jim the failure.

I’ve coached many Mikes and Jims and at first, they’re seemingly the same. They both show up with enthusiasm and motivation. But after a few weeks, the difference is obvious. Mike knows and uses the fundamental success principles and Jim doesn’t. Exploring these fundamental principles will help us build habits and reach our goals more effectively.

To do that, let’s say that Mike and Jim have the same starting point and the same goal. The principles work for all goals and habits, but for the sake of this example, we’ll use a specific goal. They both start at the same weight and want to lose 30 pounds of fat. Neither of them has any experience with healthy eating or exercise. Let’s see what each of them would do differently to work on their goal.

Realistic Goals and Expectations

Mike knows how to set realistic goals and expectations. Before he commits to a specific target, he researches the topic thoroughly. He reads a few books and talks to his friends who have done it before. He takes the time to learn what a reasonable fat loss target is and how long it’s going to take to achieve it.

Jim doesn’t want to do any research or planning. He wants to start immediately and not waste any time. “Lose 30 pounds in 3 weeks” sounds like a reasonable goal to him since that’s what all the ads are saying lately. He commits to the goal without thinking if it’s realistically achievable or not.

Devote Time for The New Goal

Mike knows that to achieve any goal he has to devote extra time every day to work on it. His time is already booked a 100%, and he knows he can’t fit anything else unless he gives up something else. If Mike can’t devote that time every day, he knows there’s no point to even start.

Jim is also booked 100% of the time, but he thinks he can fit in the exercise and change his diet in between things. He is confident that it’s not going to be a big deal and things will just work out.

Tracking Progress and Milestones

Mike knows that to make progress on a goal he needs to have a way to measure it. He knows measuring just his weight is not good enough since the muscle mass will also change. He measures his body fat percentage to keep track of his progress accurately.

Based on his goal and the time frame that he sets, Mike figures out weekly and monthly milestones. By tracking his weekly and monthly progress he can easily see if he’s on track to achieving his goal or not. If Mike is not consistently hitting his milestones, he knows that his strategy isn’t working and he has to change something.

Jim doesn’t bother recording any measurements or progress. He also wants to lose 30 pounds but has no idea how much progress he should be making every week. His only measure is the mirror and the subjective opinion of the people around him. Hearing somebody ask, “Have you lost some weight?” feels so good! He wants to be surprised by jumping on the scales one day and finding out that he’s at his perfect weight.

Gradual Progress vs. Cold Turkey

Mike has never worked on this goal and he knows the start will be slow. He needs to learn many new things about how to achieve it. Before he jumps in, he makes sure what he’s doing is safe and effective.

He starts to gradually remove the unhealthy foods from his diet and replaces them with healthy ones. At the gym, Mike is careful to not push himself too far. He takes his time to learn how to properly do the exercises and gradually increases the challenge.

Jim hasn’t worked on this goal either, but he doesn’t want to waste time. He’s heard that the paleo diet is pretty good for losing weight, so he goes a 100% paleo right away.

He goes to the gym and loads the bench press with the maximum he can lift. He doesn’t waste time with warming up or learning the correct exercises.

Quick Fix vs. Long Term Strategy

Mike knows that there are no lasting “quick fixes” in life. When he creates the strategy to achieve his goal he makes sure that it’s viable long term. He doesn’t just go on the latest diet, he picks a meal plan that he can follow for life.

Jim just wants to get ripped quickly and go on with his life. He’s interested in quick gains and quick burns. He is taking steroids and weight loss pills to accelerate his progress. He is also saving up some money for liposuction, just in case.

Mentorship

Mike knows that getting help from experts will speed up his progress. He will learn how to avoid a lot of mistakes along the way. He invests some time looking for a good coach who can show him the basics. He does a few coaching sessions to learn which exercises are most effective and how to do them safely.

Mike also hires a dietitian who helps him learn the fundamentals of healthy eating and weight loss. They spend a few hours designing a new diet plan that fits Mike’s lifestyle needs.

Jim doesn’t need anybody to tell him what to do. He’s already read hundreds of fitness magazines and has figured out a workout strategy that works for him. He exercises on whatever machines he can find at the local gym. He doesn’t have a set routine and does the exercises that he feels like that day.

For Jim hiring a dietitian is a waste of money. Plus, nobody knows his own body better than him. Based on a few articles he’s read online he comes up with his own diet plan.

Accountability

Besides having a mentor, Mike knows that having social support is a crucial part of achieving any goal. He knows that the people around him will be a key factor in determining his success. So he is actively looking for friends that will encourage him. He doesn’t share his goal with people who are negative and could hold him back.

Mike also knows the value of accountability partners. He has a pact with a dependable friend to be in the gym together 4 times a week. He knows that he is much more likely to exercise if he is held accountable.

Jim is thrilled to tell everybody about his new goal and broadcasts it to everyone, regardless of whether they will encourage him or not. He doesn’t change anything in his social circle and doesn’t look for people who are into exercise or healthy foods. He relies only on his strong initial motivation and doesn’t need anybody to hold him accountable with exercise.

Do It for The Right Reasons

Mike knows that if he loses that extra fat he will be healthier, happier, and an inspiration for others. Because Mike is doing this for the right reasons he has the motivation to persist when the going gets hard.

Mike knows that he doesn’t need to brag and flaunt his success. He quietly works on his goals and knows that the rewards and respect from others will come because of hard work, not showing off.

Jim wants to get ripped and look better in front of his buddies. He is all about showing off his success. He often checks in from the gym with a photo of how much he is benching. His main motivation is to get approval and popularity. Since his goal is entirely selfish and shallow, when the going gets hard Jim doesn’t have the internal motivation to keep going.

Fast Forward a Few Months

Mike has already made solid progress. He weighs 10 pounds less and has even built some extra muscle mass.

The exercise plan that his coach helped him create feels great. He has increased the challenge and intensity of the workouts and he can feel that his body is getting stronger and more flexible.

It was difficult to get used to his new diet, but now he feels satisfied after each meal. He still gets some cravings for junk food occasionally, but because his body is getting all the nutrients it needs it’s easy to stay on track.

Mike indulges with a cheat meal every week or so without feeling guilty about it. He knows that he’s got a great diet and one meal with less healthy foods is not going to affect him.

Mike had a rough time emotionally for a few weeks. He was feeling depressed and working out was the last thing he wanted to do. However, his accountability buddy was there to cheer him up and motivate him to do the exercise anyway. He didn’t miss a single workout despite the emotional turmoil.

He also has a sister and two colleagues that have been obese for a long time. They are all inspired by Mike’s great results and have also started working on getting a healthier lifestyle. They’re all supporting and encouraging each other.

Jim has had a few very rough months. The diet plan he created was working well for the first week or so, but soon he started getting very strong cravings, a clear sign that he’s missing essential nutrients. After a few days, his diet streak ended in McDonald’s, but he still swears it’s the best meal he’s ever had.

The exercise was also going well for a while until he had a bad accident and hurt his back. That kept him out of the gym for a few weeks and erased the progress he had made. Even though his back healed, Jim was bummed out about the whole thing and didn’t go to the gym for a few more weeks. There was nobody to encourage him and help him get back on track faster.

Jim also got a rash all over his body from the steroids. The doctor prescribed, even more, drugs to balance out his body.

He’s still debating whether a healthy lifestyle is for him. After all, nobody from his family is fit and healthy, maybe it’s just his genes?

Conclusion

All the examples above are about fat loss, however, the principles apply to all goals we want to achieve. The process is the same whether we want to lose fat, build a business, learn to play the guitar, or improve our relationship. To be successful in any goal we need to make sure we’re following the fundamental principles.

So if you have a goal and it’s not quite working out so far, see if you’re following the fundamental principles of success. Check if your strategy and actions are more like Jim’s or more like Mike’s.

No Jims or Mikes were harmed in the making of this article. And I sincerely apologize to all the Jims reading this. I’ve coached many successful Jims and I love you just as much as the Mikes! <3

11 Ninja Tips On How to Wake Up Early

By George Halachev

If you’re a night owl and you’ve tried waking up early, you know it’s one of the hardest habits to master.

You want to get up early and be productive but your mind is foggier than the Golden Gate bridge. And your body feels like it’s been run over by an 18 wheeler.

Several times.

Also, so far you’ve probably read a ton of tips on how to wake up early. In those, you see the usual advice:

Maintain a regular sleep schedule.
Don’t sleep in on weekends.
Don’t use electronics late at night.
Eliminate blue light from screens.
Don’t eat dinner too late.
Create a bedtime routine.
Change the wake-up/bedtime gradually.

All these are important but they’ve already been discussed to death.

Instead, let’s look at a few more advanced, “ninja” tips, that will make you an early riser faster…

1. Do NOT Jump Out of Bed Immediately

The usual advice about alarms is to keep it far away and immediately jump out of bed when it goes off.

That approach works well in the military.

But what if you don’t want to start every day with so much stress?

What if you want to enjoy your morning and spend some quiet time in bed before jumping into something productive?

If you want to make a habit stick long-term, it has to feel good. You’re not going to make it very far if it feels horrible, and that’s exactly how it feels when you’re groggy and jump out of bed immediately.

But what usually happens if you turn off the alarm and stay in bed? —You fall back asleep.

Or even worse, snooze the alarm, which is a habit that you definitely don’t want to reinforce. If you’re struggling with that one, here’s a great technique for how to stop hitting the snooze button.

So how can you enjoy a few extra minutes in bed without falling back asleep? Here’s a great solution…

Have a two-alarm setup:

Alarm #1 is to wake you up.
Alarm #2 is your cue to get out of bed.

It’s best to set those up on two different devices. #1 should be within arm’s reach so you can turn it off easily and stay in bed. #2 should be on the other side of the room so that you’re forced to get out of bed when it goes off.

A 10-minute difference between the first and second alarm works pretty well.

It gives your body a chance to gently wake up and enjoy some quiet time in bed. And you won’t accidentally fall back asleep or perpetuate the bad snoozing habit.

Here’s the setup that works best for me:

#1 Alarm—Fitbit wristband (silent vibrating alarm) that wakes me up, without waking up my partner or anyone else in the house.
#2 Alarm—My phone, charging on the other side of the room so I have to get out of bed to turn it off.

If you tend to get distracted by messages and notifications in the morning, you might wanna use an old school alarm clock instead of your phone.

2. Do NOT Start with A Morning Routine

Waking up early is all about being in control of your life and becoming more productive.

So the logical thing to do is invest that extra morning time into productive habits—things like exercise, meditation, a healthy breakfast, planning your day, etc.

The problem is that all these habits require discipline.

And if you’re groggy when the alarm goes off, you’re not exactly looking forward to being disciplined. Knowing that you have to exercise or do productive work right away makes getting out of bed that much harder.

You can make it much easier by starting your day with something that you love doing.

Something that gives you joy.

It doesn’t have to be long or complicated. It works even if it’s something you do for 5-10 minutes. Here are a few ideas:

Getting a cup of coffee.
Talking to your partner/roommate.
Reading a book that you love.
Listening to a podcast.
Watching an inspirational video.

It doesn’t matter exactly what it is as long as it excites you and you’re looking forward to it.

And make sure you ONLY allow yourself to do it once you’re out of bed. Think of it as the reward for getting up early.

Starting with joy will not only make it easier to get up, but it will improve your mood. It will set the tone for the rest of the day, and therefore, make everything else afterward easier and more enjoyable.

3. Plan Your Mornings with Excruciating Detail

The more specific you are with your morning routine, the easier it’s going to be to execute it.

And by a morning routine, I mean the really small details.

Do you get dressed before going to the bathroom?
Do you shave first or brush your teeth first?
Do you brush your teeth before breakfast or after?
Do you take a shower in the morning or in the evening?

The more details you figure out in advance, the more efficient the routine is going to be.

You’ll get it done faster.

And since we’re doing it every single day, just 5-10 minutes faster makes a huge difference long-term.

Those 5-10 minutes are going to accumulate to hundreds of hours saved over the years.

For example, when I wrote down my routine I noticed how many unnecessary trips I was making back and forth to different rooms. First, because I didn’t do the habits in the right order. And second, because I would forget something and then have to go back.

Just fixing the sequence in which I did the habits saved me at least 10 minutes every day.

Here’s an example of my morning routine.

Again, this is just for optimizing the really small details—not including other habits like exercise, meditation, breakfast, etc.

[First Alarm]

Cuddle with my girlfriend (or visualize my day if I sleep alone) [10 min.]

[Second Alarm]

Turn off the alarm (phone stays in the living room) [1 min.]
Go to the bathroom [1 min.]
Wash my face [1 min.]
Take of the retainer and put on contact lenses [1 min.]
Brush teeth, tongue scrape, mouthwash [3 min.]
Fix hair [1 min.]

[Kitchen]

Play a song from my favorite playlist (my “starting with Joy” activity) and do one set of push-ups [1 min.]
Weigh-in [1 min.]
Drink a glass of water and supplements [1 min.]
Get food from the fridge to take to the office (prepped on the night before) [1 min.]
Get dressed (clothes prepped on the night before) [1 min.]

[Living Room]

Get my phone and check Todoist (agenda for the day prepped on the night before) [1 min.]
Get all my gear—wristwatch, keys, wallet, earbuds (kept in a box so I don’t have to search every morning) [1 min.]
Ready to go!

It might seem like a big list, but now that it’s optimized it takes me less than 15 minutes to get it all done. Before it could easily take more than half an hour.

And once I’m done with the list I know all my basics are covered—starting with joy, hygiene, clothes, drinking enough water, quick physical activity, and tracking weight.

Afterward, I might go into other productive habits as a part of my morning routine—meditation, breakfast, gym, etc.

Or go to the office right away.

But that changes every month depending on what I’m focusing on.

What doesn’t change are those tiny—seemingly insignificant—habits that are really the foundation. That’s what you have to master first before working on a more sophisticated morning routine.

4. Do You Have an Unstoppable Reason to Wake Up Early?

“Early risers are happier and more productive,” is not a good enough reason to wake up early.

It’s too general and will not inspire you to get out of bed when you’re groggy.

Becoming an early riser long-term is hard. And if you want to make it stick long-term, you need a good reason for it. You need motivation that is more powerful than the pain of grogginess in the morning.

Be really clear about what you want to get out of the extra morning time.

What are you going to do?

Work on your side business?
Go to the gym?
Have time for a healthy breakfast?
Learn and read more?

If you don’t come up with a good way to spend your mornings in advance, they will automatically be allocated to sleeping in.

Trying to figure out the right thing to do at 5 AM isn’t going to work. At that time your mind will always come up with the same priority—sleep more.

Also, think about the “why?” behind the new habit.

Why are you going to the gym more? Why do you want to work on your side business more?

The motivation is in the “why”.

5. How to Master Your Weekend Mornings?

The regularity of your wake-up time is crucial to making this habit stick long-term. If you sleep in on Saturday and Sunday it will make the wake-up much more difficult on workdays.

But most of us don’t work on weekends and our schedules and routines change completely.

The motivation to wake up early to get everything done before work is gone. Since you’re not working you have plenty of time to do it later, so your subconscious mind says, “What’s the point of getting up early?”

And we usually go back to sleep and mess up our sleep regularity.

That’s going to keep happening if you don’t come up with a good reason to be up early on weekends as well.

The solution is to pre-plan quality time off.

Taking a day or two off every week is great. It’s going to help you stay productive on the workdays and not get burnt out long term.

But oversleeping, watching Netflix in bed, or mindlessly browsing the web isn’t really quality time off.

It’s not recharging your batteries as well as something that you truly enjoy.

So plan your leisure time the same way you would plan your work:

Sign up for an early exercise class on weekends.
Set aside time for your favorite hobby.
Plan an early morning hike with friends.
Use the time for something that’s been on your bucket list for years.

It might seem weird to plan for your leisure time.

But if you don’t do it, in most cases, that time ends up being wasted doing something that isn’t truly rejuvenating.

Whatever the plan is, it’s going to be better than, “I’ll get up on Saturday and figure it out.”

6. How to Stay Awake After Getting Out of Bed

Maybe you already have a good alarm setup. Maybe you’ve gotten rid of the snoozing habit and you can get out of bed despite the grogginess.

What comes next?

The grogginess doesn’t magically disappear when you get up. You still have to fight the battle of staying awake and not going back to bed.

Changing your wake-up time is hard, especially if it’s a big change like 2-3 hours earlier.

While your body gets used to the new timing, you will feel sleepy and going back to bed will be tempting. Especially if you’re still at home.

Even coffee doesn’t help in that case.

So what’s the solution?

Go outdoors as soon as possible. Do a quick hygiene routine to refresh yourself and hit the door immediately.

Something about being outdoors makes it much easier to stay awake. Feeling the cool air on your skin, sun on your face, smelling the grass and flowers, hearing the rustling leaves. Nature tends to melt away the grogginess.

It’s a great opportunity to do some exercise too, like a brisk walk or jogging. Which is one of the best ways to start your day—get your heart rate up.

7. Trying to Wake Up Early Alone Is a Mistake

You’ve probably already successfully done many hard things in your life.

Maybe it was a hard project at work. Maybe it was a skill you learned.

If you think about those things you’ve mastered in the past, did you do it alone? Or did you have help along the way?

At work, was there a boss or a manager to hold you accountable? Did you learn a new skill by doing it alone? Or did you sign up for a class, online course, or hire a teacher?

Regardless of whether you’ve done it alone or not, there is no doubt that having external help is going to make it easier.

And what’s the best kind of help? It’s accountability.

It’s having somebody to not only show you the ropes but to actually make sure you show up every day. Somebody that will lend you a hand when you fall off track.

So why are you trying to become an early riser on your own? Why not involve somebody else and make it much easier?

Luckily nowadays it’s easy to find help. Here are some options:

Involve your friends and family—tell them about your commitment and ask them to hold you accountable.
Use social media to make your commitment public—This is one case in which Facebook and Twitter might be productive instead of a distraction.
Find an accountability buddy that does it with you—even if you don’t have a reliable friend you can easily find somebody through FocusMate.
Put your money where your mouth is—sign up for stickK.com and make a commitment that, if you fail, is going to lose you money.
Hire a professional coach—Using coach.me you can hire a professional coach to hold you accountable every day for as little as $87/month.

If nothing else works, get a cat. There is no better early wake-up accountability than a hungry cat in the morning.

The downside to that approach is that it might also decide it wants some playtime at 3 AM, but oh well… cats will be cats.

8. Use Sleeping Cycles to Your Advantage

Have you had one of those days where you wake up early and you don’t feel sleepy or groggy? You can fall back asleep easily but you can also get up and start your day.

Feels great, doesn’t it? Of course, you also know about the other mornings…

Mornings where getting out of bed feels terrible. So why do we experience both on different days?

The answer is sleeping cycles.

When we sleep at night our bodies go through different sleeping cycles. Each cycle goes through different stages, illustrated on the graph below.

Stage 4 is the deepest one and Stage 1 is the lightest one, meaning the closest one to the awake state.

The closer to the awake state you are when the alarm goes off the better you will feel. The deeper you are the worse you will feel.

So how can you use that to your advantage?

You have to figure out at which time in the morning you’re in the lightest stage of sleep.

If you feel terrible when the alarm goes off at 7 am, try 7:30 instead. If that doesn’t work, try 8 am. Eventually, you’ll find the sweet spot and you’ll be able to get up much more easily.

Once you find that sweet spot, you can begin gradually moving your alarm back by 10-15 minutes earlier, and shift your sleep cycles until you hit your target wake-up time.

You can also use a sleep calculator app to estimate at what time you’ll be in the lightest stage of sleep.

Keep in mind that this approach works only if you have consistent bedtimes. If you change the bedtimes by 1-2 hours every day, the sleep cycles will change too, and you won’t be able to find that stability in the morning.

Besides the sleep calculator, you can also use a smart alarm app that tracks your cycles and wakes you up when you’re in a light sleep stage.

The advantage of the smart alarm is that it automatically does the calculation for you. And if your sleep schedule is still irregular it will be more accurate since it actually tracks your sleeping patterns—so if your sleep cycles change the alarm will adjust automatically.

The disadvantage is that it will wake you up at different times every morning. So planning your morning routine and schedule afterward is harder.

9. Get Enough Sleep or Maintain Consistent Wake-Up Times?

You already know that consistent wake-up/bedtimes are crucial to becoming an early riser long-term. However, we don’t live in a perfect world. Sometimes our priorities change and we have to stay up late.

In that case, we have two choices for the morning after.

Choice #1: Get out of bed at the same time (and deal with sleep deprivation the next day).

The best choice depends on how late you go to bed…

If you go to bed late but still get at least 5-6 hours, then it’s better to maintain the same alarm time.

You will feel a bit sleepy during the day, but you will maintain your sleep regularity. Which will make it easier to wake up early again on the following day.

And dealing with sleep deprivation for just one day isn’t a big deal. You can get a power nap in the afternoon to help you stay awake. You can also go to bed a little earlier the following evening to catch up on sleep.

If you were to change your alarm every time you go to bed late, you will have a much more irregular schedule.

You might end up sleeping 2-3 hours longer.

So on the following evening, you won’t feel sleepy at the usual bedtime and you’ll probably stay up late again. The whole thing turns into a downward spiral.

A good rule of thumb is, “Regulate the amount of sleep by adjusting the bedtime, not the wake-up time.”

Choice #2: Turn off the alarm and get enough sleep (and mess up the regularity).

The second scenario is when you go to bed very late and keeping the typical alarm time means you’ll only get 1-2 hours of sleep.

In that case, you’ll be better off sleeping in.

Even if you wake up on time, with so little sleep you’ll end up spending the day like a brain-fogged zombie, struggling to stay awake all the time. So instead, turn off the alarm and let your body wake you up naturally.

On the following evening, it’s likely that you won’t feel sleepy at your usual bedtime. So make sure you put some extra effort to be in bed on time.

To avoid the downward spiral, you can use melatonin to fall asleep earlier.

Melatonin is a natural hormone that the body produces to make us sleepy, so it’s not as harmful as sleeping pills.

But keep in mind that it’s also not as strong as sleeping pills. Meaning it won’t knock you out completely, it just helps to make you sleepy. So it’s not going to work if you’re doing something stimulating like watching TV or browsing the web.

10. How Long Does It Take for Waking Up Early to Become a Habit?

It’s one of the most frequent questions that I get, “How long until I don’t have to put effort into it and wake up early naturally?”

It only takes your body 2 days of a regular sleep schedule to adjust to a small change like 1-2 hours. It might take several days if the change is 3 hours or more.

However, getting yourself to do those several days consistently is a different story.

It’s different because getting out of bed is a habit. And you’ve probably already got a ton of momentum in the opposite direction—snoozing the alarm and sleeping in.

But even if you break the snoozing habit, there are other bad habits that are getting in the way:

Watching TV or browsing the web late at night.
Phone calls and texting past your bedtime.
Eating dinner too late.
Caffeine past 4 pm.
Alcohol close to your bedtime.

So you have to break not only the snoozing habit but all those other habits that mess up your sleep.

That’s what slows things down.

Changing all those negative habits takes time and effort.

So the answer really depends on how many of those habits you’ve already got. If you have a healthy bedtime routine and a regular sleep schedule, waking up early is going to be easy. You can do it in a single week.

But if you also have to work on changing these other habits it might take months.

I’ve worked with hundreds of people on waking up early and improving their sleep schedule. And on average it takes most people about 2-3 months to really get a handle on it.

That being said, the average answer isn’t really helpful. To get the real answer for you, ask yourself “How many negative habits do I also need to change to have healthy sleep?”

11. How to Deal with Electronics That Keep You Up Late

Several years ago I was really struggling with waking up early. I knew it was a corner-stone habit and—if I mastered it—everything else was going to change for the better.

But nothing that I tried seemed to work.

Then something surprising happened that made me an early riser in just 3 days—my computer died.

It was as easy as that.

I had no TV, smartphone, or a tablet at the time. So there was nothing keeping me up late at night. The only device I had was a screenless iPod which I used to listen to audiobooks.

Luckily the audiobooks helped me sleep faster instead of keeping me up.

And since I fell asleep early, I naturally started getting up early—no discipline required.

Going through that period without any electronics and effortlessly becoming an early riser, helped me realize that waking up early is our natural state.

We don’t have to do anything extra to be early risers, we just need to eliminate the obstacles.

And by far the biggest obstacles nowadays are electronic devices.

So if you’re really committed to succeeding at this habit, get rid of all electronics. Don’t just turn them off—that never works. There is nothing stopping you from turning everything back on when you’re feeling bored and can’t fall asleep.

Remove the most harmful obstacles:

Get rid of the TV.
Leave your laptop in the office.
Lend your tablet to a friend for a few weeks.
Switch to an old school “dumb” phone.

It’s an extreme step and it’s not feasible long-term. But doing it for just a few weeks will give you a great start with going to bed on time and getting up early.

It’s like learning to ride a bicycle with training wheels—eventually, we want to do it without those, but they surely help in the beginning.

And eventually, we have to learn how to wake up early consistently despite the electronics. But getting rid of these obstacles will make the start so much easier.

The Most Powerful Tip About Waking Up Early

Each one of these tips is a solution to an obstacle that is in the way of a healthy sleep schedule and waking up early. If you’re not struggling with that particular issue the tip will be useless to you.

However, if you find that one of them resonates strongly with you, it means that it’s a solution to an obstacle you need to overcome.

But learning about the solution isn’t going to change anything.

Now that you know about it, it’s time to put it into action. So which of the 11 tips resonated with you the most?

How can you apply it to your life?

The more you wait, the less power the insight you got is going to have. And eventually, you’ll forget about it altogether.

How can you use that solution today and get one step closer to waking up early?