Making a fresh start (and ditching my alarm clock).

I know I shouldn’t sleep with my iPhone, but when our alarm clock started misbehaving back around Christmastime, I started doing it anyway. I only needed its alarm, but of course—of course—that’s a slippery slope. When it’s easy to check twitter last thing at night or first thing in the morning, that’s what I do.

When we moved a few weeks ago I was forced to think about the routine I’d fallen into, and what I wanted to do about my alarm clock.

I’ve had thirty-something years to assess my bad habits (or tendencies that direction) and know what I do when I’m stressed: I stay up too late, have to wake up early anyway, get really tired, and then I get sick.

I have enough going on without being sick, so I made a plan to make sure I get enough sleep. Or rather, to make sure I get to bed on time.

I started leaving my phone in the kitchen at night.

But I didn’t replace the alarm clock.

Without the alarm clock to fall back on, I have to go to bed on time if I want to wake up on time in the morning.

Pretty simple, eh?

I’ll make exceptions to this rule, I’m sure. So far I haven’t had any super-early meetings or 6:00 a.m. flights. When I do, I’ll need an alarm.

At that point, I’ll have to decide. I’m leaning towards getting a cute, inexpensive alarm clock.

Of course, I could just sleep with my iPhone for the night.

But that’s a slippery slope.

How do YOU wake up in the morning? Any tips for ditching the alarm?