I finally found the secret to waking up early

Now that I am finally writing again, I’m so excited to tell you what’s been happening. And I have all these pictures I took, thinking, this will be good for the blog. But then I didn’t write anything.

You can’t get stuff done if you don’t plan an exact time of day you’re going to do it. So I planned to wake up and write before the boys get up.`

When the boys were little I’d try this and they’d use their child radar to wake up the second I was awake. So I gave up writing in the morning. And anyway, I decided it can’t be true be that people who wake up early are higher performers because caretakers of little kids wake up early for years and it kills their career.

But now my kids are older. So I tried again.

And it turns out my son wakes up extra early every day, so he can have time alone before I start bugging him about making sure he a to-do list to meet goals for his day. And to play video games.

It was sobering to watch him. First of all, I realized how important alone time is for him. He’s willing to get up hours before everyone else in order to get it. I also learned that he needs a break from me harping on the idea of always having goals and working toward them.

I wish I had something I was so excited to do that I’d wake up early for. I read a study from Northwestern that shows that people who go outside early have a lower BMI. If anything would get me to wake up early, surely it would be losing weight.

But it just felt like all the other stuff you need to do to be thin: It all takes self-discipline. And besides, staying up late shopping online is so easy. I am not making this up. We are more irresponsible as the day wears on, which means surely everyone is doing their most ill-advised shopping at night. And when I do that, it’s even harder to wake up early.

There is nothing making me wake up. And when I don’t wake up, my younger son doesn’t wake up. And we had to tell the cello teacher that a 10am lesson is hard for us to make. And really, that is incompetent. And I don’t want my son to have a childhood like mine where he doesn’t have normal sleeping hours.

So I told him he has to get up. He’s old enough to wake himself up.

But he doesn’t do that. And I am not even awake to yell at him that he’s not awake.

Sometimes, when we really have to be somewhere the next morning, I stay up all night. Which not only ensures we get there in time, but also, sleep deprivation is a natural anti-depressant, and I feel it: I get tons done between 3am and 5am. It’s my sweet spot when I’m sleep deprived.

I tried to convince myself people do not need to wake up early. I reminded myself how much I hate productivity gurus and their early-morning hours. But I’m still frustrated with myself. I need to feel like I must wake up at a certain time or I’m in trouble. I think that’s how my older son wakes up. He gets no alone time if he doesn’t wake up an hour earlier. That’s urgency for him.

I need urgency.

Then I coached someone who told me she hired someone to come to her apartment and wake her up every day at 6am. Research says it takes 66 days to establish a habit, so she hired the person for two months. She gave the person a key, and she had the person bring a hot coffee as well. She ended up needing them for longer than two months, but it worked.

And that sounds great. And just as I was gearing up to do that I realized that I could just schedule coaching sessions every day at 7am. I’d wake up to do the coaching session.

I have scheduled early sessions before, but usually it’s because people request it. Now that could be my go-to coaching time. But how to line up so many people in a row to talk at 7am?

Then I had an idea. I have said for the last ten years that I’d never discount coaching sessions because it’s the road to hell. Or a slippery slope. Or whatever the expression is to connote disaster. But now I’m discounting coaching sessions because I need help waking up.

So to help me build my new routine, I’m going to offer coaching sessions for $150 each. The fee is usually $350. You can book a session for either 7am Eastern or 10pm Eastern. And this way I will use coaching sessions to establish a waking up routine and a going to bed routine. And you can use the coaching session to figure out your best next steps, or rewrite your resume, or start meeting your goals.

And if you don’t book the session for $150 in the next week, don’t ask me for the reduced fee later. Because by then I will be master of my sleep schedule and coaching sessions will be back to $350. Forever. To get the discount again y0u will have to wait until I’m 85 years old and inflation has made $350 only worth $150.

To get a coaching session pay $150 via this link. 

Then email me whether you want a morning or evening time and when in the next month you can do it. This offer is only good for one week.