Morning Akrasia
This post is just me planning how to get up in a timely manner.
For two mornings in a row, I’ve laid in bed for 30-45 min extra, in a dazed semi-slumbering state. Sleeping-in is a bad habit for me. It makes me sleepy and slow for the rest of the day.
It also makes it harder to get up the day after, which leads to a self-perpetuating downwards spiral. Getting back to effortless awakenings requires me to get up immediately 3-5 days in a row.
When I lie there in bed, I’ve noticed myself having “fake debates” about whether I should go up. They are fake because I know on some level that I’m just procrastinating getting up. These “fake debates” consist of me weighing the pros and cons of getting up, while slowly falling back asleep. It’s like a part of me that’s fond of close-term rewards ties up my executive functioning through a bit of make-belief.1
Previously I’ve broken this pattern with sheer willpower, but this time I’m thinking about applying a more skillful approach: making mornings nicer. The idea is to bribe the short-term part of my brain using pleasure.
A few possibilities come to mind, including things like hot showers, scratching my back using my stinger2, drinking water, and possibly using my magic wand.3
Reasoning a bit more about it, I realize that I want something that is low-effort and raises alertness levels at the same time. As such, here’s my plan:
When I get home I’ll put my stinger on the backrest of my armchair.
When I wake up, I will drink water from my bottle, and then I’ll grab my quilt4, moving quickly to the armchair.
There I’ll scratch my back on the stinger, drinking more water while staying cozy under the quilt.
Hopefully, this will be enough to get back on track :D
I have a hunch that these fake debate are super common. They are a good way of convincing yourself that you “really tried”, letting you avoid the shame of failure.
=spikmatta. Didn’t know this word…
Wingardium leviosa ;D
=täcke. I realize I suck at English words for common household objects.