Hey Reader!

I am a notoriously deep sleeper. I once slept through a carbon monoxide alarm that woke up the rest of my family 😴 (Don’t worry, I think it was just a particularly loud low battery warning. We were safe!)

I am also a morning person. These two traits don’t work together very well.

After I got back from Winter Break, I realized that I had been slipping further and further away from my early morning self. I needed my long, quiet mornings back. It’s a precious block of solitude before the rest of the world wakes up and the chaos begins.

So I committed to waking up every day at 6AM. To stop my snoozing habit, I decided to leave my phone in the living room so I'd be forced to get up to turn off the alarm. Here's how it went:

Monday. The experiment got off to a shaky start. My phone was in the other room, but I forgot that my Apple Watch was mirroring all of the notifications. So when the alarm rang, I was able to turn it off by simply tapping on my wrist. That defeated the entire purpose of keeping my phone far from reach! I still managed to jump out of bed, fueled by the adrenaline of starting the challenge.

Tuesday. I successfully disabled the alarm on my Watch. I got out of bed immediately, put on my warm fuzzy robe, and sat on the sofa for a bit before continuing on with my morning routine. Everything was going well.

Wednesday. I opened my eyes to a bright bedroom. Oh no. I checked my Watch. 9:30AM. I found my phone seemingly stuck on the “alarm” screen, making no sound. I gave up on the iPhone alarm and resorted to more analog methods. I have this set of speakers in my living room, so I fiddled with their built-in alarm function. It’s a terrifying beeping sound that gets louder and louder over time.

Thursday & Friday. The new LOUD alarm worked, but I could only snooze it. I couldn't figure out how to truly turn it off. It would restart every 10 minutes, and although I ran over to shut it off as quickly as I could, my neighbors must have hated me for those two days.

Since that first week, I've actually brought my phone back into the bedroom and found a few extra techniques that work even better for me:

🌼 Set alarms at weird times. I think I know what happened on Wednesday. I’ve heard that if you receive a notification while an alarm is ringing, it silences the alarm. And since most of us set alarms at even times like 6:00 or 6:30, it clashes with the pre-programmed notifications we get from our apps! That’s why I’ve been setting alarms like 6:02, 6:04, 6:07 😈

Side note: I looked for some fancy alarm apps to replace the default Apple one, but as far as I can tell, you have to pay for all of them (at least to unlock the cool features). So if you’ve been struggling with your phone’s alarm, don’t want to pay for an app, or buy a new, traditional alarm clock, try this!

🌼 Turn the lights on as soon as the alarm rings. I can literally do this from my phone with the Philips Hue app. I allow myself a few extra minutes in bed, but I don't fall back asleep when the lights are on.

🌼 Stick with it until it feels habitual. The first few days, I found myself so anxious about waking up on time that I would wake up every half hour in fear of missing the alarm. This went away after about two weeks. Once the 6am wake-ups began to feel normal, it was no longer a stressful event.

This week, I threw another new variable into the mix: I went outside, in the dark, and ran for 10 minutes before coming back inside to take my usual cold shower. I hear it’s good for mental health ¯\(ツ)/¯

My morning routine is like this ever-evolving experiment to find the factors that make me feel happy & energized during the day. And it’s one of the most worthwhile experiments I’ve ever done! 👩‍🔬

Other tips you shared with me on Instagram...

• An alarm app that makes you do math problems, shake the phone, etc. to stop it (I believe it's Alarmy?)
• ​Philips sunrise alarm clock​
• Setting your alarm to play a different song from a Spotify playlist each morning
• Getting a dog you have to take potty every morning 🐕‍🦺

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This week's video

This is one of my proudest videos! I shared:

+ what I’ve learned after writing 1,316 (now 1,348) journal entries
+ how COOL is it to have this searchable record of my life (I show you the entry from the day I met my boyfriend, hehe)
+ how YOU can start on your journaling journey
+ (also, if I may toot my own horn, I made a really freaking cool intro for this video 😏)

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A few of my favorite things

*Some of these are affiliate links. When you shop through them, a small portion of your purchase goes to The Bliss Bean, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support!

🎵 Some of my favorite listens from January. Also follow me on Spotify to see what I’m listening to throughout the day! (it's okay, it's not creepy.)

📺 I finally am consuming some more media! I started watching Modern Family with my boyfriend, and I’m watching Insecure on Netflix by myself. I’m also reading this book by Jennifer Egan that was on my to-read list for a looong time.

🍈 If you need a silly little game to give your brain a break in between Pomodoros, I really like that one fruit stacking game you’ve probably seen everyone playing on the metro. If you’re with a friend or few, I also really like this app that’s a version of a popular table game!

🌎 Lingoda language classesss 🇫🇷 the weather is getting warmer and it really feels like the time for trying new things and learning new skills! You have just 2 days left to get up to 30% off a Sprint challenge to jumpstart learning German, French, Spanish, English, or Business English. ​

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❔ An exercise for you

What’s a small component you could add to your morning routine? I decided to throw in a 10-minute run before my cold shower. I tried this for the first time today, and it felt amazing. I usually spend my entire morning inside my apartment, so it was really nice to start the day by shaking everything out, getting my heart pumping, and breathing in some fresh air.

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​Find all editions of the newsletter here. Thank you for reading!

Lots of love,
Beatrice