Word For Word
Ashley Brown 00:00
[Intro] Routines my absolute favorite word, but you either love them or you hate them. And either way, I strongly believe that routines can be a springboard for improving your home yourself and your life. I'm Ashley Brown, and this is a routine and things podcast. In each episode we'll dive into a specific routine or point of view that will move you closer to enjoying life more and more each day. Trust me, you're gonna want to keep listening, because you're well on your way to getting and staying happy.
Ashley Brown 00:46
Thank you for joining me today. Can you tell them happy? Oh my gosh, I am so happy right now. Are you, how are you feeling? How are you doing today? So today is going to be a really, really good episode because this is something that I have been doing. And so today we are talking about that. How to really wake up earlier that your kids, how do you actually do that? How do you commit to doing that and stay consistent with doing that? What are some things that can help? So I'm going to give you all the scoop, what I've learned through my journey of continuously trying to wake up earlier than my kids, ways that I have become consistent with doing it and some things that have helped me along the way. So let me just back it on up and give you some clue about why I even started this journey of waking up earlier than my kids. For one, it's something I've always wanted to do, but it was one moment in my life where I felt like you know what this has to happen and it was when I was transitioning from being a primarily stay at home mom and going back to work full time, and I knew that I needed to wake up earlier because I was running this business, I was serving you. And I knew that I wanted to remain consistent with serving you and with being here for you. And so that's when I say, you know, what, I had to wake up at 4:30, it's no longer a choice. It has to happen, right? So that is where I started. And I remember the first week I was like, on a roll, like I was waking up getting things accomplished feeling so good. And then that second week came, I was on the struggle bus. I was like, I don't know, I started waking up later and later until I was waking up at 7am. And I'm like, okay, Ashley, you were supposed to be up at 430. So that second week didn't go so well. So then I started again, and this was like, trial and error, until eventually I found a routine, and I started to find things that really helped me to stay on track. So I want to share those with you today. And hopefully, if you have the goal of getting up and waking up earlier than your kids, that you can really do it by implementing some of the things I'm gonna share with you today.
Ashley Brown 03:20
Waking up early for one is a part of your morning routine. So let's start there. So it is a part of your morning routine. And the time that you choose, this is really important to think about, the time that you choose to wake up needs to be realistic for you and your family. It really does. And so I say this because we don't want to be unrealistic in the times that we wake up. So for example, if you have a newborn, they're two to three months or just a newborn that's not sleeping throughout the night or child is not sleeping throughout the night, maybe waking up at 4:30 is not going to work for you. Because you already wake up maybe two, possibly three times throughout the night, so 4:30 might not be realistic. Okay. So we have to really get clear on what is realistic for us. What time is a good time for us to wake up in the morning. So just be sure that you think about that when you're adding your time that you're going to wake up into your morning routine. Really make sure it's realistic for what you want to do, and for your family.
Ashley Brown 04:20
All right, so let's just dive into things. Let's just get straight to it. So what is going to help you in being consistent with waking up earlier than your kids? What helps you to wake up earlier than your kids. Actually get your butt up out that bed, right? The first thing I think that is really important to establish is your why. Why are you doing this, for what purpose? It is important that you have a strong y that it is strong. That it's something that you're like, you know what I have to do this because of X, Y or Z. Why do you need to wake up earlier than your kids? Why is this important for you? Right, like I said, my need to wake up at 4:30 was because I was going back to work and I needed to make sure that I could remain consistent for you, for my community, for this business. So that was a strong why for me. What is your why? Why do you want to wake up earlier? Is it because you want to do home task earlier? You want to get certain tasks out the way like laundry? Is it because you want more time for you so that you can connect to God or just connect to yourself? What is that? Do you want to work out, every day and the morning time is the best time for you? Do you want to be like me and do business in the morning? Right? Do you have a business of your own or your entrepreneur to where you need to get things done before you head to work? Like, what is your why? What is your why? So think about what your why is because I'm telling you this is going to really help keep you on track with remaining consistent.
Ashley Brown 05:54
The second thing that can really help you in waking up in the morning, earlier than your kids, is having a plan for what you are going to do once you wake up. If you feel like you're just going to be like, oh, I want to wake up at five o'clock every morning and you don't know what you're going to do. You know what your mind is going to say, I don't have anything to do so I'm laying my butt right back down and I'm pressing that snooze. Right? So having a plan for what you are going to do once you wake up is important. This is your morning routine, basically. If you don't have a morning routine established for why you're waking up earlier than your kids, then you're more than likely not going to remain consistent. So every night before I go to bed, I review what am I doing in the morning? I review that. What specific things am I doing? What am I working on in the morning? What am I accomplishing in my morning? And then so when I know I wake up, I know I have things to do. I'm like I did say I'm gonna do this and I didn't say I'm gonna do that. So having a plan is so vital. This also helps you get excited about waking up like if you have a plan to do something specific, like you were like, you know what I want to drink my cup of coffee and I want to read my devotional and that makes you excited, you will feel that when you wake up. Like, oh my god, I really want to do it. So having a plan is so, so crucial when you're saying you want to get up earlier than your kids.
Ashley Brown 07:14
And also when you are trying to decide what's going to be within your morning routine, when you wake up earlier, also I want you to add in some wiggle room. Okay, I just wanted to throw this out there. I added like a 30 minute buffer because if anything comes up, or that my child wakes up a little bit earlier, then I have that 30 minute buffer that I can play around with. So I will also suggest or just give you the option of adding wiggle room. The third thing that can really help you in waking up earlier than your kids is to create something to look forward to. Like I said before, you might be excited to get up because you want to drink your cup of coffee and read your devotional. Maybe what excites you is taking five minutes to look outside your window or go outside to sit on your porch by yourself. Maybe it is you want to work on a passion project and that brings you some spark, and that helps to bring you joy so that you want to wake up. Maybe you're like me, you have a business and you really want to devote time to your business, and be creative within your business, so that is helping you to get up in the morning. That's something you look forward to. Maybe it makes you feel good to make breakfast for your family before everyone gets up so they smell the aromas and everyone's happy. Maybe that's what you look forward to. It can be anything, but create something to look forward to, so that once that alarm goes off, you're like, you know what, I'm looking forward to this. So let me get my butt out of this bit. So that can really be helpful. I looked forward to working ahead in my business and really making sure that I was consistently giving to my community. So that's something that I looked forward to. So what are you looking forward to when you want to wake up earlier than your kids? What is that going to be for you?
Ashley Brown 09:07
Which kind of leads me to the next one, which is, set an alarm. I want you to set an alarm. Okay? You're like duh, Ashley. But I'm telling you sometimes people miss this step. You need to set your alarm and make sure it's set. You know, those times where we thought we set alarm, then something crazy happened and we're like rushing to work. Or we're like, why did I just wake up 30 minutes later than when I was supposed to? Because we forgot to set the alarm before we went to bed. That's crucial. Set your alarm. Also, it can be really important also be helpful in general is when you set your alarm, put your phone in another room, so you have to get up. Sometimes we need to be forced to get up, especially in the beginning until our body gets adjusted to the time. We have to force ourselves sometimes to get up and like okay, Let me just get my foot out of bed and let me go get this phone. So if you place your phone in another room, this can really be helpful.
Ashley Brown 10:08
Also, another tip I have for you is for your alarm, set it to a song that will put you in a great mood when you get up. This is something that you can do. I think all phones can actually do this, whether you have an android or an iPhone, you can set your alarm to a song. So if you have music on your phone, you can set an alarm to any song that gets you in a good mood. So like the song I have set is wake up by Kristin T., that is like one of my most favorite songs. And every time it comes on, I'm like, yes, I wake up every day feeling good. I wake up every day feeling good. I wake up every day feeling good. I wake up every day feeling good. That is what the song says. And when I hear that I'm like, yes, I wake up every day feeling good. I feel so good. I'm like yes, we're gonna have a blessed day today. It's going to be awesome and amazing and I get my butt up out that bed. So set your phone to a song that's going to have you such in a good mood, that you're like, I actually want to wake up. I have some energy now to wake up, okay, sometimes we just need that energy boost. So that's a tip for you as well when it comes to your alarm.
Ashley Brown 11:21
So the next tip I want to give you for waking up early, that is really helpful for some people, and was helpful for me in the beginning is having an accountability group or having an accountability partner. So I was a part of an accountability group, like the first three weeks, I was trying to really wake up early at 430 every single day. I was in an accountability group, and we just held each other accountable. And we would check in every morning and make sure that we told someone, you know what we were doing in the mornings. So that can be really helpful for you. If you are one that is more externally motivated. Even if you're internally motivated, it's still helpful to have external motivation to on top of being internally motivated to help you in really remaining consistent, because you know that the people are going to hold you accountable. Like, where are you at? Did you wake up on time? Right? So accountability groups and partners can be awesome. So whether that's a friend, maybe you know some women that you connect with on social. So if you know some women on IG or you know a person on Facebook, like reach out to them and see if this is their goal. You just have to have the same mission of waking up earlier. So it doesn't matter if they have kids or not. If the goal is like, we just want to wake up early, right, like just have an accountability partner or group of people that have the same mission as you to wake up early. And then y'all help to support each other. That's what it's about. So I want you to know that accountability can be a powerful tool when it comes to waking up earlier than your kids.
Ashley Brown 12:57
So the last and final thing and I save the best for last. Go to bed on time. I'm saying this from personal experience, go to bed on time. And when I say go to bed on time, go to bed whenever you said you are going to go to bed in order for you to get an adequate amount of sleep for yourself. I need seven hours. I didn't say six. I said seven. I used to try to play that six hour game my body was like, girl, no, you need seven hours. I know some women that can do six hours and they're fine. I can't do six hours. So you need to think about what time do you need to go to bed in order to get the amount of sleep that is healthy for you in your body and go to bed at that time every single night. Because if you do not what is going to do is you're going to start feeling that tiredness come on more and more and more if you continue to go to bed late. So go to bed on time, get your rest because you don't want to feel crappy throughout the day. Because you feeling crappy throughout the day is just one thing that might stop you from actually continuing to be consistent with waking up early. So make sure that you are going to bed on time and getting your rest. That is so, I'm telling you, out of all of these things I would say this was the most important thing for me personally, if I go to bed on time. Even when my husband talking that jive, I'm like stop playing with me. I don't know why I said jive, I'm going back to the 70s. Oh my gosh, anyway. I'm an old soul, I'm an old soul.
Ashley Brown 14:31
So that's it. Those are all the tips I have. Those were all of the things that helped me and that continue to help me stay consistent with waking up earlier than my kids, and that really helps me wake up earlier than my kids and allows me to wake up early. So that's that. I do want to say one last thing, that it is an adjustment, okay? So it is going to be an adjustment period, where you're going to feel like you possibly could feel in a fog, like, oh my gosh, like I don't know if I can wake up like this. As long as you're getting enough sleep at night, right? Because maybe you think you just need six hours of sleep, but then when you start waking up at five o'clock, you've realized I need actually seven, push back the amount of hours and kind of play around with the time you go to bed to see what's enough sleep for you. But it's still going to be an adjustment period, because your body isn't used to it. Right? It's because it has to catch that rhythm or when you're waking up, and eventually that adjustment period is going to go away. And you're going to be just smooth sailing and your body is going to get so used to waking up at that time, your body is just gonna wake up by itself at that time. Okay, so just notice an adjustment period. If you feel tired in the middle of the day for the first few weeks, that's normal. It will ease up as long as you're continuing to get enough sleep at night and enough hours of sleep. It will ease up okay, just keep going. And I hope that this helped. I hope that this really helps you in waking up earlier than your kids, and getting the things done that you want to do in the morning, because I'm telling you, it's so beautiful when you wake up before everyone else gets up because you have your little alone time. It's just quiet. You're like I'm up before anybody else is up. So it's a beautiful thing.
Ashley Brown 15:08
I hope that you enjoyed this. Please make sure that you subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already and also rate and review today. If you found this to be helpful, please rate and review the podcast. I would really really appreciate it and also share this with someone today or on social. But until next time, please enjoy your day. Please enjoy wherever you are and whatever you're doing, girl. I'll talk to you later.
[Outro] Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed today's episode, could you do me a huge favor and take a screenshot and share it on social. And for more routine goodness, be sure to visit routineandthings.com. Here's to staying happy!