Early bird will get the worm?

I recently realise my daily routine is a mess.

I always set my alarm at 6am and hit the Snooze button every single morning. My week day normally starts at half past seven or 8-ish when I rush myself to the bathroom, prepare lunch, have breakfast while chitchatting with my parents (which normally lasts until I pick my **s off the chair and go to work). I routinely arrive at work around 10-ish as soon as I realised everyone else in the lab kind of accepted that I am not a morning person. Well, to be fair, I stay there rather late, usually til 7 or 8pm and most of the time I am the last person who leaves the lab. An exception is days that we have lab meetings early in the morning. I come to the lab in the weekend (not for the whole day of course but I spend quite a bit of time), so I use this as an excuse for my late turn-up in the morning. No one complains but it's so obvious that people appreciate early birds in this society.

I estimated that it took me at least 2 hours and a half in the morning, no matter how late I got up, to become fully prepared and go to work. This also includes essential tasks specifically going to the toilet, brushing my teeth, skincare, making tea and toasts, drawing quickly a line over my faint and short eyebrows, applying a bit of lipstick and eyelash serum. If it is a good day that I'm able to throw myself out of bed as early as 7:30, I can quickly prepare lunch. So no time for myself doing what I think is important or long-term beneficial. I have made a long list of such goals and never keep it in my routine for so long. This includes to learn Python, exercise to reduce my belly fat, meditate or read some Dharma chapters, read for my project, walk to the lab and be there before 9, and last and probably least to learn German (lol).

I feel the need now to change something about my life.

Getting up early is the first thing I thought about, though easier said than done. Failing so many time trying to get up at 6, I decided I need some support from other people. There must be thousands or millions people out there having the same problem as me. I read a few blogs of what people suggest to do.

So here comes the main reason why I'm back to writing blogs. I will record (almost) everyday the challenge and accomplishment I have when trying to change myself from a night owl to an early bird. Back to writing also helps with my thoughts and communication and soon my thesis and manuscripts writing, hopefully. This is just for myself to read but I also welcome suggestions, comments and support from others. Let's see in a month if there are some positive changes.

For the first 4 weeks, my aim will be to gradually adjust my biological clock to get up at 5. One (citation) suggested to get up 15 minutes early for 3–4 days, then continue to be 15 minutes earlier than the day before until you reach the desired time. I would say I will try this week to be up at 7am. By end of next week is 6:30 and so on.