I bought some quality literature and started reading. The book is pretty much full of things like breathing techniques and weird yin-yang stuff that I'm probably just too much down to earth for in my opinion. In addition I don't think my boss would really like it when I lie down on my desk trying to meditate and apply breathing techniques when I should be working on a high-pressure project with a deadline that is very close. It might work for some people but not for me. However, there was a part in the book saying "When you start your day without stress you experience less stress the entire day". Well that sounds reasonable! When a bucket is already half full before you start filling it, it will be full sooner than when you start with an empty bucket. I decided to give it a try.

Why rising early is good
So rising early is said to reduce the stress you experience during the entire day, but there are more advantages to rising early explained in this article I found. Besides having less stress, your productivity should increase according to this article. I can imagine that is true, because when I rise really late (for example in weekends) I feel a bit dull and my productivity is low the entire day. I suppose that works the other way around as well. The first hours in the morning feel like they are the most productive hours of the day - so when you rise early you just have more of those hours!

Since I started to rise early I really feel better. I still don't rise at 5am, but now I actually get out of bed when my alarm clock rings (about 7am) instead of snoozing until the last moment possible - giving me the opportunity to have breakfast, take a shower, read the newspaper and watch the news. Instead of racing out of my bed to arrive at my work just in time I now can really start the day really relaxed and without any stress. My colleagues are surprised that I arrive early at work, but it isn't hard at all because I can have breakfast/shower/etc. for about an hour and still arrive at work much earlier than I used to.

So how can I rise early?
Again, the article stated above has some great tips on how to rise early. I even bought the clocky robotic alarm clock because it is the #1 annoying alarm clock in the 'annoying alarm clock top 10'. However, this is not necessary to become an early riser. The most important thing in my opinion is that you stop pressing that snooze button over and over again. Put your alarm clock somewhere you can't reach it from your bed. In addition get an alarm clock that makes an annoying sound or something, at least make sure you don't wake up with the radio as sound. I used to do that, but the problem is you start listening to the music or what is said automatically and you are doomed do go back to sleep. Just put it out of reach and make sure it makes an annoying sound, and your life will be much better!

When your alarm clock is out of reach you will most probably hate yourself in the morning for doing that, but that feeling disappears after a while. I think that in a while I can put by alarm clock next to my bed again and turn off clocky's wheels. Once you are used to it you can simply turn off your alarm clock and get out of bed directly without too much problems.