I have taken many approaches at what to publish next. A blog post versus a journal entry. Focusing on the past, present or future. Prescriptive or descriptive. Most of it is saved as a draft, littering my WordPress back-end with unfinished thoughts that represent the present state of my mind. My goal is to write weekly and then daily, so far I’ve got a lot of room for improvement.
The beautiful thing is that the present constantly presents new opportunities, new shifts of consciousness.
We are so entangled with the thought current of the clock, work-week and calendar that removing ourself from that is both immensely challenging and impractical in society without sufficient sacrifice and an increasing reliance on self-discipline and will.
You see it is the hour clock that we’ve given up some of our control to, the measurable tracking of time to value our self and our life. We have not only become dependent on the clock we have become enslaved by it. We set an alarm to wake us up. We set reminders to exercise, to accomplish certain tasks by.
In a sense it is a great tool for efficiency and achieving complex objectives like the coordination of a meeting. However, it also enables a sense of laziness that all too often is present with technology–such as the decline in accurate spelling with autocorrect, intentionally not memorizing history with Wikipedia, not remembering your friends birthday or phone number because Facebook, etc. In some facets it’s great as it reduces our cognitive load as it outsources certain things, but in others, like will power, it creates a crutch.
The logical arguments are there: to make sure you wake up in time to go to work, to accomplish something, to stay “in control” of your life you use time to deliberately schedule things, like sleep.
But it also reduces our will power. Let’s focus this argument on setting an alarm to wake up. You do set some intentionality in motion by picking the time to wake up, but by the mere act of being woken up by a machine, by something outside of you, you actually give up some control in your life.
You aren’t waking yourself up, a machine is. You intentionally setup a machine to disturb the natural order of your state of mind. In this case, whatever state of the REM cycle you are in.
That is clearly a sub-optimal solution.
So what is the optimal solution?
Work on waking up through your own volition.
Have you ever woken up on your own? How did that feel? Have you ever made a decision to intentionally wake up at a certain time…and then actually wake up at that time?
It feels amazing!
Especially when you wake up naturally right before your alarm (not like 45 minutes before because that’s like…the worst).
Compare that to those nights you go to sleep dreading waking up. Those nights where you give yourself over to the clock to wake you. Unless you’re part of the rare few who jump out of bed eager to start the day, it probably doesn’t feel “amazing”!
With an alarm going off, you begin your day with an abrupt adrenaline filled activity often with despise, anger or loathing at the fact you were awakened from your slumber. Extrapolated over the course of your life, you are resolving to setup thousands of intentional jarring, anger filled moments–moments that you start your day with. Think about it, setting an alarm for the work week is like purposefully setting yourself up to begin each day with dis-ease. That sets the tone for the day on negative grounds or you have to actively overcome that dis-ease to get to a better state of mind. That’s not optimal.
So what are you suggesting?
Practice the act of intentionally setting a time to wake up and wake up at that time. It may take a bit of adrenaline inducing alarms to get you there, but the end goal is to eventually take off the training wheels of the alarm and will yourself to wake when you want to.
Now naturally we can’t afford the risk of missing a beat in today’s constantly time-rigid environment. So as insurance, set an alarm like you normally would.
However, set an alarm as a backup for the absolutely latest time you want to get up. Seek not to awake with the alarm, set an intention to wake before it. Just as little as one minute before will do…
Seek to awake before the alarm, get out of bed, make the bed and open the curtains (small steps that can be done to increase the chances of not diving right back into bed). Then, get to your alarm–most likely your phone–and turn it off before it even starts.
Turn it off not out of frustration for startling you out of a peaceful slumber, rather, turn it off with a victorious and grateful nature for awaking at the desired time and starting your day off winning–for a made bed is the first step to a successful life.
One minute less of sleep to change the outlook of your day is a pretty good trade-off, wouldn’t you agree?
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Try it out.
- Set an intention to wake up 1 minute before you normally do.
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- Commit to that time in your mind.
- It helps to plan your sleep in 90 minute intervals (4.5, 6, 7.5 hours), and perhaps give a few minutes extra to fall asleep. Do this because REM cycles typically last 90 minutes and waking up right after those are when you feel most rested.
- Set your alarm for the time you normally do, but see it as a backup insurance policy in case you don’t wake up versus waiting for it to go off to wake up.
- Right before bed, set the intention that you will wake up well-rested and ready to take on the day, grateful for this day, this opportunity of infinite possibilities.
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- The mindset you have right before sleep has been show to impact how well you feel the next day when you wake up.
- A good evening routine typically already accounts for this type of getting into a state of gratitude–like journaling, meditating, and praying are all great ways to set this kind of positive mindset.
- The next morning, wake up however you wake up.
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- If you wake up to your alarm, great no worries, love yourself knowing that one day you will wake up before the alarm and that you are working towards your independence from the tyranny of the alarm and working towards improvement of your will power.
- If you wake up before your alarm, congratulations! Get out of bed grateful to have successfully manifested your intention, make your bed, open your blinds, and turn the alarm off before it even starts
- Write down and track if you woke up before the alarm or with the alarm. Also, write how you are feeling on a 1-5 scale
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- Studies have shown some of the best ways to track your feelings towards sleep are with a simple 1-5 scale (5 being super well rested and pumped for the day vs. 1 being exhausted)
- What gets measured gets monitored gets improved gets rewarded
- It also acts as a way to hold you accountable and provides further insight into optimizing your life (more on that in other posts)
- Commit to doing this for 21 days
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- Habits diligently practiced for 21 straight days seem to be the sweet-spot in research studies on habit forming
This is but the first step in your day to decouple your dependence on things outside of you and regain will power, appreciation, and capacity to create your reality based on your intention. There’s plenty more areas to improve, but this is a great start.
All it does is take sixty seconds a day. One minute less of sleep and shifting your view of the alarm from your prime operating standard to a backup redundancy mechanism for insurance.
The Alarm Clock and 60 Seconds a Day Can Change Your Life.
That’s a phenomenal ROI by any standard.