Rise and Shine

I’m writing this at 5:30 in the morning from my kitchen table.

I do not like 5:30 in the morning.

Here are two facts: (1) I like sleep but don’t fall asleep well, and (2) I’m a night owl married to a morning person.

I am not, nor do I believe I will ever be, a morning person.  Or can that change?

You see several things need to happen this year.  First and foremost, I have to go into work earlier.  Starting less than two weeks from now, I will have a new commute.  A not particularly attractive commute to a job that I adore.  We’re moving offices and I’ll be much further from home.  In order to make sure I’m able to have dinner with my kids every night, I need to leave earlier in the morning to start working earlier so I can leave earlier.  It’s as simple as that.

In addition, I need to lose some weight.  So I’m taking three simple steps from Ann Voskamp as my guide – wake up, Word in, work out.  (I like working out about as much as I do waking up early.  Alas, it’s how I’ll achieve my goals.)

That’s how we get to this fascinating article my darling girlfriend, who knows my current predicament, sent me.  She sent it just yesterday as I was beating myself up for turning OFF my 5:30 alarm resulting in a 6:15 am wake up (which only worked because my kids don’t start back to school until today!).

The author started a self bettering series, I love that, and knew that waking up fresher and more quickly was at the top of his list.  So he conducted some experiments.  He evaluated five different models.  First, he tried a routine.  Now while he didn’t find ultimate success with his more stable routine assisting his waking up, my theory is that it does help.  I go to bed anywhere from 10:15 pm to midnight.  I wake up anywhere from 5 am to 6:20 (the latter is not an option come January 19).  I am confident if I worked a little harder on setting some consistent sleep rhythms for my body, it would help.

Next, he tried a different alarm clock.  Y’all, I am in love with this rise and shine alarm clock that revolutionized his wake up process.  I can NOT bring myself to spend over $100 on an alarm clock when I’ve got alarm clocks my mom used in the ’70s in my house, but oh don’t you know I am stalking eBay for the product.  I’m bidding on two right now in the $60 range.  (Please don’t go outbid me, I need this clock by January 19th!  Just buy it from Amazon like normal people.)

His final three efforts were the R.I.S.E. up method (read more in the whole article, very interesting), drinking caffeine (now he’s speaking my love language), and eating something (ahem, be careful there).  I love drinking coffee but I usually don’t drink it until I begin my commute, so don’t you know I’m sitting here writing you while I have a steaming cup of joe next to me.  I also do love breakfast but this got me thinking I should eat it earlier as well (this week I’m making fruit shakes from Almond milk and frozen fruit).  Finally, he calibrates to see what works and what doesn’t.

If we want to get all the things achieved we have planned for the year ahead, then we have to tackle our sleep issues first.  We need to be rested so we can conquer the world, but we also need to wake up early enough so we don’t miss the battle.

So sound off?  Are you a morning person?  If not, what do you do that helps you wake up early?  I’m all ears (my eyes are still a little bleary).

 

Photo credit 7 Images