On August 14th, I started a personal “No Snooze” challenge on Snapchat by writing down the dates of the upcoming working days for a 4-week period on a post-it. Every day I succeed, I cross it off on this post-it and share the picture on my Snapchat. I don’t have many friends there yet, just close ones but enough to push me through.

The “No snooze challenge” was another way of saying I want to wake up earlier. Having kids naturally mean I wake up early. But earlier than them is my goal. Having an alone time where I can get centered before the day starts is just so rewarding.

So how did the challenge go?

• I told my friends the night before I started about it and shared the Post-it photo with them.
• I set the alarm at 5:45 AM everyday,  placed my mobile few footsteps away from me in order to leave the bed to turn it off.
• The first few days were not so difficult. Why, you ask? Accountability, my dear friend. That’s the word that made me stick to my challenge. It’ crossing off the day and sharing it proudly with friends that kept me going.
• I successfully stuck to my challenge for 18 out of 20 days!
• The first time I didn’t  was not because I slept in. That day I did wake up on time and started my morning routine as usual. Thirty minutes later, however, I still couldn’t open my eyes because I stayed up late the night before, so I got back to bed and slept for 30 more minutes.
• Next day, when the alarm went off, I  moved up my waking up time 15 minutes later to 6 AM instead and woke up immediately when it rang. That’s why I have mixed feelings regarding crossing off this day.
• Few days later, I also slept late but managed not to hit snooze in the morning. Nevertheless, the tempting idea of going back to bed kept me out of focus, until I decided I needed to wake my body for real. Therefore, I put on my  headset and played the most upbeat music I have and started jumping up and down in the kitchen. Can you imagine? me jumping to music in the kitchen at around 6:15 AM while everybody was peacefully sleeping in the house without any clue on the craziness happening under their roof. It was fun really, glad I made that choice.

The feeling of being control of my day during this challenge was amazing. I started the day with reading a page of one of my favorite inspiration books then meditating for 10 minutes. Next, I listened to some prayers or  conversations and  interviews with spiritual leaders while getting everything ready in the kitchen like lunch boxes (if not prepared the day before), milk bottles and coffee. Afterwards, I wrote in my   “one sentence journal for mums” highlighting the most important thing about my kids’ previous day.

Next in my routine was writing a page in my journal  about the happenings of the day before. Followed by waking up everybody and getting ready to leave the house. I even had time to apply the kind of makeup I like which is a feel good booster in itself to me. Of course this also led to getting to work on time everyday.

After this challenge we had long national holidays. Getting back to waking up as early as 5:45 AM was so difficult to me especially that fall started which means  it was getting darker in those early hours.

Luckily, I ran into “How to become an early riser” by Steve Pavlina. Recommended by Mark McGuinness in his new awesome Free ebook “productivity for creative people“. That’s all the push I needed to get back on track, thus writing these words at 6:45  in the morning!

I am now waking up at 5:30 AM  (3rd day now) and planning to continue to do so to pursue my creative interests, such as writing in this blog. I didn’t share this update on Snapchat yet because it’s now a commitment not just a challenge, although  I have a new post-it and I’m crossing off the days when I wake up.

I believe this challenge was the first step towards a series of changes to a better and fuller life. Join me!