What I Am Doing To Kick My Most Disgusting Habit
Kicking bad habits. Photo credit: Hoggheff
No it's not drugs, cigarettes or nose-picking
Its far worse. I'm writing this as my first social experiment and as an extension on one of the points I talked about in How To Practise Every Day - 13 Useful Tips. In that article I recommend that you should practise first thing in the morning. This is really easy for me because I don't have to be at work until the afternoon. I can be up at 9, 10 or 11 and still get at least an hour of practise in before I have to go anywhere. But most people tell me something like this: "Alex, I don't have time to practise before I go to work/college/school."
Ok, fair point but I know people who get up early, practise in the morning, work at least 8 hours and still practise for a few more hours at night when they come home. So what's the real truth? Is it actually impossible to get up early in the morning? Can only certain people do it? I really want to know what you think about this.
I am going to try and answer this question while I kick my most disgusting habit. Sleeping in. I know I can function with 7 or 8 hours of sleep yet regularly I'll take 9 or 10... even 12 sometimes (I actually wanted to start this yesterday by getting up at 0700 but I slept in until 1100.) If you add up that extra hour or 2 spent in bed it adds up to at least 15 days lost in a year and will take years off your life. Imagine if you used that extra time to do something useful like practise...
One step at a time
My goal is to get up at 0500 every day for at least a month by the end of the year. If I can do that then I can prove that you can get up early enough to practise before you leave the house in the morning. Now, I honestly think I would die if I tried this straight away. So instead I'm going to create my new habit in small stages. Here's my rough plan:
- January and February - Get up at 0700
- March and April - Get up at 0630
- May and June - Get up at 0600
- July and August - Get up at 0530
- September and October - Get up at 0500
- November and December - This is extra time in case things don't go as planned
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Hacking your inner alarm clock
I have tried this plan before and it has never worked. I understood why after I found this article called How to Get Up Right Away When Your Alarm Goes Off by Steve Pavlina. To sum it up, Steve went from "snoozing" for 2 hours after turning off his alarm to getting up straight away between 0400 and 0500 every morning. How did he do it? He did it by practising getting up. Straight away. Right after his alarm went off. Between 3-20 times every day he would get into bed (during the day), set his alarm for a few minutes later then get up straight away when it went off.
This sounded crazy to me at first but, after thinking about it, it began to make sense. In fact it makes perfect sense because, as musicians, it's what we do. We practise patterns and routines so that when the time comes, at a gig say, you can pull them off effortlessly. There is no difference between practising a paradiddle and practising getting up early. If you're interested in this I recommend you read the full article. Its 2,200 words long but well worth the time.
So follow me on Twitter, @xbethune, where I will document the results of this social experiment.
What do you think? Is this crazy? Will it work?
Have your say in the comments below
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January 5th, 2010 - 10:44
I suffer this exact same problem! I have no problem getting out of bed when I have to get out of bed for something, like a class at 9 am or to go to work. But as soon as it’s about just getting up to have a more productive day I’ll be in bed till the point where I begin to be repulsed by how long I’ve spent in bed (which in the past could have been as long as 13 or 14 hours).
So I will be eagerly following to see how well this goes for you!
I remember reading that it takes at least 3 weeks of doing something every day till it becomes a habit, so those first 3 weeks will probably be pretty tough going. Good luck!
Phil.
January 6th, 2010 - 07:17
Phil,
Thanks so much for your support. It’s really appreciated.
You have summed up this problem so well. Its easy to get up in time to be somewhere. The thought of losing your job or failing a class is a pretty big motivation. But the thought of getting up to do something where you are the only person who will hold you accountable is much tougher.
The first 2 days are so far so good and I’m looking forward to hitting that 3 week barrier.
Alex
January 6th, 2010 - 10:04
this sounds really awesome. i’ve never thought of “practicing” getting up. i love it.
January 6th, 2010 - 13:51
Liam,
I hadn’t either until I read that article but it all makes sense. Practice is merely “…the act of rehearsing a behavior over and over, or engaging in an activity again and again, for the purpose of improving or mastering it.” - Wikipedia
To me it doesn’t matter what the behaviour or activity is; you will get better at it if you practise.
Alex