I am not a morning person. I have never been a morning person. Do not try to drag me out of bed; I will claw your eyes out. Think about this: everyone has their “time of day” where they are thriving the most — mine is not the morning. I thrive at night; once the clock turns 7 p.m. my brain tells me that it is time to get started with my day.

Everyone has their days of not being a morning person and just wanting to sleep in. Even if you love mornings you sometimes curse that alarm clock waking you up. Being that I am now in the media, needing to wake up and be on top of things, I have needed help with trying to become a morning person.

When looking at Pinterest you see multiple tips of how to start your day or ways to become a morning person. I have tried multiple different things, and I am here to tell you the good and bad of each tip.

1. Morning drink

This is one I had to include because I know coffee helps a lot of college students get through the day. For me, I do not like coffee, or maybe I have not found what I do like, but as of right now this does not work for me. My morning drink is chugging a glass of water when I wake up. I know it sounds like it will not help, but it does. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, take a drink of water and my brain thinks I should be waking up now and then I curse that moment, because now I sit there lying awake wanting to be asleep.

2. Turn up the music

This is the most helpful tip for me when it comes to anything. Music helps you get in the mood for your day. Skip those sad songs and play the ones that make you want to sing. This will automatically make you smile and help your day move forward.

3. Do not set multiple alarms

Honestly, I do not follow this rule. I have about 15 different alarms set to wake myself up for the day, but people say you are more prepared for the day when you have one. The reasoning for this is simple in the fact that, people do not say, “Oh the next one will wake me up so I have time,” when in reality that next one will make you late. This is exactly what I do, so maybe I should try having just one alarm. I probably won’t, but you should.

4. Breakfast

They say have a big breakfast; it is the most important meal of the day. Just in case, have a backup plan if you wake up late. So, buy some breakfast bars or prepare something the night before, so if you skip breakfast when you are leaving you can grab and go and eat on the way.

5. Stick to a routine

I have revised this one to meet my own needs. Every day wake up within an hour of the same time, so it essentially becomes a routine for yourself. Now, on the weekends you are supposed to continue doing this, but honestly don’t. The weekends are your time to be you, to do what you want and probably work a morning or night shift. During the weekdays, stick to your routine of waking up and going to bed around the same time, with a rare all-nighter, but during the weekends do what you want — stay up for that party.

6. Give yourself a 15-minute window

I did not understand this advice at first. When I wake up I need to check my email, my text messages and my notifications. Allowing yourself to have a 15-minute window of nothing but relaxation, it gives you a chance to wake up slowly and enjoy that moment of “me time” before you have to go about your day-to-day life.

There are multiple different ways to become a morning person, but finding the effective ones are a struggle. These are the most common of the different tips throughout Pinterest. These are also the ones that I have tried and either failed or succeeded. Sharing these tips will help any non-morning person evolve into a morning person, within at least a year.