Tip #37: Start Your Morning With a Small But Fun Challenge

Another wake-up trick is to challenge yourself in the morning by putting your alarm clock in a place where it can’t be easily turned off. Think of it as an extreme version of putting your alarm clock far from your bed — the harder it is to reach, the less likely you are to turn it off and crawl back under the covers.

The Classic Method

For example, bring a chair, put your alarm clock high on top of a cabinet, then put the chair back in another room. You will have to repeat the whole procedure in the morning just to shut it off. Better yet, put it in a box that can be locked with a key, and leave the key somewhere in another room — or in another locked box.

Kyle Pott, who shares his early rising experience in the article Productivity Boost: How to Start Your Day at 5:00 AM on LifeHack.org, has even more devious advice — he suggests putting your alarm clock in a combination-locked box and making yourself enter the combination to turn it off. I’d suggest changing the combination code every day. If you forget it — well, good luck. You’ll also want a really loud alarm clock to make sure you hear it from inside the box.

The key principle here is the same as no snooze, ever: eliminate the option to go back to sleep by making it genuinely difficult.

Tech-Powered Solutions

If you can’t come up with puzzles on your own, technology is here to help. The Flying Alarm Clock (~$20) launches a propeller into the air when the alarm goes off — it flies away from the base, and to silence the alarm you have to get up, find the propeller, and return it to the base. After spending a few minutes on your knees searching for it, waking up is guaranteed.

Or how about the CLOCKY Alarm Clock on Wheels — a loud, rolling alarm clock for heavy sleepers that literally jumps off your nightstand and runs away from you. You have no option but to get up and chase it down. Once you’re on your feet, you’ve already won.

A Perfect Gift

By the way, all these gadgets make a perfect gift for the heavy sleepers in your life. I’m sure we’ll soon see alarm clocks that sprinkle water or fire mini-missiles — and honestly, at this point nothing would surprise me.