Lateral thinking (Edward de Bono) works by breaking the default problem-solving path. When you ask "how do I get up faster in the morning," your brain runs down a well-worn track — alarm, coffee, prep the night before. The five constraints below shut that track down. Each one forces a direction you wouldn't have gone on your own.
Step 1. The question: how do you get up faster in the morning?
Write down 5 solutions — one for each constraint:
— A solution without a phone. No alarm apps, no notifications, no scrolling. The phone doesn’t exist in the room.
— A solution that involves another person. Someone else is part of the mechanism. Roommate, partner, neighbor, stranger.
— A solution that first makes the morning harder. The move that adds friction upfront so the wake-up itself becomes faster.
— A solution that looks ridiculous. Something you’d be embarrassed to describe out loud. Keep it anyway.
— A solution people would pay for. If you productized this, it would sell.
Step 2. Look at what you wrote.
Pay attention to which constraint was hardest. That’s usually where your thinking is most stuck — the direction you never consider.
Step 3. Share.
Post the constraint you found hardest and the solution you wrote for it. One is enough.
The point isn’t to actually fix your mornings. The point is to notice that a decent problem cracks open into five different shapes depending on what you forbid yourself from using.