[Conquius]

I groaned as I turned over in bed, and looked out of my bedroom window. The sun was already well into the sky, and by my calculations, I had about a half hour before my patrol shift began. It was just enough time to don gambeson, grab a bite to eat, pour my bean potion, and be on time, but it wasn't enough time to do any of that comfortably. My gambeson was chosen in haste and felt a bit schlubby; my breakfast and bean potion were consumed so quickly that they were wholly unsavored. I was well rested, but my morning was rushed, and I felt it in my body. Not a good way to start my day.

 

This has been my routine for a few months now, with the only exception being my weekly commute into the office. I decided a while ago that I would prioritize getting enough sleep by rising whenever I deemed fit, so long as I signed onto work by 9 AM. This has led to me regularly getting 7+ hours of sleep (yay!) but sometimes not properly getting out of bed until 8:30 AM (boo!). I want to get up earlier. 7 AM is my current mark, but as we all know, getting up on time isn't really about waking up early, it's mostly about going to bed on time. So for this challenge, I'm building good habits that will get me into bed on time.

 

First, I'll identify some of my current bad habits.

 

Late Night Dishes. In our house, we have a very solid rotation of who does dishes what night. It's decided every Monday evening, along with the meal planning, then stuck on the fridge. Given that there are three of us, and the dishes get done every night, I end up doing the dishes 2-3 times a week. There's no reason for me not to know what night I'm doing dishes. It's on the fridge. However, sometimes what'll happen is after dinner, instead of starting the dishes, I'll go and sit on the couch, scroll through my phone, maybe even doze off. This has resulted in me, more than once, forcing myself out of half-sleep to do the dishes, and it feels awful. It puts me in a bad mood, and puts me to actual bed later.

Snoozapalooza. I have often made attempts to get up earlier just by setting my alarm to the desired time. This has led to me hitting the snooze button over and over again every 10ish minutes, eventually getting out of bed when I would have originally. This sucks, and it feels bad. Not only does it not accomplish anything, but also my partner hates it.

Falling Back Asleep. Sometimes, even if I manage to get out of bed on time, I'll crash back in for another hour.

Phone in Bed. Self-explanatory. I'm often scrolling in bed on my way to sleep or first thing in the morning.

 

And here's what we're going to replace them with:

 

Dishes after Dinner

If it's my night to do dishes, I'm going to start the dishes right after I'm done with dinner. I'll ask if anyone wants anymore food, then I'll put it away. I'll put an audiobook on like I usually do (currently listening to the Stormlight Archives), and get to the dishes. The earlier that they're done, the better. Should help me defeat Late Night Dishes.

 

Restrict App Hours

My phone has a Digital Wellness feature that I've been using to restrict certain apps (Instagram, Tumblr, etc) during work hours. I'm planning on enabling it to also disable those apps after 10 PM. Should help beat Phone in Bed. Additionally, I'm going to put whatever book I'm reading back on my nightstand. Reading at bedtime is a habit I started building a while ago that I never quite got to stick. Very often I was just too tired to read once I hit the mattress, and just went straight to sleep. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but if I'm not immediately tired when I get into bed, I'd rather read than scroll. If this combination of habits doesn't work, I do have a slightly more nuclear option (deleting said apps from my phone for a few weeks while I build a new habit).

 

Smart(er) Alarm Clock

I'd really like to get through this challenge without buying a new alarm clock. Right now I use my phone which is set on my nightstand for convenience. That has caused issues because the alarm on my phone is easily snooze-able, and contributes to Phone in Bed. Originally I was thinking about moving it somewhere so I'd have to get up and go get it, but that would run the risk of bothering my roommate and my partner. Instead I'm going to look into some of the smarter Alarm Clock apps that require you to move around, do math problems, take pictures, etc in order to deactivate them. This will help beat Snoozeapalooza and Falling Back Asleep.

 

Get Up, Get Out

Getting out of my bedroom dramatically decreases the likelihood that I'll go back to bed. Funny how that works. So my plan is to get up, do my morning routine, throw on my clothes, and get out of my bedroom. This might mean getting out of the house for a walk, it might just mean getting downstairs and pouring myself some coffee, but the goal is to escape the bedroom.

 

My goal is to use these tools to get in and out of bed on time, and shift my whole sleep cycle back about 1-2 hours. In bed and asleep by 11, up at 7. If I can build this habit, I'd like to use that time to start some kind of movement habit, be it a morning walk, yoga, or even a short bike ride, but for now I'm just focusing on the sleep.

 

For each weekday that I get up on time, I'm marking a green circle on my dry-erase calendar. That's how I'll track my progress. I'll copy it over into this thread every so often so y'all can see my progress!

 

 

[Conquius]

 

Progress Tracking

 

September 11 - September 17

🟩🟧🟩🟩🟧🟩🟩

 

September 18 - September 24

🟩🟩🟥🟩🟩🟩🟧

 

September 25 - October 1

🟧🟥🟩🟩🟩🟧⬜

 

October 2 - October 8

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜

 

October 9 - October 15

⬜⬜🟧🟩🟧⬜⬜

[Stronkey Kong]

Getting up on time is implicit in all my current goals. 

 

Following. 

[Conquius]

I'm spending Week Zero house-sitting for my parents and watching our dog, so I'm test-driving some tools before I take them back to DC.

 

I downloaded Alarmy onto my phone. Alarmy has a slew of wake-up gimmicks, but the one I'm interested in is disengaging the alarm via photo. You create the alarm by taking a photo of some location in your house. Then, when your alarm goes off, you have to go to that location and take a matching picture in order to stop the alarm from going off.

 

I set it last night and tried it this morning. Got up at 7, took a picture of my bathroom sink, and started brushing my teeth. Got dressed in my walkin' clothes, took our dog for a walk, ate breakfast, and around 8:20 AM, crashed on the couch.

 

I was out for a solid 30m. I think if I had had some kind of bean potion or hot breakfast tea, I would've been fine. Alternatively, I know what that crashy feeling feels like, and I could also try pushing myself outside for a little while until it wears off.

 

All in all, 👍 for Alarmy, still working out some kinks once I'm up.

[Conquius]

Also Obligatory Dog Pic:

[Elastigirl]

Your dog is adorable!

Listening to Stormlight Archives while doing dishes will  keep you entertained for a long time!

[MaeradCase]

22 hours ago, Conquius said:

Late Night Dishes. In our house, we have a very solid rotation of who does dishes what night. It's decided every Monday evening, along with the meal planning, then stuck on the fridge. Given that there are three of us, and the dishes get done every night, I end up doing the dishes 2-3 times a week. There's no reason for me not to know what night I'm doing dishes. It's on the fridge. However, sometimes what'll happen is after dinner, instead of starting the dishes, I'll go and sit on the couch, scroll through my phone, maybe even doze off. This has resulted in me, more than once, forcing myself out of half-sleep to do the dishes, and it feels awful. It puts me in a bad mood, and puts me to actual bed later.

Snoozapalooza. I have often made attempts to get up earlier just by setting my alarm to the desired time. This has led to me hitting the snooze button over and over again every 10ish minutes, eventually getting out of bed when I would have originally. This sucks, and it feels bad. Not only does it not accomplish anything, but also my partner hates it.

Falling Back Asleep. Sometimes, even if I manage to get out of bed on time, I'll crash back in for another hour.

Phone in Bed. Self-explanatory. I'm often scrolling in bed on my way to sleep or first thing in the morning.

These are all relatable problems.

 

22 hours ago, Conquius said:

And here's what we're going to replace them with:

 

Dishes after Dinner

If it's my night to do dishes, I'm going to start the dishes right after I'm done with dinner. I'll ask if anyone wants anymore food, then I'll put it away. I'll put an audiobook on like I usually do (currently listening to the Stormlight Archives), and get to the dishes. The earlier that they're done, the better. Should help me defeat Late Night Dishes.

Audiobooks are a good reward mechanism.

 

22 hours ago, Conquius said:

Restrict App Hours

My phone has a Digital Wellness feature that I've been using to restrict certain apps (Instagram, Tumblr, etc) during work hours. I'm planning on enabling it to also disable those apps after 10 PM. Should help beat Phone in Bed. Additionally, I'm going to put whatever book I'm reading back on my nightstand. Reading at bedtime is a habit I started building a while ago that I never quite got to stick. Very often I was just too tired to read once I hit the mattress, and just went straight to sleep. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but if I'm not immediately tired when I get into bed, I'd rather read than scroll. If this combination of habits doesn't work, I do have a slightly more nuclear option (deleting said apps from my phone for a few weeks while I build a new habit).

I have deleted apps for the sake of avoiding them more easily. Digital Wellness is a good tool. I hope these work out for you.

22 hours ago, Conquius said:

My goal is to use these tools to get in and out of bed on time, and shift my whole sleep cycle back about 1-2 hours. In bed and asleep by 11, up at 7. If I can build this habit, I'd like to use that time to start some kind of movement habit, be it a morning walk, yoga, or even a short bike ride, but for now I'm just focusing on the sleep.

I haven't quite fixed my sleep yet. I started with the "get my butt out that door and put my feet in front of each other." But I look forward to seeing you make your way to that phase another time.

 

22 hours ago, Conquius said:

For each weekday that I get up on time, I'm marking a green circle on my dry-erase calendar. That's how I'll track my progress. I'll copy it over into this thread every so often so y'all can see my progress!

Yay! Good luck to you!

[Conquius]

Some Zero Week Progress:

 

Wednesday 9/7/22:

- ✅ Got into bed on time Tuesday night

- ✅ Got out of bed at 7 AM Wednesday morning, disengaged my alarm with the photo feature.

- ❌ Straight back into bed until 8:30

 

womp womp. We'll get 'em next time. I'm thinking about Atomic Habits, and how I can use them to break Falling Back Asleep. Invisible, Unattractive, Difficult, Unsatisfying.

 

Invisible: Well it's hard to make my bed invisible, but if I can get up and get out of my room quickly enough, I think I can mitigate the risk of going back to bed. Goal for tomorrow morning is to get up, do the bare minimum I need to in my room / attached bath (brush teeth, grab clothes), then gtfo.

Unattractive: Sleep is attractive. Can I reframe getting back in bed as something unattractive? Going to noodle on this one some more.

Difficult: Going back to Invisible, I think I make getting back into bed Difficult by getting out of my room.

Unsatisfying: Is the extra sleep I get after going back to bed satisfying? Not really. It just makes me rush my morning. Maybe I can set a reminder of that next to my bed. 

 

Thursday 9/8/22

- ❌ Got back home Wednesday night after 11PM after spending some time with a friend. Yay for friendship, boo for getting into bed late.

- ❌ Got caught up on my phone while getting ready for bed. Ended up using my Phone in Bed. My book was out of sight / reach, and I had unrestricted my apps so I could play Spotify on my late drive home. Since I didn't re-restrict my phone when I got home, I ended up doing a lot of scrolling.

- ✅ Got out of bed at 7 AM, disengaged my alarm with the photo feature. I even felt myself waking up a minute or two before the alarm was supposed to go off. Maybe this was a fluke, but I'll take it.

- ✅ Brushed my teeth, threw on my workout clothes, got my dog on her leash, quick 1 mile walk.

- ✅ Stayed out of bed. Stayed off of other sleeping surfaces.

- ✅ Made hot tea, breakfast, and spent the morning doing sudoku.

 

Important Bits:

- I didn't do a perfect job getting ready to go to sleep, but I ended up getting a satisfactory amount of sleep (~6hrs)

- I did the important parts of my morning routine - brushing my teeth and grabbing my clothes - before getting out of my room.

- Morning walk & sudoku was a really nice way to start the day.

- Didn't mention this earlier, but on my drive home last night, I committed to not Falling Back Asleep two days in a row. I'm following that same train of logic tonight, and going for no Phone in Bed tonight, lest I do it for two nights in a row.

[MaeradCase]

I struggle with the allure of returning to bed, and of the things I've done to circumvent it, here are a few:

1. If I needed to reserve willpower to get myself out of bed and exercise the next morning I could sleep in my workout clothes

2. I put my alarm clock by the door and my shoes so that I'm out of bed and putting on my shoes regardless of sleepiness (I know that's not gonna work for you with your roommates, but alt. method could be to immediately get your shoes on so that you would have less reason to get back in bed)

3. I make my bed (especially when I'm particularly tempted by it). I'd say that's my way of making it undesirable to get in - because I'd have to make it again.

4. The purpose of my early rising is to exercise, so that's the first thing I do, and honestly I wake up while walking/exercising, rather than before I head out/begin.

 

Do I still occasionally take a nap or snooze? Yes, but maybe these might be of help to you, so I figured I'd share.

[Conquius]

Friday 9/9/22

 

✅ Got into bed pretty early Thursday night, around 9.

✅ I did use my phone in bed for a bit, but when my Restricted Hours timer started, I put it away and grabbed my book.

✅ Out of bed on time. Half-woke again at like 6:59, so this might be more than a fluke

✅ Brushed teeth, threw on shorts, workout shirt, socks, went on a walk with my dog first thing.

✅ Did not return to my bedroom except to grab a T-Shirt for work.

 

Nailed it. Excited to bring this back to DC. Unfortunately my dog lives with my parents, so I'll have to find another activity to do when I get out of bed. I thought about yoga for a while, but I really enjoy walking, so I think I'll stick with that.

 

[MaeradCase]

You did awesome!!

[Conquius]

Saturday 9/10/22

 

❌ Got back to DC around 11:30, wasn't properly in bed until near 1

❌ Used some Phone in Bed

✅ Got woken up around 6:45 AM by a bad dream, rolled with it and got out of bed instead of thinking that 15 extra minutes of sleep would be significant.

✅ Threw on bike shorts & a workout shirt, grabbed socks, brushed teeth, made bed, got tf out of my bedroom

✅ Rode my bike

 

I'm currently out getting coffee.

 

Now you might be wondering, "Conquius, it's Saturday! Are you planning on still getting up at 7 on weekends?"

 

And my answer to that is: Maybe. Changing environments (parents' house to my DC apartment) and then not following my 7 AM wake-up time for 2 days sounds like a great way to kill a nascent habit, so I'm keeping it up for the weekend so I can carry my momentum into next week.

 

But more importantly, why not? If I'm getting enough sleep, let's keep it going.

[MaeradCase]

Good plan to keep the ball rolling!! Good job getting out!

[Conquius]

Sunday 9/11/22

 

✅ Did Dishes After Dinner last night since it was my night to do dishes. I was a little full, and a little tired, but once I got going, I was glad that I had started early. I repeated that to myself like a mantra. It was a leftovers night, meaning that dishes were light, anyway.

✅ Restricted App Hours - I was in bed a little early, 9:30ish, and once it hit 10, my phone restricted my apps, so I set it down & put it on charge.

✅ My Smarter Alarm Clock didn't go off at 7, but I ended up waking up around quarter after 7. I didn't immediately get out of bed, my partner & I spent the morning together, and we got up for breakfast around 8 or 8:30. I was originally going to call this a Mixed Success since my alarm didn't go off and I didn't get out of bed, but I didn't go back to sleep! And I certainly was not idle! So Total Success. It does raise some questions about how my alarm app interacts with my DND settings, so I'll have to be wary of that going into the week.

 

Onwards to Week One!

[juliebarkley]

2 hours ago, Conquius said:

My Smarter Alarm Clock didn't go off at 7, but I ended up waking up around quarter after 7. I didn't immediately get out of bed, my partner & I spent the morning together, and we got up for breakfast around 8 or 8:30.

That is worrying. I hope you can figure out quickly why it failed to go off. But because you were working on getting up earlier, it wasn't a disaster, and everything worked out just fine.

[MaeradCase]

2 hours ago, Conquius said:

It does raise some questions about how my alarm app interacts with my DND settings, so I'll have to be wary of that going into the week.

 

Onwards to Week One!

Can you make your settings only last from say 10 to 6:30? That way there's room for the alarm to go off?

[Conquius]

Monday 9/12/22:

🔶 Was up late, wasn't in bed until after 1130, but I was asleep right around midnight. Mixed Success.

🔶 My alarm didn't go off this morning because I forgot to turn it on. My bad. Thankfully I woke up naturally around 6, went back to sleep for the last hour, and then my partner's alarm went off at 7.

✅ Took me a little while to get up & moving at 7, but I didn't hit Snooze & I didn't go back to sleep.

✅ Got in my usual morning activity on my commute. Loaded carry (heavy backpack) to the metro stop near my apartment, then from the metro stop near work to, well, work. I'll get more activity in when I commute home.

 

I'm introducing the Mixed Success 🔶 from PBTA to represent when things didn't go as planned, but I did well in spite of them.

 

16 hours ago, MaeradCase said:

Can you make your settings only last from say 10 to 6:30? That way there's room for the alarm to go off?

That's the plan!

[Conquius]

Tuesday 9/13/22:

✅ Dishes After Dinner. It was my night to cook dinner, so I started right after I got home from work. This gave me more time to relax & play games before bed.

✅ Restrict App Hours. Games went off around 930, Phone went down at 10. I was in bed before 11, and was asleep before 1130.

✅ Smart(er) Alarm Clock. Alarm went off at 7. Got up, took a picture of my bathroom sink. Thought about getting back in bed, knew better not to.

✅ Get Up, Get Out. Threw on my bib & jersey, went for a bike ride. Bike ride was nice, but it ended up being around 45 minutes. Since this is a daily ritual to help me wake up, and not exactly a workout, I'd like to go for a shorter activity. I'll scout a new, shorter route that'll hopefully be closer to 20 minutes.

 

What worked:

- Although Dishes After Dinner is about doing the dishes right after I'm done with dinner, it's more generally about chaining my evening tasks together so I don't lose momentum. I applied this principle by starting dinner right after I got home from work. I got home, dropped my backpack, changed into shorts, washed my hands, and got out the tofu & teriyaki sauce. Dinner was done around 720, which meant that I got the rest of the evening to eat dinner, relax, and play video games.

- Having ample time in the evening to play games meant that I was satisfied with the amount that I played by around 930, which made it much easier to put them down. I'm throwing this under Restrict App Hours because (a) playing video games is more fun than scrolling Instagram, and (b) I was able to make conscious decisions about how much time I spent in front of screens.

- My Smarter Alarm Clock got me out of bed and into the bathroom to start my morning routine. Once I had deactivated the alarm, I thought about getting back into bed, but I was conscious enough to know that that would be a bad decision.

- I succeeded in Get Up, Get Out by hanging up my bib & jersey the night before, and having a route preloaded, thereby reducing the number of choices I had to make.

 

What can be iterated on & improved:

- Dishes After Dinner: No notes.

- Restrict App Hours: No notes.

- Smarter Alarm Clock: No Notes.

- For Get Up, Get Out, it took me until 730 to get properly onto my bike since I wanted a cup of coffee beforehand. I can improve this by throwing my feed bag back onto my bike and putting my coffee in a travel mug, or by picking an activity like walking where I can just take my coffee with me. I also have a bad habit of scrolling through my phone for a while in my office after I get back from my bike ride.  I typically do this because I'm tired, and because I usually sit in my office to take off my bike shoes. I can improve on this by doing a shorter bike ride, and by keeping my phone out of reach while I take off my bike shoes.

 

[Conquius]

On 9/5/2022 at 10:18 PM, Conquius said:

My goal is to use these tools to get in and out of bed on time, and shift my whole sleep cycle back about 1-2 hours. In bed and asleep by 11, up at 7. If I can build this habit, I'd like to use that time to start some kind of movement habit, be it a morning walk, yoga, or even a short bike ride

 

I'm emblazoning this habit as Get Up, Get Out. I started doing it when I was housesitting for my parents by walking our dog. I found that I really enjoyed the fresh air in the morning, and it helps me meet my movement goals before I even eat breakfast. The idea is to be up and moving within 15 minutes of waking up. I'm daisy chaining waking up, brushing my teeth, and getting moving by doing them one after another after another. The activity should be low intensity, and around 15-20 minutes in length. I have plenty of other opportunities to properly exercise, this is about waking up & starting my day right.

[Stronkey Kong]

1 hour ago, Conquius said:

 

I'm emblazoning this habit as Get Up, Get Out. I

 

Yes. Morning buddies.

[MaeradCase]

Sounds like you're doing great!

 

I hear you on the momentum. Good work making time for things you enjoy by getting tasks done quickly.

[Conquius]

On 9/5/2022 at 10:18 PM, Conquius said:

This has been my routine for a few months now, with the only exception being my weekly commute into the office.

 

Remember when I said this? Time to talk about this exception:

 

If you followed Conquius Rides to Glory, you may remember that every Wednesday, I ride my bike into work. It's about 13 miles and 500ft of elevation each way.  It requires me to get up earlier than usual, at 5:40 AM. Here's how I applied the principles of this challenge to make my commute even easier:

 

Wednesday 9/14/22

✅ After I signed off work yesterday, I packed my panniers. One pannier holds my work items (laptop, chargers, notebook, office sweater), one pannier holds my shower items & change of clothes (shirt, pants, belt, socks, undies, hairbrush, beard balm, deodorant, towel).

✅ Hung up my bib, jersey, and socks on the hook next to my bed

✅ Set a Wednesday-specific alarm for 5:40 AM

✅ After dinner wrapped up (~8 PM, and it wasn't my night to do dishes), I didn't need to do any prep for the following morning. This allowed me to pick how I wanted to spend my evening. I tidied up my office some, did my nighttime routine, and did some reading in Oathbringer (Stormlight Archives Book 3. I'm opting to read the physical book instead of listening to the audiobook). This had me ready to sleep around 10:30.

 

Once 5:40 hit, I just had to knock down all of the pins I set up the night before. I went into my bathroom to disable my alarm, started my morning routine, threw on my bib & jersey, made coffee in my travel mug, ate a bagel w air fried tofu, put on my shoes, threw my panniers on my bike, and I was off right around 6:30. I could've been gone earlier, but I took my sweet time with my bagel. I love bagel.

 

 

[Conquius]

Thursday 9/15/22

✅ Got home from work, and had enough time to shower and change before dinner. I was very tired after dinner, and heavily considered just schlubbing on the couch & scrolling my phone. Instead I asked "What's the smallest thing I can do to start the dishes?" And agreed that after I did that smallest thing, I could either do the next smallest thing, or go schlub. I did the smallest thing, then the next smallest thing, then the next smallest thing, etc. By the time I decided to go sit on the couch, I only had to fill the top rack of the dishwasher and handle the hand-wash-only's. I scrolled for 30ish minutes, then finished the dishes. Dishes After Dinner successful.

✅ Around 10PM I put my phone on charge, making sure my alarm was set. Restrict App Hours successful.

✅ I set my 7 AM alarm, and when it went off, I got up, took a picture of my sink, and didn't go back to sleep. Smarter Alarm Clock successful.

❌ But I didn't Get Up, Get Out. I stayed in my room, relaxing on my bed until about 8 AM. I think this was because I didn't set my clothes out the night before. Also I was pretty exhausted from my commute the day before, and didn't really get any time to myself, so I'm not particularly upset about this.

 

Overall, 🔶 Mixed Success.

 

I'm happy with how I dealt with the dishes. There will be more times where I'll be exhausted, and don't want to start on dishes. Horace has a quote: Dimidium facti qui coepit habet, or in English, He who has begun has the deed half done. I made a negotiation with myself to start, knowing that I would likely find the momentum to keep doing dishes once I started. But I also honored that negotiation with myself, because once I did get tired, I did put them down for a little while.

[MaeradCase]

I think it's really cool that you found a way to get started, but still took care of yourself and your need to take a break.

[Conquius]

Friday 9/16/22

✅ Dishes After Dinner - Didn't have dinner to cook or dishes to clean Thursday night, so this is successful by default.

✅ Restrict App Hours - I fell asleep on the couch watching the latest McTile video on YouTube, and once I woke up, I went straight up to bed, so weirdly successful!

✅ Smarter Alarm Clock - successful. It got me out of bed and into my bathroom. I wanted to go back to bed, but was far enough from my bed to decide that that was a bad idea.

✅ Get Up, Get Out was successful, albeit with some encouragement from my partner. We went on a short 20-minute walk before breakfast.