Try to get up 2 minutes earlier every day! Small habits become substantial habits over time.

Believe it or not, finding more time in your day begins with a small, simple change that will help you transform your habits. The trick? Set your alarm two minutes earlier every day.

If you usually get up at 7AM set your clock for 6:58 on Monday, 6:56 on Tuesday… by Saturday you’ll be waking up at 6:50 and you won’t even notice the difference. Stick to that time over the weekend then, on Monday, set your alarm for 6:48.

Within a couple of weeks you’ll be waking up 20 minutes earlier. If you keep it up you can readjust your body clock to wake up half an hour earlier, or even an hour… plenty of time to do a meaningful workout before tackling the rest of your day.

Once you’ve reached your desired wake-up time, stick to it for 30 days to ensure it becomes a true habit. Then, bingo!, you’ll find yourself fitter, more alert, active, and no longer struggling to get out of bed just so you can stumble into the shower, skip breakfast and rush to work stressed.

The trick to training your brain to wake up earlier is to not cheat – don’t sleep till 7AM all week then set the alarm for 6:50AM on Friday. Even if it seems silly to only change the alarm by two minutes a day, stick with it. The whole point is to reset your sleep rhythm in subtle increments so your brain never has a chance to resist.

This is a key truth about habit change: if you try to make a big change to your current routine your brain resists. It likes familiarity and comfort and if you tell it to do something different it will fight back. But incremental changes are different. They open the door to change inch by inch, so your mind doesn’t have a chance to get its defences up. The result is that you are able to achieve major positive changes in your habits without struggle and resistance.

Try it for two weeks – just setting your alarm clock two minutes earlier each morning. Don’t think about it: just do it. By the end of two weeks you’ll see how easy it is to make a substantial change by doing a series of tiny steps. Once you understand this principle you can apply it to other areas of your life. Try running one minute longer every day, or doing one extra rep in each set, or eating one additional portion of fruit and veg… before you know it you’ll be fitter, stronger and more focused than ever.