The Best Week of the Year to Start a New Morning Routine: The End of Daylight Savings Time
The one about shifting your schedule when the clocks change.
For many years now, I’ve noticed a large influx of people in the gym at 6 a.m. the week we change our clocks back. (Similar to after New Year’s or when the new school season begins.) Those exercisers are taking advantage of the same phenomenon we all experience when daylight savings ends—their bodies think it is an hour later, which gives them the impression of waking up earlier.
Most of the year, it’s difficult to wake up earlier because your body isn’t used to it. Your alarm disrupts your sleep cycle, leaving you exhausted. And you struggle to fall asleep at an earlier time because your circadian rhythm is stuck in its ways, exactly like your dog:
But every autumn, people in countries with the dumb practice (that most Americans hate because messing with your circadian rhythm is rough) of changing their clocks are granted a rare opportunity to start waking up earlier, effort-free. This silly practice provides unique conditions to create a new morning routine, and it will be here soon: November 5th in the U.S. and October 29th in some countries.
If you have aspirations of adding a fancy new habit to your mornings—now’s the time! It’s a fresh start.
Clearly, it’s not as simple as just changing the clocks and then magically having an extra hour in the day. Your nighttime routine will have to shift to accommodate the earlier bedtime. And if your bedtime shifts, then other things in your evening will have to shift as well—when you eat, when you start cooking, when you prep the next day, etc. So all you’re really doing is taking time from elsewhere in the day and reallocating it to an hour where your priorities won’t get interrupted (and when many people are more productive). Do me a favor though, please assess whether you are being realistic about what you can accomplish in a day before trying to jam more stuff in.
There’s rarely a perfect time or perfect circumstances to create new habits. But if you want to get up earlier to do whatever the heck you want before the world starts throwing stuff at you, consider taking advantage of the clocks changing this fall.
(Unless, like me, you already have an awesome morning routine and this time of year just causes you to wake up awkwardly early and go to bed at an embarrassing time for a couple of weeks.)
Give it a try! The worst that can happen is you don’t like the new schedule and you readjust to the new time with your old routine.
EXPERIMENT: Waking up earlier after daylight savings time ends
This is a beautiful natural experiment because, no matter what, you’ll have to adjust something when daylight savings ends—either shifting your body clock to the new time or shifting your routine. So it’s a nice time to reflect on your schedule and make intentional changes.
STEP 1: PAY ATTENTION
- Do you like your morning routine how it is?
- Do you have a new habit you’ve been thinking about adopting?
- Do you have priorities that end up getting side-tracked throughout the day?
- Do you wish you had more time to yourself to focus on what matters to you?
STEP 2: GET CURIOUS
- What would a fantastic morning look like?
- How could you benefit from adding something to your morning?
- If you’re adding something you don’t do now, what could you get rid of later in the day to accommodate the new priority?
- Are you open to changing your evening routine to accommodate an earlier bedtime?
- How could you make this change work?
STEP 3: TAKE ACTION
Getting started is easy because all you have to do is switch the clocks back and then wake up at your normal time. Then you get to enjoy your fancy new morning routine. The hard part is getting to bed at a new, earlier time, but hopefully, the benefits you reap from having better mornings will make it easier to give up time from the evening.
Best of luck to you!
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