I’m going to become a morning person

I’ve set myself what seems like an impossible challenge for the next few weeks – possibly months. I’m going to become a morning person. I’m going to wake up early every single day, and I’m going to get stuff done. And before I say anything else, let me tell you that I am not a morning person. I don’t think I ever have been, but I do believe I can be. You see, I don’t think I’m forever programmed to be in a certain way in this area. Sure, it might be easier for me to be a certain way, but I think that with some work and a lot of persistence and determination, I can change my routine.

Why would I put myself through this?

I’m starting now, not because it’s a new year, but because I need change; positive change, and I need to feel like I’m working towards that change. I’ve already started doing more exercise through my yoga practice, something that I hope will go hand in hand with this more painful change. And I have no doubts that it will be painful, that my eyes will feel glued shut and  that snooze button will be right there! But it will also be worth it. This morning I had just a little bit more time to get prepared before leaving for work. I just about had time to sit down drink a cup of coffee and it made a world of difference to the rest of my day.

Winter, for me, is a time of feeling sleepy. It’s not a good season for me as I thrive on sunlight and when there is none I feel sleepy, I’m lacking energy and at times it makes my thoughts heavy and negative. It’s so easy to just stay in bed. Buy staying under the covers does nothing to alleviate all of that. Instead it makes me feel unproductive, it makes me late (which is just rude) and it makes me feel even more tired. In the summer it’s easier, but then again, imagine how nice it will feel when my new routine becomes easier to settle into just by the nature of the planet we live on. That is why this is the right time to start. And besides, why wait?

My goals

There are of course a whole bunch of positive reasons why I want to change as well – goals that I want to work towards:

• I want enough time to have breakfast and a cup of coffee in front of the TV before work
• I want to have time to do something nice with my hair in the morning
• I want to have time to prepare my lunch even if I didn’t remember to do so the night before (which is almost never)

Those are the ones that I think I can achieve without too much pain and suffering. If I learned to stop snoozing and just got up, I would be able to do those with my current alarm time.

Here are the more ambitious goals I’ve set. They will take longer to achieve.

• 3 days a week, I want to be able to do a short (20-30 minute) yoga session before work
• 2 days a week I would like to be able to have my breakfast in front of the computer while I work on my writing
• On weekends, I’d like to wake up naturally at some point before 8 AM

The writing goal is a big thing for me. If I can do that, I think I can get so much more done that I am now. I’ll start with a clear head, which is almost impossible when sitting down after work. My head is always spinning with the day’s events then, or I’m too tired or riled up to do anything productive.

An actual timetable

Because I need something very clear to work towards, I’ve already worked out what my schedule is going to look like once I’m there.

This would give me 30 minutes of yoga every yoga morning, and over an hour to write on writing days. That sounds very nice. I think I’ve left myself plenty of time in this schedule, but we’ll see. It might have to be adjusted when we get there.

So how will I achieve this?

I am starting slowly. My alarm currently goes off and rips me from my sleep at 7.15 AM. Yep, that’s half an hour later than my goal. At the moment I’m working on not snoozing. This is what happens:

• Alarm rings
• I cannot resist snoozing once while I will myself to open my eyes
• Alarm goes off again
• I sit up in bed and look at something on my phone. It takes at least 5 minutes for anything to make sense
• Another 10 minutes later I get up and start getting ready

Now, this is not so bad. Just last week I was snoozing 5 times and didn’t have time to even look at the coffee machine. Today I had a cup in peace while I tried to find a good children’s program to watch. There were none.

I’m going to continue this routine until I don’t have to snooze any more. When that happens I will set my alarm back 5 minutes and repeat the process. I am going to let this take as long as it needs to take, but I will get there.

I will be a morning person.

Updates will happen here as I progress.