Waking up and staying awake in the morning is the first challenge I face each day. I did the classic wake up at 5 am routine that every instagram influencer does but instead of feeling good it made me feel less productive. I felt drained the whole day because of how early I woke up.

That’s why I decided to try weird morning routines i could find online and try it myself and see what works for me

Staring at the window for 2 minutes without blinking:  This looks unrealistic if you’re trying to become a morning person. I saw this from the 5AM club and it talked about getting light into your eyes early in the morning to wake your brain up. I tried it, eyes wide open and staring at the window for 2 minutes. This is weird but it actually works. Just standing there without blinking is the easiest morning routine that I’ve tried.

Drinking 1/2 gallon of milk: I got this idea from some post on reddit. The idea behind it is that the protein and fat slow digestion and keep you full and energized longer. It sounds reasonable. However, it made me suffer and I visited my toilet right after I tried it. Sure I was more awake but not for the reasons anyone intended.

Sunlight immediately on my face when waking up: Having the sunlight on my face in the morning was irritating. My body would move on its own to cover my face. I think this genuinely works for people who are light sleepers or used waking up early but not for me.

Doing push-ups right after waking up: This one is brutal. My arms shake, my heart beats so fast and it makes me forget to go back to sleep. The original video I saw used Wayk to force the guy to get up and do push-ups. That kind of extreme movement helped me get up since I had no choice but to finish it first before I could silence the alarm.

No breakfast: Well since I’m not a morning person I’m never hungry right after waking up anyway, so skipping breakfast wasn’t hard. The problem is that nothing changed, I just got hungrier and by 10am I was distracted and counting down to lunch. For me it was basically just skipping a meal and pretending it had a purpose.

Cold face splash before anything else: Cold face splash before anything else. I read a lot about this from Atomic habits so I had such high hopes for this one. I splashed cold water on my face right away, and I felt awake for like 3 minutes, but after that the sleepiness slowly came back.

Drinking ginger tea in the morning: I thought this would work because drinking ginger disgust me. I got this idea from Rachel De Thample’s Tonics and Teas, here she mentioned that herbal drinks like this are recommended for energy. It didn’t make me feel awake. It only left a spicy taste on my tongue that I could taste after hours passed.

Putting ice on your body: This has the same concept as washing your face using cold water. The cold shock was more intense than splashing water on my face and it lasted a bit longer. If you want to be fully awake I suggest going in a full cold shower. That’s probably more effective than putting an ice pack on your body.

Doing these weird little habits actually helps me get up more than the popular morning routines everyone talks about. What’s one unusual morning habit that actually works for you?