I read a really good series of articles:
How to be an early riser (part 1)
How to be an early riser (part 2)
How to get up when your alarm goes off
Inspired by them, I set my alarm for 7am. When it goes off, I immediately get up, shave, and hop into the shower.
I take a longer shower than usual to help wake me up, so around 7:30 I am shaved, showered, dried, and dressed.
This gives me about an hour until Adam comes downstairs and we leave at 8:30.
Before, I would hit snooze on my alarm over and over, and get up around 8 or 8:15, hurriedly get ready, and barely have time to feed Trouble before heading out.
Now I’ve got an extra hour in the morning, which I’ve been using to do small projects.
Two days ago, I organized some papers.
Yesterday, I dusted off my inkjet printer, cleaned the print heads, and set up the drivers on my Mac.
This morning, I found DVD case covers online for Wii Sports and Link’s Crossbow Training and printed them out (Wii Sports and Link’s Crossbow come in cardboard sleeves instead of proper cases, I ordered some blank cases to put them in).
Having an hour in the morning is nice, I can relax, have some tea, read email, and do a small project.