Confession: I'm not a morning person (at least not naturally).

For most of my childhood, I'd hit snooze a million times and my mom would have to drag me out of bed to make it to school on time.

In my college years, the morning hours were forced upon me by pre-class baseball practices and lifts. At first, I struggled mightily with the adjustment. I knew that if I wanted to perform, I had to figure out a system:

I had to become a morning person.

Somewhere along the way, it clicked, and for the last 10 years, I've started most mornings with a 4am alarm.

Today, I can't imagine anything different. I wouldn't change a thing. I've officially become one of those annoying morning people who seem excited to be awake.

My firm belief is that the early morning hours offer unparalleled beauty:

• No emails or texts coming in
• No social media notifications
• Children, spouses, or roommates still asleep

Whether you have the freedom to structure your day as you wish—or you're in a traditional role that requires you to be in the office from 9-5—I think that everyone should at least try an early morning routine to see how it suits them.

Here are the 5 actionable strategies that I have used to turn myself from a night owl into a morning person:

5 Actionable Strategies to Use

1. Create a Repeatable Evening Routine

Your evening routine sets you up for a great morning.

I spend 15 minutes in the evening preparing myself for whatever that first focus task of the morning is going to be.

Note: This is particularly important if you aren't a morning person, because any friction in the morning is going to hurt your experience. 15 minutes in the evening reduces your morning friction considerably, so you can immediately get into a flow.

I also spend a few minutes going through my 1-1-1 journaling method:

• 1 win from the day
• 1 point of tension or anxiety
• 1 point of gratitude

It gets things off my brain and onto a piece of paper, so I can unwind and fall asleep quickly.

2. Move Your Alarm Clock

The snooze button is Enemy #1 in the quest to become a morning person.

If it's easy to hit the snooze button, you'll hit it.

Make it hard: Move your alarm clock (I use my phone) into a nearby room or location that's at least 10 feet away from your bed.

When it hits, you're forced to get out of bed to turn it off. You will be much less likely to hit snooze if you had to get up already.

You've forced the subconscious snooze into a conscious decision.

Pro Tip: If you keep the volume low enough, you'll hear it (because you're subconsciously listening for it) but your partner/spouse won't. My wife is a light sleeper and I'm a heavy sleeper, but it still works for us.

3. Use My 5-5-5-30 Method

If you struggle with morning energy (as I did), you need a jolt.

As soon as you turn off your alarm, do this:

• 5 push-ups
• 5 squats
• 5 lunges per leg
• 30-second plank

It’ll jumpstart your engine and give you a natural boost.

I call it my 5-5-5-30 Method—I've been doing it since those early morning college practice days. It just plain works.

Pro Tip: Do not do the exercises next to a bed with a sleeping partner/spouse. Go into another room. Trust me...

4. Front-Load the Energy Creators

When you're trying to become a morning person, having things you're excited to do early in the morning is crucial.

Structure your early morning hours such that they involve at least one energy-creating activity.

Maybe it's going to the gym, maybe it's working on that side hustle, maybe it's focusing on that interesting creative project.

Whatever it is, having an energy-creator to look forward to is always a good way to give yourself an intrinsic boost.

5. Go to Bed Earlier

Ok, this may seem obvious, but it wouldn't feel right to ignore the most impactful—yet somehow overlooked—strategy for becoming a morning person:

Go to bed earlier.

I would never condone trying to wake up at 5am if it meant cutting your sleep short by two hours.

I used to follow a "sleep when I'm dead" mentality. In my early career years, I regularly worked until 10pm and woke up at 3:45am. But studying the science, I realized that "sleep when I'm dead" is actually a great way to end up dead sooner...

A few tips that help with falling asleep if you struggle:

• Read light fiction before bed. I like science fiction or historical fiction.
• Warm shower or sauna before bed (no cold water, which triggers your body to warm itself up, the opposite of what you want as you go to sleep).
• Blackout shades to keep your room dark.
• White noise machine (you can find solid, cost effective options on Amazon).
• Cool sleeping environment.

Create a solid, regular structure to your sleep. Establish a fixed sleep and wake time that you try to follow ~90% of the time. Sleep regularity has a lot of health benefits!

Wake Up & Conquer

There's no such thing as a loser who wakes up at 5am.

Waking up early is the easiest way to improve your odds of success. You don't have to wake up early to be successful, but you rarely find an early riser that isn't winning.

It's hard to get up early—if you develop the discipline to do it, you're a winner. You may not see it yet, but that discipline muscle you're building is going to bear fruit.

Now it's your turn to give it a shot:

Wake up and conquer!