How To Become A Morning Person, Even If You've Failed Before

It’s 5:32 in the morning as I write this first sentence. The birds are going nuts out the kitchen window. Too buggy to sit outside right now but I’ll be out there in a few with my weird iced coffee protein thing I’ve been drinking that I’m obsessed with.

I need to wake up earlier. Which is absurd for a girl who has quite literally been a “morning person” my entire life. But I’ve learned at 38-years-young that the best work of my day happens before I’m ‘online’ (my phone has been Brick-ed since 8pm last night) for the day. And I think that in summer mode that means 4:30am.

Editor’s note here: I am going to write a book one day and I’m fully fully convinced the only way it’ll happen is a 4:30am alarm.

I’ve written before about how I think being constantly available to literally anyone on the planet is quite actually insane, absurd & ruining our brains — and I’m here to tell you that no one listened! Okay that’s a lie. Some people listened. But this behavior will be an unlearning for us and what’ll move the needle faster than a giant societal unlearning will just be me getting up earlier.

I was diagnosed with ADD in the 3rd? 4th grade? If I’m remembering it correctly it came along with some kind of ‘auditory processing’ disorder diagnosis too… all I know is I went to a long testing thing with some lady and it confirmed a LOT for my Mom + teachers. In the 90’s ADD was rarely talked about and in girls it was ‘unheard’ of it seemed. I was not hyperactive. I was not ‘bad’ in class. Keith and Brandon the “ADHD kids” in my class were misunderstood and constantly in trouble and heavily medicated and it was a weird time. I just simply could not and still cannot concentrate as well as other people. Before we go any further a little disclaimer; I am not an expert in any of this, I’ve never tried medication for it & I can only share my personal experience of how I believe my brain works in this world. Truth be told I just never let this really be a ‘thing’ for me.

After a diagnosis I just went on with my life. School was hard. REALLY hard for me. But I was a kid who had friends and was mediocre at a lot of activities and all was well. I never really realized my brain worked differently until I met Matt. We’ve been together nearly half my life now and I remember when we started dating I was truly flabbergasted that he could sit and work on something, the SAME THING, for hours. I watched him get his Masters Degree and he’d sit down to study and — be able to just sit there and … study? He can read an instruction manual and… follow it?

So what does this have to do with getting up early? One of the best ways I’ve learned to help my brain & nervous system function is the quiet of the morning. Before we’re all online for the day, the quiet and stillness of the early morning provides a respite for my brain, while its rested, to accomplish tasks with such clarity - that it simply cannot find after 2pm.

So what does this have to do with getting up early? One of the best ways I’ve learned to help my brain & nervous system function is the quiet of the morning.

My sacred morning quiet time is quite literally the most productive, clear headed, quietest and most ‘dialed in’ I am all day.

Here are some of my top tips for ‘becoming a morning person’ and how to navigate this if you’ve got littles at home. They are relatively simple, give you lots of room for flubs & meet you right where you are: