Getting plenty of rest is essential. No less than eight hours of sleep per night so that you can wake up refreshed.

As I have grown older, I now tend to wake up later. But for many years, I woke up at 5:00 a.m., spent 30 minutes working out, showered, dressed and ate breakfast. Then off to work by 7:00 and beat most of my co-workers to the office.

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I'd second the importance of sleep, but I've found that when I get to sleep is more important. For example, getting 8 hours from 10pm to 6am is waaaay different than 8 hours from 1am to 9am.

Science backs this up too. You have higher frequency of REM cycles earlier in the night than later in the night.

Here's a study (2003) where they studied how well people performed with going to sleep at different times (earlier vs. later).

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2003/may28/sleep.html

And here's a TIME article where they back this up by interviewing the head of the Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab at the University of California, Berkeley.

He says that non-REM sleep tends to dominate your slumber cycles in the early part of the night. But as the clock creeps toward daybreak, REM sleep muscles in. That’s significant, because some research has suggested that non-REM sleep is deeper and more restorative than lighter, dream-infused REM sleep—though Walker says both offer important benefits.

What does this have to do with the perfect bedtime? The shift from non-REM to REM sleep happens at certain times of the night regardless of when you go to bed, Walker says. So if you hit the sack very late—at, say, 3 AM—your sleep will tilt toward lighter, REM-heavy sleep. And that reduction in deep, restorative sleep may leave you groggy and blunt-minded the next day.

http://time.com/3183183/best-time-to-sleep/

Anyway, I think sleep is most important.

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Find something to look forward to first thing in the morning. For me, it's a cup of French press and some "Beau," time. Without the early morning, I don't get that time alone before the rest of the house wakes up. Whether it's reading a book, working out, or making an awesome breakfast, I think that time is irreplaceable.

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Alarm clock.

Really.

If I have to be somewhere the alarm clock is the go-to to get up and going. The "having to be somewhere" can be work, meeting, coffee, trip, you name it.

If I don't have anywhere specific to be or need to be up at any specific time, I don't set an alarm. I roll over, look at the time, decide if I want/need more sleep and either roll back over or get up.

Or the dog. He likes everyone to be up at 0630!

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In addition to the above advice, which is what needs to come first, when I need to shift my routine to an earlier wake up, until my body adapts to the new wake up time, I have to go to sleep saying to myself, "I will wake up at ___ o'clock in the morning." Just repeat that nightly until the new habit forms. It's a simple little trick but I have found it useful.

In addition, I try and time my afternoon coffee so that I'm coming down from it around when I want to go to sleep.... 4 pm is when I have mine. It isn't "tea time" for no reason. I actually read that advice from a tack a while back on this site.

Best of luck with that.

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When i use to work from home i treated each morning as if i had to go into the office. I would get up and take a shower, eat breakfast, and the rest of my routine. Then kiss my wife and kids and head to my office. Or you could always have kids. They will help you get up early...way early!!! Good Luck

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Kind of new around here, but have had an account for a while.

Being self employed, I struggle with this too, but I've been working on it. One of the things I recommend is to read a book about habits called "The Power of Habit" it will help just with understanding how to more easily "trigger" a habit to stick. -- Then maybe use an app to assist you in developing the series of things you want to incorporate. I'm trying this app called: Fabulous. You can set it to remind you and walk you through it.

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I can only echo most of the responses below. Here it goes anyway.

Sleep, and eight hours seems to be the number I aim for, however, my Fitbit reports I average only about three hours. I kill the caffeine at four o'clock PM as well, usually earlier though. Don't snooze, the snooze button is the devil on your shoulder trying to keep you from forming the early riser habit. Don't sleep in on the weekends or holidays, that is another way to cripple the good habit. I don't set the alarm on my off days but my "biological" alarm usually wakes me and if it doesn't I get up when I first wake (as long as it ins't much earlier than my regular time) and don't just lay there.

My routine: Alarm wakes me at 4:50AM Go right to the bathroom pee, brush my teeth, wash my face and head in cold water, though it's not really that cold this time of year here. Drink about 16 oz of ice water Make a mug of coffee (Keurig) In the car by 5:10 to drive to the gym. Work out. Make breakfast at the office at about 7:30AM.

On my off days I replace the drive to the gym with Greg time and I usually end up cooking breakfast for the whole family between 8:30 and 9ish.

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Still struggling and have yet to find something that sticks (or rather, have yet to change something within myself). However, the days I have gotten up in the wee hours of the morning have been my best. The quiet, leisurely time to myself feels indulgent and my productivity is pretty good throughout the day. But...my nemesis is still absolutely the snooze button. Just read this article that aptly describes the eternal morning struggle as Faustian. I think maybe I should just get rid of the alarm all together and wake up naturally for a while just to see what happens.

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