Tip #29: Put Yourself Under Time Pressure

“Zeitnot” is a German term commonly used in chess to describe severe time pressure or “time trouble”, where a player has only a few seconds or minutes remaining to complete their required moves. In zeitnot, your body and your mind draw on immense internal energy to get through it.

The Zeitnot Approach

It’s not surprising that many people actually do their best only when they are put into a stress situation. If you are one of them, if you need to feel the surge of adrenaline to get things moving, then you can try the zeitnot approach in order to build an early wake up habit.

How? You need to create urgency. You can put yourself into zeitnot if you postpone extremely important and urgent things until the last minute, leaving the early morning the only option for you to get things done. Imagine your boss asked you for a report to be delivered tomorrow. Most people would stay late to finish it today. You can postpone it until tomorrow morning, knowing you can get up early and do it.

By putting yourself into zeitnot, you release the power within you that can help you do nearly impossible things. It’s a great motivation that will kick you out of bed in a second.

Watch Out for Two Things

There are two potential issues with this approach though.

First, you need to actually wake up, or you will miss your “last chance” while watching sweet dreams. Your alarm clock is your friend in this case.

Second, you need to remember in the morning that there is this important leave-or-die task that you have to jump on ASAP. I recommend putting a note by your alarm clock so you will clearly see it in the morning.

I know this may sound like a brute approach that may even be unsafe — if not for your life, then for your job or relationships for sure. So use it at your own risk and only when you know what you’re doing. And don’t forget to share your story on how it worked!