Multi-channel alert technology

...is still not enough to make me get up in the morning.

In order to get where I need to be at the time I need to be there, I know that I need to get up at a certain time. However, that whole getting up at a certain time thing is a lot more challenging than one would think. Under normal circumstances, I set my cell phone alarm to go off about half an hour before I intend to actually get up. That results in having to cut out something or other in my morning routine to be on time, after which I'm still likely to be a bit late. That extra 30-60 minutes needed is lost by my lying in bed and sleeping in 8-minute increments between hitting snooze. Occasionally I'm so talented that I'll unconsciously turn off the alarm altogether and wake up an hour or two later wondering why it never went off.

So last night, I decided that, no really, this morning I was going to get up with only half an hour of lead time. And I was going to accomplish this by--drum roll please--setting two alarms. (And the part of me that thinks marketing-speak is funny used that as inspiration for the title of this post. Sorry.)

My first alarm went off at 6:15 and I got up around 8. Not what I'd call a success story. One valuable thing that I learned, though: being awake has nothing to do with being motivated; I was pretty well woken up when it took me five minutes to figure out that the reason hitting snooze on the alarm clock wasn't working was because my cell phone was going off, and by the time I'd fumbled around to turn that off I was awake. But lying in bed is nice, so I just kind of hung out for the next hour instead of getting up and going to the gym.

I've thought about this, and haven't been able to implement anything on a regular basis that'll make me get up. Putting the alarm clock on the other side of the room doesn't work. Drinking a lot of water before I go to sleep doesn't work. What I think I need is something like one of those old-school alarm clocks with the bells and hammer that'll hit my finger and really piss me off. Not the best way to start my day but at least it would start that much sooner; I haven't yet factored in what to do to improve my mood (it's not like it's good in the morning now). If anyone has any better (or more creative) ideas I'd love to hear them.

I also have a problem with procrastination, but I'll talk about that one later.