The Morning Shift That Transformed My Uni Experience

I used to be that person. You know the one-  rolling into a 1 pm lecture having already missed breakfast, two emails, and almost missing my bus for 'five more minutes' of sleep. 😴💤 My days felt like they were happening to me rather than being shaped by me. Then something shifted when I started waking up early, and suddenly my entire university experience clicked into place. 

The Campus is Yours 🏛️

There's something almost magical about LSE at 7 am. The Saw Swee Hock Student Centre is quiet, and you can actually hear yourself think in the library. I'm not talking about some productivity hack here-  I'm talking about reclaiming physical space on a campus where every square metre feels contested by midday. 

When you wake up early, you get first pick of everything. That perfect study spot by the window in the LSE Library? Yours. A treadmill at the gym without a queue? Done. Even grabbing coffee becomes a civilised experience rather than a contact sport. You're not fighting for space, you're choosing it.

The Psychology of Starting First 🧠

Here's what nobody tells you about waking up early: it fundamentally changes your relationship with your day. When I used to wake up at 10 or 11 am, I'd immediately feel behind. Emails had piled up, people had already made plans, and I was on the back foot before I'd even had breakfast.

Starting your day at 7 or 8 am flips that script entirely. You're not catching up, you're ahead. By the time your 10 am seminar rolls around, you've already read through the material, done an hour of focused work, and maybe even sorted out that admin task you'd been avoiding. That feeling of being in control rather than controlled is genuinely transformative. 

The Found Hours ⏰

Let's talk about what actually happens in those morning hours. I'm not suggesting you become someone who cheerfully tackles problem sets at dawn (though some people genuinely do). What I found is that mornings gave me time for all the things that would otherwise slip through the cracks.

Those scholarship applications that need a personal statement? Morning brain handles them better than 11 pm desperation brain. Catching up with family back home? Much easier when you're not exhausted from a full day. Planning your week, responding to non-urgent emails, reading something that's not on a syllabus- these things need calm, focused time, and mornings offer that in abundance.

The Ripple Effect on Everything Else 🌊

What surprised me most wasn't what happened in the mornings- it was how waking up early changed my entire day. When you've already accomplished something meaningful before 9 am, you approach the rest of your day differently. You make better choices about how to spend your time. You're less likely to doom-scroll 📱🙃 because you're already in momentum.

My evenings improved dramatically, too. Instead of trying to force productivity at 10 pm when my brain had given up, I could actually relax. I could go to society events without the guilt of unfinished work. I could have proper conversations with flatmates rather than zombie-walking through the kitchen on my way to make a panicked midnight toast. 

The Reality Check ✋

I'm not going to pretend this is easy or works for everyone. Some people are genuinely wired for late nights, and that's completely valid. Some schedules don't allow for early starts. And yes, there are definitely mornings when I hit snooze and abandon all my good intentions. 

But here's the thing- it doesn't have to be all or nothing. Even waking up early three times a week made a noticeable difference for me. The key isn't perfection; it's consistency, where you can manage it. 

Making It Stick 🎯

If you're curious about trying this, my biggest advice is to start small and be strategic. Don't suddenly set your alarm for 5:30 am and expect to love life.  Try 30 minutes earlier than usual and actually do something you enjoy in that time- maybe it's a proper breakfast, maybe it's a walk, maybe it's just sitting with coffee and doing nothing in particular. 

University is different. You have more freedom than you've ever had, but also more pressure. More opportunities, but also more decisions to make about how to spend every single hour. Waking up early gave me back a sense of structure that I didn't even know I was missing.

It's not about being that person who posts gym selfies at 6 am or brags about their morning routine on LinkedIn. It's about discovering that you actually can shape your days rather than letting them shape you. For me, that realisation started with something as simple as setting an alarm a bit earlier.

Your university experience is made up of thousands of small choices. The time you wake up might seem trivial, but it influences everything that follows- your energy, your choices, your sense of control over your own life. And sometimes, the most radical thing you can do is just... start your day before the rest of the world does. 🌅✨