What do you do to make getting up early feel good? Or at least not dreadful?

[CavalierApproach]

I do get up, but at first it feels physically and emotionally like a shock or a punishment to be out of bed and immediately processing time-sensitive information about everyone's urgent needs. It takes me too long to hit my stride.

I have a new job with busy, mentally demanding mornings so I really want to address this.

I guess I'm hoping for tips from people who have strategised to make it less hellish, rather than simply being natural larks.

I go to bed early and when I wake up I make myself a lovely coffee

Doing as much the night before as possible. To do list. What to wear. Bag packed. Car full of petrol or ticket handy. Lunch made. All this stuff is the only thing thst means i can cut out noise and focus.

As pp said get everything possible ready the night before, including prepping your coffee maker of choice. I have overnight oats with fruit & nuts for breakfast so in the morning all I have to do is get it out of the fridge, and a moka pot that just needs to go on the hob.

Set your alarm five or ten minutes before the other people's. Have a small amount of phone scroll!

Have your clothes for the day sorted the night before. Ideally right next to bed.

Your hot beverage of choice "set up" - mine is a coffee machine nearly ready to go - I hit ON and then Feed the cats and unlock dishwasher and voilà the coffee is nearly done

Get some food and drink options out for kids (my DD is 11) so often put a juice or smoothie out, plus a cereal box, bag of brioche and a yoghurt....she then has to make a choice not come up with an idea!

I second a nice coffee, really helps get me going

I wake a 5am most days. I trained myself to do it by firstly carving it out as me time.
I'd wake, do some yoga, go for a run or read a book with a coffee. I never, ever used it to do household chores or anything I didn't want to.
I went to bed supremely early so that when I woke and thought "I want to stay in bed" I'd yell at myself to get up because I'd already slept 7-8 hours.

Over time it became the new time I woke up. The last few days I've been waking at 6am and have felt on the back foot for the day (I accept 6am is still horrendously early for some, but school drop off is 7.30 where we live).

I also listened religiously to motivational speeches on YouTube as soon as I woke up. Having someone yelling inspirational shit in my ears really chivvied me along.

If YouTube speeches aren't your bag, go on Pinterest and search for early waking motivational quotes and save these to your photo album so you can flick through them after you wake. It helps I promise!

I go to bed early & try to have good sleep hygiene eg yoga, meditation, herbal tea.
When it gets cold I have the house warm for when I wake.

Go to bed as early as you can the night before.

And I also second actually getting up a bit earlier than you need to - even 5 to 10 mins. My mornings are so much better now I basically come to with a cup of tea and the paper/ my phone for 20 mins first thing. Then I can deal with stuff.

I go to bed early, I get everything out and ready for the morning and 3 days a week I exercise before work. Gives me a real boost.

Lay everything out the night before - I hate this bit, it makes my evening feel shorter, but I’m bloody glad in the morning.

Have given up caffeine but I used to set the coffee machine the night before too, so I could just turn it on in the morning and take a flask of nice coffee to work.

Don’t think about work until you get to work. Don’t check emails. No sensible decisions are made in the dark hours, but everything seems madly stressful when you’re half asleep. It’s never that bad when you get to the office.

@Strokethefurrywall inspirational speeches would make me go postal!

I have no tips.
I've been getting up at 6am for years and every morning it feels like hell 😁😁

I wish I knew OP! If I wake up even 2 minutes before my alarm goes off I will still turn over and try and go back to sleep for that 2 minutes.

Try waking up earlier but stay in bed and read/watch tv or something for a set amount of time before actually getting up then build on that? Although I know that wouldn’t work for me because I’d just tell myself I’d rather sleep.

I don't have to wake early often but I find a really refreshing shower scrub or scrub bar is a nice treat for early mornings. Lush Scrub-bee is nice, lovely honey smell and leaves a moisturising oil on you so no need for lotion afterwards.

If I'm having to organise something like leaving for holiday, I have a checklist on my phone set up a day or two before for things that can only be done/added to packing or hand luggage on the morning we leave, so I don't have to worry about 'what if I forget X or Y?'

I don’t bother getting stuff ready the night before but my wardrobe is organised so I can just grab & go.

Get everything done the night before.
Make sure I have time to sit down to have a coffee and breakfast every morning.
Set my alarm a bit before I need to get out of bed so I can wake up properly.
Make sure the heating is on (in winter) so I'm not getting up to a cold house.

Coffee in a nice mug!

Upbeat cheesy music helps me get up and going. Otherwise, something you really like downstairs - eg chocolate croissant for breakfast 😋

I get up at 4am for work. I do everything I possibly can the night before from filling up my water bottle for the day, putting my car keys next to bag, getting my shoes out, prepping breakfast to eat in the car etc. It still shocks me that I do this successfully because I used to sleep in/ be late for everything 🙈

Accept that at first it is indeed dreadful, especially in winter, but that after not too long that first cup of coffee, nice prepped breakfast and peace that comes from being up before others or having plenty of time to start the day not just rush about, makes it worthwhile and invigorating even.

The only thing that makes it better is remembering how much better your day is when your morning is less stressful and you’re not running late.

It is hellish though. Everyone says prep the night before which is a must but sometimes by the time the kids are in bed you’re just exhausted. If you then have to spend more time making lunch, breakfast and prepping the coffee machine you get zero time to yourself after a long day at work. Sometimes I prefer just to rest and get up early and do the prep in the morn to give myself a break.

You need to be in the habit of getting up early which unfortunately means going to bed early basically every day, even at the weekends. If you need to get up at 5:30 in the week I’d go to bed at 9:30 in the week and probably only push it to 10:30pm at the weekend. If you go to bed late at the w/e and have a lie in if buggers up your your body clock.

Also, no or very little booze. If you are going to have a drink have it early in the eve.

Get some nice coffee in and allow time to sit and enjoy it whilst listening to the radio.

I wake at 5:45 3 times during the week so I can get my swim in before coming home to wake up the dc and do breakfasts etc.
I don’t go to bed early because I’m a night owl and I’m fine on 5 hours a night, but I’m definitely not a morning person.
What helps is preparing to have a lovely mid morning breakfast. Usually the preparing just means shopping or at least planning in advance. So while I’m swimming I’m really looking forward to coming home and having something really tasty to eat! I also have my swimming bag ready (to be fair it’s pretty much always ready) and by the door. And also just generally being prepared for the morning the night before. So ds gets his next days uniform out ready before he goes to bed, one less thing for me to be faffing for in the morning.
ironically once he’s left I have an hour to kill before I need to log on for work but I use that time wisely to just sort house jobs.

I try to get up a bit earlier than everyone else. That 15 minutes allows me to get a shower and a coffee by myself, which helps me be patient with the grumpy noisy kids.
I also pack bags the evening before, including my lunch.

I don't have a teasmade but have a travel kettle by the bed, I bring a cup, teabag and a little pot of milk in when I go to bed.

When I wake up and have made tea I drink it in bed and do the following:

• mini crossword
• Wordle
• connections
• secordle

Then it's time to get going.