By Brian Brecker
Elm Staff Writer
Let’s be honest with ourselves; we are college students, and we stay up until 3A.M. watching YouTube videos, check- ing our social media, or cramming in studying for a quiz the next morning. We often overcompensate by drinking coffee or energy drinks and cannot fall asleep for several hours. If you happen to be a part of the self-sufficient aberrations that voluntarily prefer to wake up before the hour mark hits double digits, then I can- not speak to your experience, only my own: that of a lazy college student.
The first step to creating a perfect morning routine is to set an alarm for yourself and keep your phone at full volume before you go to sleep. One app for this is Alarmy. You can customize your own alarm sounds and create multiple alarms for different days of the week.
So you’ve woken up due to your alarm or your roommate’s alarm, and it’s an hour or two before your first class. You are now faced with a choice: should you get up and get your routine over with, or should you stay in bed? Stay in bed. Resting is very important, and there’s no rea- son to do the things you need to related to your hygiene early. If you’re afraid of falling back asleep, just set another alarm for yourself.
Brush your teeth, shower daily, and
you should have no trouble. Roll out of bed, roll to the shower, roll over some toothpaste and you’re done. Then put on some roll on deodorant.
Also, breakfast is a myth. You’ve prob- ably seen it said that eating breakfast is healthy, but those studies, as pointed out in a 2016 article from the New York Times written by Aaron E. Carroll, have numerous procedural flaws, as well as confirmation bias. If you really need three meals in your life to function properly, but cannot wake up before 10 like me, you can always get a meal at Martha’s or Create at night. An easy morning breakfast for protein and calories are granola and protein bars.
In the end, what morning routine is proper for you is the one you should go with. This should always involve under- standing of time management and your schedule, or you might miss a class, resulting in a lower grade. Being involved in your own education relies itself on the ability to be present and aware at all of your classes. If you sleep through a class, there is a dysfunction in your morning schedule or routine and it is important that such occurrences do not become a trend or pattern of behavior. Experiment in different ways with small changes to your morning routine and find what suits you.