You wake up early by moving your alarm a few minutes at a time and giving yourself a mantra for the moment it goes off. I call it micro progress. Shave one to seven minutes off your wake-up time, let your mind and body adjust, then repeat until you reach the time you want.
- Set tomorrow's alarm three minutes earlier and hold it there for a few days.
- Micro progress means shaving one to seven minutes at a time until you reach your time.
- A mantra like Start Hard answers the voice that tells you to sleep in.
- Design your first thought of the day so you get up with intention.
What is micro progress?
Micro progress is my name for improvement so small and subtle that you barely notice it. Applied to waking up early, it means changing your alarm by one to seven minutes at a time and letting each new time feel normal before you move it again.
I used to wake up at 7 or 7:30 in the morning, grab a coffee and go straight to work. Then I audited the success habits of the most successful people in the world, and I kept hearing that they wake up early. So I tried to go from 7:30 to 5 a.m. in one move. Two days in, the shock had thrown everything off course, and my self talk became "I am so tired."
So I went small. Over the course of a decade I changed my alarm three to seven minutes at a time, from 7:30 to 7:27 to 7:24, all the way down to 4:57 a.m.
Eventually you can wake up at whatever time you want.
Why do small changes make waking up early easier?
Three minutes is too small to miss. The story you tell yourself becomes "I'm getting up earlier now, and that was easy." My body gradually got used to each new time. More importantly, my mind got used to it.
Many people think they have to cross a giant gap and start getting up at 5 a.m. like everybody else. When I started 75 Hard, I had been waking up at 4:58 a.m., so I decided to wake up one minute earlier. That one minute told me I was doing something in the name of growth. The same small steps help you be consistent with any habit.
How do you wake up early step by step?
- Move your alarm three minutes. If you wake up at 7:30, set tomorrow's alarm for 7:27.
- Hold it for a few days. Notice how easy the new time feels.
- Shave off a little more. Take off one to seven minutes at a time, week by week or month by month.
- Create a mantra. Choose a short phrase you say the moment the alarm goes off.
- Design your first thought. Mine is "Today is going to be a great day."
What is the Start Hard mantra?
Start Hard is the mantra I created for the moment my alarm goes off. It means I wake up early and do the hardest part of my day first. I created it during my first time doing 75 Hard, while reading David Goggins.
Waking up very early stayed a challenge for me every single day, even after years of doing it. When the alarm went off at 4:57, I wanted to sleep in. It is very comfortable to be comfortable. So I gamified the way I wake up, and two voices show up in that moment.
- Limiting voice It says "No, Rob, sleep in." Many people let it keep them in bed.
- Boss voice It answers "Nah, start hard." Often in the morning, the jumpstart is all you need.
By 9 a.m. I had already read, worked out and fed my son, and the rest of the day was a piece of cake. A mantra is one more way to stop negative self talk.
Changing my morning routine to waking up earlier changed my life forever. And it can for you too, especially when you make it easy.
Rob Cressy
What should your first thought of the day be?
Every single day of your life you will have a first thought, so design it. Mine comes from the movie Jerry Maguire, where Dicky Fox claps his hands and says this is going to be a great day. Saying it plants a seed. I see three ways to start a morning.
| What you say first | What happens next |
|---|---|
| "Today is going to be a great day" | You set the intention and look for the great things that happen for you. |
| "Today is going to be a terrible day" | You open social media or the news, and the world gives you evidence that it is terrible. |
| You say nothing | You let the world plant the seeds. Whatever you consume becomes your thoughts. |
What is a Wake-Up Menu?
A Wake-Up Menu is a list of things you would love to do when you wake up, whatever time that is, that help boot you into the best version of yourself. You choose from the menu each day and give yourself credit for what you do.
It came out of a coaching call with a client who sometimes stayed up until 4 a.m. and was up again at 9. A 5 a.m. alarm has little to offer someone going to bed at 4. We designed his wake-up from his worst case day, with options such as meditating, journaling or going for a walk.
The key is plus one or zero. Doing something on the menu is a plus one, and skipping it is a zero. Do one thing from your menu and it is a massive victory.
For a full routine, here is how to create a morning routine you love. For the other end of the day, read my evening routine tips.
Do this today
- Move your alarm. Set tomorrow's alarm three minutes earlier than today's.
- Create your mantra. Choose the words you will say when the alarm goes off. Borrow Start Hard if it fits you.
Listen to the episode
How To Wake Up Early Easily
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Read the full transcript
How do you make getting up earlier in the morning easier? What's up? It's Rob Cressy and I'm going to give you two tips that'll change your life because it changed mine. And I'm someone who was not always an air quotes morning person. I didn't wake up doing round off back handsprings like most people assume people do when they wake up earlier.
I'm someone who a decade ago, I used to wake up at 7 or 7:30 in the morning. I'd wake up and grab a coffee and go straight to work. That was my life. But as I audited the success habits of the most successful people in the world, I continued to hear they wake up early, they wake up early, they wake up early.
So I originally tried to go from 7:30 to 5 in the morning. I'm like, boom, I got this. Let's go. Let's rip the bandaid. And after two days, I was like, this is completely not going to work because the shock was just way too big to chop two and a half hours off of my sleep. It just completely threw everything off course for me where my self-talk just became, oh my goodness, I am so tired. And by the way, that language is no longer part of my life, but that's what I was saying at that time.
So here's tip number one for how you can wake up earlier easier. What I want you to do is change the alarm in which you wake up to just three minutes earlier tomorrow. That's it. Why? So let's say you're waking up at 7:30, change that to 7:27. And then you do that for a few days.
And here's what you're going to learn. You're not going to miss seven minutes. The story you tell yourself isn't going to be, oh my God, I'm so tired. I can't believe I lost those three minutes. What the story will start to become is, oh, I'm getting up earlier now. And that was easy.
So what I did over the course of a decade is three to seven minutes at a time, just every week, every month, I would change the time in which I woke up from 7:30 to 7:27 to 7:24 to 7:20 to 7:16. Boom, just shaving these off. And maybe I would do it one week at a time, three minutes here, four minutes here, seven minutes here.
Because guess what? I learned that I did not miss that time where it was such a subtle improvement that all of a sudden I became okay with it. My body gradually got used to it. But more importantly, my mind got used to it.
And one of the things that's oftentimes challenging for people in waking up early is they think they've got to go from a certain time to a giant gap. I got to be like everybody else. I'm going to start waking up at five in the morning now. That's not the case. What I want you to understand is the concept of small improvement.
What I like to call this is micro progress, where I started 75 Hard a week ago and I had been waking up at 4:58 a.m. in the morning. So what did I do? I decided to wake up one minute earlier. Why in the world did I do that? Because I'm telling myself that I'm doing something in the name of growth and improvement. I'm better now because I'm waking up a minute earlier. That's truth. That is growth.
Wait a second. You can wake up earlier and have it just be one minute earlier. It can have a massive impact on your life. 100%. Because the story in my head is I'm waking up earlier and it's easier and I'm not noticing that one minute. So start shaving off one, three, four, seven minutes at a time. It'll change your life and eventually you can wake up at whatever time you want.
And here is tip number two. I would love for you to create a mantra for when you wake up in the morning. And this is something about being very intentional because I know it's actually very challenging for me to wake up in the morning very early. Even though I've done it for a long time, every single day is a challenge. So I've got to create or almost gamify the way that I wake up and the story that I tell myself.
Because just like you, when that alarm goes off at 4:57 in the morning, you know what my thoughts are? Man, I would really like to sleep in. Maybe an extra 30 minutes. Maybe an extra hour every single day. Because it's very comfortable to be comfortable. Certainly at that time of the morning.
So I learned this doing 75 Hard in the Live Hard program for the first time. And I was waking up at 4:58 at that time. So I created a mantra for myself called start hard. And of course, I had been reading some David Goggins. So I channeled some inner David Goggins in this. And what start hard means for me is I wake up early and I do the hardest part of my day first. Boom. Start hard. Because when you do, the rest of the day is a piece of cake.
How do you think I feel when it comes 9 a.m. in the morning? And I've already been up for four hours and three minutes. And I've already read, worked out, meditated, journaled, ate breakfast, fed my son, showered. And boom, it's nine o'clock. And I'm like, oh, baby. The rest of this day is going to be a piece of cake. Because I started hard.
Is it easy? No. No. But the self-talk in my head when it says, no, Rob, sleep in. I instead say, nah, start hard. Boom. And that jumpstarts me. Because oftentimes in the morning, all you need is the jumpstart. And so many people allow their limiting voice to be the one that keeps them in bed. So how about you empower your boss voice and create a mantra?
So here's the action item for you. I would love for you to create a mantra that you use every single day that helps you wake up earlier in the morning easier. If you want to use start hard, by all means, go with it and create it for yourself. Whatever you choose, I would love to hear from you so that I can support you in this journey. Hit me up at Rob Cressy on all social media platforms. And let's talk about this.
Changing my morning routine to waking up earlier changed my life forever. And it can for you too, especially when you make it easy.
Transcript cleaned up for reading.