How to Stop Hitting “Snooze” and Become a Morning Person: The Complete Guide

If you want a step-by-step guide that empowers you to wake up earlier and finally put your snooze button to rest, then you have found the article that will change your perspective, habits, and even your life.

This 9-step guide will teach you:

• How to become an early riser (and even enjoy it)
• Strategies that will help you to retire the snooze button
• How to design your environment to make getting out of bed easier
• The importance of creating a habit contract
• The most effective ways to track your habit
• How to get back on track if you break your habit streak

 

Let’s get started.

• Why I Wrote This Guide
• How This Guide Will Change Your Life
• Before You Start
• Step 1: Make a List of Your Morning Routine
• Step 2: Evaluate Your Morning Routine
• Step 3: The Best Way to Form a New Habit
• 3.1: How to pair a new habit with an existing one
• 3.2: Use the “Two-Minute Rule” to your advantage
• 3.3: Make it irresistible to get out of bed early
• Step 4: How to Pair an Action You Want to Do with an Action You Need to Do
• Step 5: Prime Your Environment For Success
• 5.1: How to rearrange your bedroom to make getting out of bed easier
• Step 6: [Optional] Lock in Your Good Habit by Investing in a One-Time Purchase
• Step 7: Reward Yourself Immediately
• Step 8: Sticking to a New Habit, the Secret Recipe
• 8.1: 3 easy ways to track a new habit
• Step 9: A Habit Contract Can Change Everything
• 9.1: How to write an effective habit contract
• 9. 2: Choose your accountability partner(s) wisely
• 9.3: Sign the social contract with your accountability partner(s)
• 9.4: Display the contract in a place where you can see it every day

Why I Wrote This Guide

For over nine years, I had tried (and failed) to get out of bed without hitting the snooze button. Each night I would tell myself, “I should get up early,” or “I’m going to wake up early tomorrow,” or “I need to get up at 6:00.”

Yet, without fail, I would find myself settling back into my pillow after hitting snooze. With a noncommittal shrug, I’d let myself off the hook by reasoning I could try again tomorrow, or, in my guiltier moments, I would promise myself to wake up early the next day. I kept breaking that promise over and over again, letting myself down each time. Instead of confronting that part of me, whenever I failed, I took comfort in the fact that I could try again the next day, week, or year.

Eventually, I abandoned the idea of becoming an early riser altogether, because I figured I’d never have the willpower to stick to it.

This all changed in January 2021, not because of a New Year’s resolution but by stumbling upon Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones. In this best-selling book, James Clear wrote one of the most powerful statements I had ever read: “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”

As I came to discover, it’s not a lack of motivation, willpower, or enthusiasm that prevents us from breaking a bad habit. What most of us lack is a concrete, detailed plan for how to make a new habit stick. Such a plan needs to include how, where, and when you should try to form your new habit.

At this point, you may be wondering: What’s the best way to plan for a new habit? Well, that’s where Clear’s book leaves off and this guide comes into play.

How This Guide Will Change Your Life

By the end of this guide, you will have learned how to write your own step-by-step plan that enables you to form (and stick to) the habit of becoming an early riser. To avoid falling victim to your snooze button, all you need to do is follow your plan.

Of course, I will be here to help you develop it every step of the way. After all, my mission is to help you to change your life for the better by making this guide easy for you to follow and understand.

So let’s begin!

Before You Start

Before you start building a new habit, you need to be on the lookout for any factors that could get in your way and prevent you from following through. Not surprisingly, if you don’t know when you’re engaging in a habit, you can’t expect to improve upon it or change it.

Bearing that in mind, your first step is to take an inventory of your daily habits so that you can become more aware of them. Quite simply, you need to notice what you are actually doing.

For example, if you wake up late every morning and are always having to rush to get out the door, it might be because you binge-watch Netflix every night until 2 a.m.

Similarly, if you want to increase your fruit intake and become a healthier person, watch what you put in your grocery cart and what you end up having available in your home.

For this first step, don’t label your habits as “good” or “bad” (yet). Simply pay attention to them, document them, and notice what prompted them to occur.

In Step 2, I’ll show you how to categorize your habits as “good,” “bad,” or “neutral.” This will help you to identify habit triggers, so that you can either avoid them or replace them with new associations so that they don’t have the same kind of power over you. More on this later.

For now, the goal is to get you to recognize your habits as they emerge, the good and the bad, so that you can become more cognizant of them and eventually work on them.

Step 1: Make a List of Your Morning Routine

On a piece of paper, write down all the habits that fall under your morning routine.

For example, my weekday morning routine used to look like this:

1. Wake up
2. Hit the snooze button
3. Stay in bed
4. Check for text messages
5. Refresh inbox to check for new emails
6. Open social media apps
7. Get out of bed

For this first step, I documented each activity on a piece of paper, no matter how minor it seemed at the time.

Pro Tip: Do list your habits in chronological order. This will not only help you to identify their role in your routine and their value to you, it will help you to ensure that you don’t overlook any of them.

Like I said earlier, it’s critical that you avoid editing yourself during this stage and that you document every habit. Your only goal is to jot down your morning routine so that you can become more aware of your habits.

Simple, right? Congratulations, you’ve completed your first step and are already making progress!

Step 2: Evaluate Your Morning Routine

In this step, you will learn how to label your habits as “good”, “bad”, or “neutral”, and the importance of doing so.

Referring to the list you just created, place a “+” next to good habits, a “-” next to bad ones, and a “=” to indicate neutral habits.

Try not to overthink this process or judge yourself like I did when I was getting started. While you’re reviewing each habit on your list, simply ask yourself: “Does [current habit] help me to become an early riser?” By framing the question in this way, the answer will be obvious, and you can focus on moving forward rather than punishing yourself or feeling regretful.

Your process might look something like this:

• Does [hitting the snooze button] in the morning help me to become an early riser? (Clearly not).
• Does [procrastinating to get out of bed] help me to become a punctual person; a reliable coworker; or a good student? [Again, clearly not].

After I reflected on these questions, my list looked like this:

1. Wake up =
2. Hit the snooze button –
3. Stay in bed –
4. Check for text messages –
5. Refresh inbox to check for new emails –
6. Open social media apps –
7. Get out of bed +
8. Turn on YouTube or a podcast +
9. Feed my cat +

Step 3: The Best Way to Form a New Habit

Here, I will show you the transformative impact of habit stacking. By pairing a new habit (i.e., the habit you’re trying to form) with an existing one, you can build new habits that fit with the structure and flow of your daily life.

Paraphrasing James Clear [(2018, pg. 74,)], the habit stacking formula is as follows:

After I do [current habit], I will add [new habit] alongside it.

Let’s say you want to complete a mini workout before your morning shower.

Your habit stacking might look like this:

After I [brush my teeth], I will do [20 sit-ups].

After I [go to the bathroom], I will do [30 jumping jacks].

Or maybe you want to get into the habit of reading before bed:

After I [turn off Netflix each night], I will [read for 15 minutes].

After I [brush my teeth], I will [read 5 pages].

The key takeaway is: Habit stacking is so effective because it provides you with clear direction on when and how to act on your new habit.

After I brush my teeth in the morning (when), I will do 20 sit-ups (how).

Pro Tip: Be sure to select the right cue to trigger and layer your new habit on top of an existing one. In most cases, the cue will simply be a habit that occurs right before the desired change (i.e., the habit you’re trying to form). But not always. Your cue to wake up each morning could be your alarm clock, the warmth of the sun hitting your face, your partner getting out of bed, or even the smell of a fresh pot of coffee.

So, what are the best cues to make new habits stick? Keep reading.

3.1: How to pair a new habit with an existing one

Since your goal is to find the ideal place to layer your new habit within your morning routine, the best place to start is by identifying what exactly is making you hit the snooze button in the first place.

When I reflected on my routine and ran through my list, I noticed that whenever my alarm went off, I was reaching for my phone to hit the “snooze” button.

• Alarm goes off at 6:15 AM
• Turn off my alarm or hit snooze –
• Stay in bed –
• Check for text messages –
• Refresh inbox to check for new emails –

 

In my case, the sound of my alarm was doing the opposite of what it intended; it was actually triggering me to hit the snooze button rather than wake up. Once I realized this, it made it much easier for me to figure out the best place to stack my new habit.

My habit stack looked like this:

After I [turn off my alarm] in the morning, I will [get out of bed immediately].

Now, whenever I hear my alarm, the mere act of turning it off triggers my new habit of getting out of bed.

The key takeaway is: Notice the goal isn’t to come up with an elaborate plan to incorporate new habits into your daily routine. You’re simply piggybacking on a habit you’ve already formed, and are adding a new habit into the mix.

3.2: Use the “Two-Minute Rule” to your advantage

In addition to outlining when and how to perform your new habit (using the habit stacking formula in Step 3 and 3.1), it’s important to choose activities that you can follow through on immediately.

This is where James Clear’s “Two-Minute Rule” comes into play. As the name implies, when you’re starting to form a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to carry out.

Bearing that in mind, I came up with this habit stack:

After I [turn off my alarm] in the morning, I will [put both feet on the floor].

This habit stack has the advantage of being highly specific, actionable, and easy to complete.

• It’s specific insofar as it details when I’ll be carrying out the new activity (i.e., after turning off my alarm).
• It’s actionable because it outlines how it will be performed (e.g., by putting both feet on the floor).
• It’s conceptually and physically easier to put both feet on the floor before you get out of bed.

The key takeaway is: If a habit is easier to do, then you’ll be far more likely to do it.

3.3: Make it irresistible to get out of bed early

When it comes to resisting a bad habit, our intrinsic motivation – i.e., doing an activity for its inherent satisfaction  – can only get us so far. That’s why it’s necessary to not only make your new habit easy, but also attractive.

What I mean by “attractive” in this context is something that appeals to you to the point where you are more likely to follow through on it.

One of the best ways to make your new habit more attractive is to strategically pair it with something you actually want to do. The underlying psychology is that you are more likely to follow through on your new habit and have a positive association with it if it coincides with something you want to do.

James Clear refers to this strategy as “Temptation Bundling”.

To get a better sense of what this looks like, let’s combine habit stacking (1) with temptation bundling (2):

• After I do [current habit], I will [habit I need to form].
• Once I do [habit I need to form], I will get to do [habit I want].

For instance, if you want to read more but you find it hard to resist watching Netflix every night, then your habit stack might look like this:

• After I [brush my teeth] each night, I will [read 25 pages].
• After I [read 25 pages], I will get to [watch 1 more episode of my favorite Netflix show].

It’s the mere anticipation of a reward that motivates most of us to act. So, by pairing your new habit with something you really want to do, you’re making your hard-to-form habit more attractive than it would be on its own.

In other words, the reward (e.g., doing something you really want to do) motivates you to do the thing you need to do (e.g., your hard-to-form habit).

In Step 4, I’ll show you how to leverage habit stacking with temptation bundling to make your difficult-to-form habit more attractive.

Step 4: How to Pair an Action You Want to Do with an Action you Need to Do

In this step, your goal is to identify the one thing that you would rather be doing in the morning than staying in bed after your alarm goes off.

It could be catching up on the latest news, making your favorite breakfast, journaling, mediating, or preparing a fresh cup of coffee. Of course, this will be different for everyone, so I encourage you to find that one thing that gets you excited.

Next, create your own temptation bundle:

• After I do [current habit], I will [habit I need to form].
• After I accomplish [habit I need to form], I will get to do [habit I want].

 

To guide you, here’s one of mine:

1. After I [turn off my alarm] in the morning, I will [put both feet on the floor].
2. After I [put both feet on the floor], I will get to [turn on my YouTube playlist].

In my case, the reward (e.g., being able to turn on and listen to my YouTube playlist) motivates me to do the thing I need to do (e.g., get out of bed by putting both feet on the floor).

Step 5: Prime Your Environment For Success

Over time, you’ve learned that once you hit the snooze button you will stay in bed until the alarm goes off again… and again.

That familiar context (i.e., the sound of your alarm going off and the warmth of your bed) makes it much more difficult for you to escape the very cues and triggers that are nudging you in the wrong direction.

This is why it’s much easier to change a habit by putting yourself in a new environment.

By creating a new routine in a new environment – one that you’ve strategically designed – you can effectively train yourself to link your new habit with a different context. In no time, the new environment will become the very cue that triggers good habits.

The key takeaway is: It is hard to fight the familiar cues that are triggering bad habits, and much easier to create a new environment that will help you to develop new, positive ones.

5.1: How to rearrange your bedroom to make getting out of bed easier

For those of you who don’t have the option to camp out in a spare bedroom, you could simply rearrange your current space to create the illusion of being in a new environment.

Let your creative juices flow and have fun with it! You can:

• Move your bed so that it faces a different wall
• Rearrange your nightstand and lamp
• Change the color of your lightbulbs; get new curtains, new pillows, a new comforter; tie it all together with a new rug
• Move your TV to the other side of the bedroom

 

The goal is to trick your brain into believing that you are in a new, unfamiliar space.

Since I live in a one-bedroom apartment, I decided to rearrange my furniture to support my new morning routine.

Within a matter of weeks, I began to associate my new space with waking up early, and it became much easier to get out of bed.

Step 6: [Optional] Lock in Your Good Habit by Investing in a One-Time Purchase

Making a strategic purchase can dramatically increase the likelihood of following through on your habit.

Last January, I (reluctantly) purchased a Hatch Restore, i.e., an all-in-one alarm clock, sound machine, and reading light that enables you to preselect a time for it to initiate a wakeup routine and recreate a “natural” sunrise.

Because I was a bit skeptical about whether it would help me, and it was on the expensive side, I gave it a lot of thought before I made my purchase.

And I am so glad that I did; it has definitely paid off.

After waking up to an alarm clock for many years, I became attuned to its jarring, high-pitched sound, to the point where I learned how to ignore it. Now that I have Hatch to play an entirely different, unfamiliar, and much more enjoyable alarm, it is easier for me to get out of bed.

Why does this work?

Referring back to Step 5, by waking up to an unfamiliar sound, I created a new context to build my habit around. Rather than redesigning my bedroom, I engineered a new wakeup routine with a different alarm.

As an added bonus, waking up to a sunrise, albeit an artificial one, is far more enjoyable than opening my eyes to darkness and having to convince myself to emerge from underneath the covers, especially during the long winter months. By making it more enjoyable to wake up early, I also made it far more likely that I would do it again the next day. Temptation bundling and habit stacking for the win!

This one-time purchase has paid for itself in spades and has helped me to transform into an early riser for the past 6 months now.

Step 7: Reward Yourself Immediately

This is not a to-do step per se, but it bears repeating: When a habit is enjoyable, it’s easier to do and seems worth repeating.

When you first start to build a new habit, it’s important to reward yourself as soon as you’ve completed the task. (In case you’re wondering, this is an offshoot of Step 4, which is all about making your new habit attractive enough to consistently follow through on.)

What you’re really doing is making it enjoyable and rewarding to become an early riser.

When I was first attempting to become an early riser, after I got out of bed, I would immediately walk into my living room, turn on YouTube, and listen to my favorite morning playlist.

This was my reward for successfully getting out of bed without hitting the “snooze” button each morning.

Step 8: Sticking to Any New Habit, the Secret Recipe

It’s critical to record your habits daily, especially early on.

When you record your habit, you are:

1. Being honest with yourself about your progress. The mere act of recording your habit serves as a reminder of how much work you have (or have not) put in.
2. Maintaining momentum because you can see your progress every day. Recording whether you’ve completed a task serves as a constant reminder and disincentivizes you from breaking your streak.
3. Making the process of forming your habit interesting and attractive. Instead of focusing on getting up early every morning, the goal is to simply not break your streak of going X days without hitting your alarm’s “snooze” button.

 

Bringing it all together, documenting your follow-through immediately will enable you to track your progress, maintain your motivation, focus on the outcome, and remain engaged in the process.

Once again, the habit stacking formula is great for this:

After I [new habit], I will [track my habit].

For more inspiration, here are 3 ways you can start tracking your progress every day.

8.1: 3 Easy Ways to Track a New Habit

To track your consistency, you can use a:

1. Wall calendar
2. Journal
3. Paper clip or marble transferring strategy (more on this below)

Start by using the habit stacking formula as your guide:

After I do [new habit], I will [track my habit].

Now, let’s plug in the finer details.

• The wall calendar method: After I [get out of bed without hitting “snooze”], I will [put an X on my wall calendar].
• The journal log method: After I [get out of bed], I will [record it in my journal].
• The paper clip or marble strategy: After I [get out of bed], I will [move 1 paper clip/marble from one jar to another].

 

When all is said and done, it should look something like this: [picture of calendar].

Beginner’s Tip: As a rule of thumb, when you’re getting started don’t oversleep for two days in a row.

If your goal is to wake up early every day, but you break your habit of getting out of bed on time once, try your hardest to get out of bed early the very next day. When the second day rolls around and you find yourself still unable to get out of bed early, try your hardest to do it on the third morning.

A perfect record is almost impossible, especially when you are first trying to form a new habit, but it is vital to try your best to make it stick long-term.

The key takeaway is: You may not succeed at forming a habit the first, second, or even the third round. This is why it’s necessary to have a game-plan before you miss a day, because it will motivate you to get back on track quicker and easier.

Step 9: A Habit Contract Can Change Everything

A habit contract is a written agreement you make with yourself that states every time you break one of your habits, you’ll have to pay some type of tax or penalty. As such, having the contract serves as a constant visual reminder of the cost of your bad habit and enables you to weigh that cost before you do (or do not) act.

Here’s a step-by-step summary of how to write an effective habit contract.

9.1: How to write an effective habit contract

In your contract, you’ll want to include:

• The day you plan to start your new habit
• Your habit stack, which includes the how and when of your habit
• The specific action you need to do (e.g., wake up early without hitting the “snooze” button, drink 24 oz. of water, go to the gym, brush your teeth)
• The frequency of your new habit (e.g., every day, every other day, every Wednesday)
• The consequence (i.e., the punishment) if you don’t follow through on your habit
• The name(s) of your accountability partner(s)
• Yours and your accountability partner(s)’ signatures

When writing your habit contract, try to be as specific as you can so that you leave no room for ambiguity or loopholes.

Your habit stacks (from Step 3.2, 3.3, and 4) will be extremely beneficial here. All you need to do is add your habit contract to it.

And, just like that, you’re done!

9.2: Choose your accountability partner(s) wisely

Selecting who will hold you accountable for your actions (or lack thereof) is key to you making your new habit stick.

In the past, my sister and husband were my accountability partners, but neither of them worked out after a couple of days.

Why?

Quite simply, I didn’t mind paying a $50.00 penalty to them if I didn’t get out of bed early. I mean, they’re family. It got worse when I started missing two or three days in a row. They would feel bad for taking my money and started refusing to, which defeated the entire purpose of having accountability partners.

9.3: Sign the social contract with your accountability partner(s)

Although it may seem excessive, having you and your accountability partner sign the habit contract in each other’s presence will make you feel more obligated to stick to your habit and avoid the embarrassment of breaking it.

9.4: Display the contract in a place where you can see it every day

This will attest to your commitment and dedication to improving your life.

What Did You Think?

So that is my ultimate guide on how to become an early riser and stick to it over time! I hope you found these steps useful and actionable enough to build them into your morning routine immediately.

Now I’d love to hear from you. Which step was the most interesting and insightful for you? When do you plan to kickstart this habit? If you’re already an early riser, please share your secrets below to help others get started.