One day I’ve decided that I should start running in the mornings to get back into shape. Two weeks later, I was still thinking that it would be good to finally start doing it. Probably from next week... Or better from the first day of next month... It continued this way for almost 2 months. Do you know how I finally managed to stop procrastinating it? I bought myself pair of new running shoes and some sports wear and after that I simply couldn’t hold it any longer. Investing in my new habit was the thing that actually pushed me out of endless procrastination. You can use the same trick to help you start or resume your habit of waking up early.

Indeed, we always tend to care more about things that we paid for rather than things we’ve got for free. It’s a known fact that people who pay to go the gym exercise much more often than people who have a gym at home. I do not mean to say that we are all greedy, but once we buy something we are more likely to start using it as opposed to the thing we’ve got for free or as a gift. Probably subconsciously we just feel guilty spending the money for nothing and want to prove that it was a justified purchase. Anyway, let’s see how you can use this effect and invest in your early wake up habit.

First of all, you can buy yourself new alarm clock, which is going to be a “symbol” of your new habit. Or you can buy a new CD Radio with alarm clock. You can buy special wake up devices like Sleeptracker Wake Up Monitor or Clocky . Or you can subscribe to wake up call services.

Interesting enough, the more you spend the more chances you are going to use what you’ve purchased. Can you imagine buying an alarm clock for $1,500 and not using it? Of course I’m not asking you to buy such a clock (though they do exist), but you’ve got the point. If you invest $1 it may just not work as you will not care about it. Just spend wisely.

If you got any other ideas on how to invest in your early morning wake ups, I’ll appreciate if you share them with us in the comments below.

P.S. Now that I need to get back to running in the mornings again, and I already have running shoes, I’m thinking of buying something like Garmin Forerunner 305 . Once I buy it, result is guaranteed. Even if this thing won’t give me that kick out of my house for a run, my wife will definitely do it...

P.p.s. This is not advertising post. While I may get paid some small referral fee if you follow the links in this post and buy something, it’s definitely not the goal of this post. I just thought I should be fair with you and let you know about it.