Off Topic With Ashley

Often people ask me, “Ashley, how is it that you wake up so early?”

I’m often one of the first people up in the morning, usually awake as much as twenty hours before everyone else. Well, it’s not easy, but here are my top five tips for getting yourself up and ready for a new day, with a cheesy smile on your face and a go-getter “can do” attitude!

1. Make your sleep as uncomfortable as possible: If you’re enjoying your rest, chances are you’ll want to keep going. Consider putting shoes or glass under your mattress, or propping your bed on a lean.
2. Have a positive outlook on life: Being all doom and gloom isn’t going to get you anywhere, especially if you live in someplace unfortunate like Cairns, or Sunnybank. If you think positively about all the wonderful things you’re going to achieve during the day, you’ll be more inclined to want to get up.
3. Have some incentives to wake up and start moving: One of the first things a lot of people do when they wake up is have a shower. How incredibly droll. Consider putting out chocolate, or leaving the remote for the TV in an easily accessible place. Don’t let the start of your day get you down, instead try to do something interesting with it.
4. Be unpredictable: I like to hide my alarm clock in places I’m likely to forget. I also rearrange my room in my sleep. There’s always something interesting to discover when I wake up.
5. Berate yourself when you slip up: Be really rude, and don’t forget to use words that would make your mother cringe. I find that if I coach myself into a “I need to wake up” mentality, it makes it a lot easier to get going. Consider setting deadlines to you don’t miss a beat next time.

If you follow these five steps to the letter, you’ll be up and around at half past four in the morning — bright tailed and bushy eyed — ready for whatever the world can throw at you. I guarantee you’ll be more productive to boot. Go, get ‘em tiger!