Monday, May 7, 2012

Can you learn to stop snoozing?


Following my blog post last week where I shared my passion for snoozing and my plans to start something to tackle it, I have gotten a slew of emails and questions from people on the topic. It seems to have sparked something in people's imagination. It also got about four times the number of reads as any of my other blogs to date. This kind of confirms my thought that this is a latent problem people that people haven't been able to tackle. There are so many snoozers out there, but I'm convinced that people don't really understand (or admit) the actual impact that snoozing has on their lives.

So in response to my blog post, the common questions that have been asked by everybody who has emailed me or gotten in contact have been the following:

"Can you learn to stop snoozing?" and "Can you teach somebody to stop snoozing?"

In short, the answer to question 1 is "Yes". And the simple answer to question 2 is "I don't have a clue, but I'm going to give it a shot".

Q1: Can you learn to stop snoozing?


I don't want to spend too long on this, as the simple answer is yes. Lots of people have stopped snoozing and become early risers. You've done it too. Last time you needed to get a flight or do something really important, you probably managed to pull yourself out of bed. When people have kids, they suddenly don't have any choice about whether to snooze or not (babies are badly designed without snooze buttons). Also, lots of people on-line have written about their own success stories.

But getting up to tend a crying child or catch a flight is one thing. The true challenge comes when you are getting up with absolutely no external stimulus other than your own declared desire to get up at a certain time  in order to do something that you want to do.

The reality though is that although it is certainly possible to stop the habit, it is rare that epic snoozers become non-snoozers.

Q2: Can you teach people to stop snoozing? (and what would that look like?)
"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
You've probably tried to stop snoozing before? I've often made the decision of an evening. 'Tomorrow I will get up early and go to the gym'... but when the morning comes the old habit kicks in. You can't just change such an in-built habit with willpower alone.


So how do you tackle it? The problem with a lot of snoozing tips is that they are taken in isolation and are only somewhat effective. My idea is to combine all the different elements of what is known about snoozing and put them into a 4 hour intensive anti snoozing workshop. As this is only a pilot I can't tell you whether this will work or not, but I am determined to find out.

The workshop will cover three main strands:

1. Goal setting: 
The key thing with stopping snoozing is knowing why you want to get up in the morning. For some people this will be getting up an hour early to go to the gym, for some it will be getting up just 15 minutes earlier to have a more relaxed morning. But whatever it is for you it's important to define and be clear about the reason you want to stop snoozing, and know what difference it will make in your life. This will give you the motivation to keep going with breaking the habit. The goal setting workshop will be run by a hugely experienced career coach.


2. Techniques, Tips and Practice: 
Snoozing is a habit, which can be broken. When you snooze you usually do so without really waking up or choosing your actions. It's a subconscious thing. But by changing some of our actions and thoughts in the morning we can change the context of the morning slog.
- Actually practice getting up in the morning. Periodically throughout the workshop we will actually practice the art of getting up immediately with the alarm clock.
- Tips and tricks will be provided, a combination of which can help to tip the balance towards getting up rather than staying in bed.
- Mindfulness. Mindfulness is a practice to bring awareness and thought to your actions in the moment. It can be really useful in breaking the automatic habits that we have in our lives, and snoozing is a pretty big one. The workshop will take some of the practical elements of mindfulness and apply them to getting up in the morning. Anne Twohig-Wall from Ananda Programmes, (a hugely experienced workshop facilitator) will be running that section of the day.


3. Network and Support:
The key element that brings all of the above together (and what makes this workshop really different from just reading about this on-line) is the network of ex-snoozers that it will bring together to support and encourage each other to stop snoozing and change their habits. We can support each other in our efforts, whether that's morning calls or texts to make sure people are awake when they said they'd be, sharing information and success stories on an online forum, meeting for a coffee before work in the morning, etc.

Workshop Details: 

Date: Sunday 27th May from 11am - 4pm (had thought about starting at 9am but thought given the audience that wouldn't be a great plan)


Cost: €20 per person (just to cover costs). For this you'll get the full day and a unique "Anti-Snooze Booklet" that I'm putting together. Lunch won't be included in that.


Location: It is being held in the CFCP, a great little venue on lower Pembroke Street (it will be worth coming for the venue alone!).

Interested? There are already 6 people signed up to come along to this pilot workshop, and I want to get 10 people on board for the first one, and then see where to bring it from there. If you are an epic snoozer or know any epic snoozers who might be interested, then either leave a comment below or email me at ryandarren@gmail.com

Until then, happy snoozing!

2 comments:

  1. Hope i don't sleep in and miss the workshop, even with the late start time!!

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  2. Haha - we should provide wake up calls as part of the workshop! :)

    ReplyDelete