Monday, May 10, 2010

Morning Rituals




My husband, as well as anyone who has known me for a while, can tell you that I am not a morning person. When I roll out of bed, I'm sluggish, my eyes feel heavy and I am the poster child for procrastination.

For some reason, working the morning shift has always been my way of combating this. I get out of bed, shower, grab my stuff and sprint out the door with just enough time to get to work. When I get off of my shift in the afternoon, I'm awake and ready to get stuff done around the house. I've never developed a morning ritual and have always had weekend mornings that would make sloths mock me, but I stay up extra late at night on these days to make up for my extra sleepy time. This routine has gotten me through the last 10 years of my life, without any issue.

Enter the new part-time job and its great big scheduling monkey wrench. In order to be employed, I have to be able to work mornings and evenings. I tell my boss I prefer mornings, and she says no big deal. I look at this week's schedule and... I go into work at 4pm every single day. Now, this may not seem like a problem for someone who isn't a morning person except, for me, it really is.

Due to my sloth-like movements in the morning and my tendency to lump on the couch until it's time to go to work, these late afternoon shifts destroy my entire day. I end up lounging around until 12:30 - 1pm or so, realize I have to leave the house in a few very short hours and don't manage to accomplish anything because I don't want to start anything, get into my groove and have to cut it short to go to work. You can see how this is problematic.

So, I'm on a quest to try to change my tendency to slug around in the morning so I can have productive days even when my work schedule is less than optimal. I'm thinking I need to establish some sort of morning ritual: get up do x, y, z.. don't loaf past this time... etc.

But, I have no idea where to start. So my lovelies, what do you all do in the morning to get yourselves motivated and productive? Do you have a morning ritual, what does it look like? Do you have any tips for combating this things before it becomes a week-long issue? Coffee is already an integral part of my day, so at least I've got that much figured out.

6 comments:

  1. You get your little butt out of the bed, Woman!! :D I'm sooo not an early morning person either! On the week days I'm doing good to drag my butt out of bed in time to shit, shower and shave (LOL), but Jami always gets up and sits on the back porch having a smoke. I'm in NO WAY telling you to pick up that nasty habbit, but something to that nature. On the weekends I always get up and sit with him. It perks me up and has me ready for the day ;)

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  2. I wish I could help, but I have the EXACT same problem. The only thing that lets me be productive is guilt, it seems. And if there is nothing interesting on the internet.

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  3. I just started this and it seems to work. I'm not sure about it's sticking power. I make a to-do list and switch what I'm doing every 30 minutes. (Heard of it with 15 but school stuff wouldn't get done in that time)

    Once you're out of bed you can be a bum for a half hour (or 15 min) then do two things on your list before giving yourself a well-deserved break.

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  4. Have you tried a ritual at night? Like saying an affirmation or somesuch? "In the morning I will wake rested, refreshed, and ready to face the day"

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  5. I have the same problem too! I can't seem to get anything done during the day. It is so annoying. I have tried to-do lists and don't stick to them.

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  6. I have the exact same problem. I also work mornings so that helps me out a lot but since I'm only working part-time, it doesn't help much on the other days. I've found that being pregnant, and therefore very hungry, helps a bit to drag my rear out of bed at a decent hour, but after that, I still have NO energy to do anything. I imagine this will change after the baby comes but it'd be nice to be a normal person sometimes :) Maybe I should also start trying to give myself a morning routine and we can be buddies, kinda like work out buddies!

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