VLog #70 – How Can I Stop Hitting the Snooze Button in the Morning?

Video – VLog #70

How do I stop hitting the snooze button in the morning?

Is it bad to keep pressing snooze?

Why you shouldn’t snooze in the morning?

Script – VLog #70

David Logan: Hello and welcome to this week’s fun and education. The Techno geek …. The Techno Dinosaur Meets The I.T Geek, not the tech geek! Good start there, Willie!

David Logan: My name’s David Logan. I’m based here in Annan, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, U.K. With me today as normal, the normal culprit, Willie Nicol.

David Logan: So, Willie, how are you and where are you?

Willie Nicol: Hi David, I’m very well thank you. Yes, the normal culprit. Willie Nicol here, the Techno Dinosaur because I’m pretty rubbish at tech basically.

Willie Nicol: However, I’m a personal development life coach, which I AM quite good at, helping people with their stuff. I’m based in Troon, South Ayrshire, Scotland, U.K.

David Logan: Now that came out to me as if it was ‘toon’ but I do know you live near Troon so we’ll keep it at that.

Willie Nicol: Troon!

David Logan: This week, it’s my turn to ask you a question Willie.

David Logan: I’ve been guilty in the past of when I go to wake, get up in the morning, hitting my alarm on snooze several times. It could be an hour before I’m up after the initial ring which is not a good habit and I’m sure I’m not alone.

David Logan: How do we stop people like myself doing that, keeping continuously hitting the snooze, going back to bed, or whatever? I even moved my alarm, so I had to get out of bed, that’s how bad it got. So, the question to you Willie …. how do we stop somebody pressing the snooze button?

Willie Nicol: That’s a good question and forgive me laughing because you’re right David, we’ve all done it. We’ve all hit that snooze button because we’re tired or whatever and you mentioned the word habit. You’re in a habit and that’s exactly what it is. It becomes a habit. They say it takes 60 days to form a habit and, equally, it takes 60 days to break a habit. Apparently that’s the scientists coming out and saying that’s the case.

Willie Nicol: However, I was going to suggest you move the alarm clock outwith arms reach but, as you say, if you’re going to get up and do it and then go back to your bed that’s not going to work. However, what we’re looking at here is a routine, a habit. And you get into the way of it and it’s quite difficult to get out of it. So I’m going to talk a wee bit about willpower and a wee bit about self-discipline. So, willpower is, just sticking to doing things that you want to do. Having the willpower, if you like, not to do something you don’t want to do or do something you DO want to do. Self-discipline is sticking to that routine or sticking to that. So, your self-discipline is, “I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to hit the snooze button”. Yeah? But it’s a lot easier said than done. And I say this all the time that, ladies and gentlemen, you go onto Google and you can search for how to increase your will power, how to have better self-discipline and so on and so forth.

Willie Nicol: And there’s any amount of information there about steps you can take to do that. but here’s a couple of things I would say, right. Have a routine. So, if you have to get up at say 7am, try and get to your bed at a reasonable hour depending on how many hours of sleep you need, right. You enter the routine of when the alarm does go off, do not hit the snooze button, get up, right. Open your eyes, swing your legs off the bed and get up. You have to do …. exercise some willpower to do that and then you have to have the self-discipline to continue doing it. And once you get so far down the line, you’ll hopefully no longer do it. And if you get into that routine, you exercise your willpower and the self-discipline, it can be overcome.

Willie Nicol: Not always easy because we all do things that, “I wish I had more will power not to do that”, which is generally NOT to do that. Or, “I wish I had more will power to do that”. For example, go to the gym or get more exercise or whatever. And I would say that willpower and self-discipline, they’re a bit like a muscle. The more you exercise them, exactly, the more powerful they’ll become. So it’s getting into the way, getting into the habit, of exercising your willpower and your self-discipline to either do something or not do something.

Willie Nicol: One or two little tips for example, right. Think about rewarding yourself for exercising your self-discipline and willpower. So, instead of hitting the snooze button, get up and say, “Right I’m going for a walk” or “I’m going for a cold shower” or “I’m going for …. whatever” or “I’ll have that extra tasty breakfast thing”. So, you’ve got something in your head going, “If I do this, I will reward myself with something nice”, OK? And that kind of takes …. creates an unconscious desire to do it.

Willie Nicol: Another thing you can do is, and I’ve mentioned this before, is visualisation. Visualise yourself, alarm going off, you get out of bed, hit the snooze button, sorry, hit the off button and you’re up. And once you’re up, you visualise yourself then doing the next step, going for your shower, having a bit of breakfast then your shower, or whatever. That’s part of the routine and once you’ve got that picture in your head you’ll be less inclined to hit the snooze button and roll over.

Willie Nicol: Don’t do what I used to do which is I would set the alarm half an hour early so I could hit the snooze button, right, and then get up at the right time and not feel guilty. Counterproductive, I think.

Willie Nicol: So, set your alarm for whatever time it is, hit the off button, not the snooze button, get up immediately, think about your reward, visualise yourself doing that act or not doing that act, which is hitting the snooze button, yeah.

Willie Nicol: Have a look online for ways to enhance your willpower and your self-discipline. Now, you can’t go into the shop and buy a jar of self-discipline or a jar of willpower. This is something which regrettably, ladies and gentlemen, you have to work at. However, if you fail for example one day and you hit the snooze button, the big thing to remember is it’s a setback. You don’t beat yourself up and go, “Aw that didn’t work”, and then go back to your old bad habits of continually hitting the snooze button.

Willie Nicol: I’ve said this many times before. Don’t beat yourself up unnecessarily. Don’t berate yourself for one little slip. But what I suggest you do is try this, try your routine, try and get into that good habit, not the bad habit of hitting the snooze button. Visualise you getting up and doing what you’ve got to do. Think about a little reward you could give yourself. You could even say at the end of the week, “Right I will do something enjoyable”. Because, if you can get through a week without hitting the snooze button, or in your case laterally without drinking 10 cups of coffee a day, right, give yourself a little reward or a little pat on the back. Because you’ve achieved something, right.

Willie Nicol: So, make it your goal for example to, right, “I’ll go 5 days without hitting the snooze button” and then reward yourself at the end of that. Because you’ve got a goal in mind and you know what you have to do or not do in this case, hit the snooze button. You know what you’ve got to do – not hit the snooze button – get up, get on with your day. Does that make sense?

David Logan: Absolutely. So, keep it simple, willpower and self-discipline?

Willie Nicol: Exactly, right. Now, people say willpower, self-discipline yeah, yeah, yeah but look at them. If you’ve got the willpower not to do something and the self-discipline to keep exercising that willpower, you’ve got it cracked.

David Logan: Exercise, love that word. And habits are very true. So, they reckon 60 days to break a habit.

Willie Nicol: That’s what, that’s what I’ve read. You can develop a habit in 60 days and therefore it takes 60 days to break that habit. Now, whether it’s hitting the snooze button or giving up cigarettes or stopping eating so much junk food or whatever it is, you get into a routine of doing that thing, which is probably not good, you don’t want to do. You’ve got to exercise self-discipline and willpower to break that habit, to get back to not doing what you don’t want to do. Or, conversely, aiming for what you DO want to do. So, that’s …. have a goal, have a think about how to you get to that goal and stick with it. That’s all I can say.

David Logan: So, there you go ladies and gents. Get a goal, stick to it, willpower and self-discipline. Stay off that caffeine, get to bed early, don’t hit that snooze!

David Logan: Have a great week everybody. If you want to see more of our videos, search for “Techno Geek Meets the I.T. Geek”. So, that’s “Techno Dinosaur Meets the I.T. Geek”! That’s what happens when you don’t drink coffee!

Willie Nicol: Quite so David.

David Logan: I’m going to sign out here folks Have a good week and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.

Willie Nicol: Thank you David. Yeah folks, get into a good habit, that’s all I’ll say. Right, remember, stay safe, stay well and have some fun. Bye for now.