I hate getting up. I have never been a morning person. I remember when I was at secondary school, my friends would knock on my front door to pick me up to walk to school, just as I’d be getting out of bed. I was never late though. My morning routine is a finely tuned machine.
Firstly, I prepare as much as possible the night before so that I can spend as long as bed as possible in the morning, ie. prepare my outfit (cutting out decision time in the morning), prepare everything Little K will need, pack my bag, shower etc.
Secondly, I only do what I have to do in the morning. I don’t have to have a cup of coffee, so I don’t. I don’t have to put on my make up before arriving at the office, so I don’t. I don’t have to eat breakfast, so I don’t. I do have to get dressed, get washed, brush my hair and walk the dog. So that, and only that, is what I do.
And what’s even better, is that it only takes me fifteen minutes to do what I have to, so I get to snooze as long as possible in the morning… Sound’s great, right?
No.
Not great.
Actually, awful.
I wake up whenever Little K wakes up (currently around 7am) and I listen to her babbling away through the monitor for a bit, I lie in bed half awake, half asleep thinking about how I should really be getting up, but then still not moving.
I rush around in the fifteen minutes I have left for myself to get ready, making sure I didn’t miss anything the night before. Which I so often do.
I arrive in the office still asleep, wearing no make up and with no energy due to lack of breakfast.
What a perfect way to start a productive day…
I have always wanted to be a morning person. Hear the alarm, stretch, get up, make coffee, have breakfast, maybe even read the news, take the dog for a nice walk (rather than the current, run over the road hope that he wee’s on the nearest tree and run back!), do my make up… all those things a normal person would do in the morning.
It’s not even like I don’t sleep enough. I go to bed on average at 10.30pm each night and am asleep by 11pm, so by the time I wake up at around 7am I have a total of 8 hours . Every night.
I get angry at myself regularly. Just think how much you could have got done, if you just got up half an hour earlier!
I’m not expecting miracles; I know that that will set me up for failure. I would just like a little more time to wake up.
But what will I do with my extra time?
I am a big lover of lists. You will learn this as the blog goes on. I am the person that if I don’t have a structured plan then I will not succeed (I often don’t succeed with a plan either but I like to think I’ve got more chance if I do! at least I know my aim). I need to know that there is a point to getting up earlier. If I just get up at 6am on Monday morning, and hang around doing nothing for an hour and a half then I just won’t bother on Tuesday. It has to be worth it.
I’m not going to set myself a crazy aim that I will never reach. I know that I am not going to be getting up at 5am ready to exercise while the birds are singing, that just isn’t me. I’m ok with that.
However, I do feel that I need more time.
So here is my plan, starting tomorrow:
6.20am – First Alarm (Snooze! No point in pretending, I just need some time to wake up!)
6.30am – Get up
6.35am – Have tea/breakfast and prepare lunch (money saving also!)
6.45am – Do hair and make up
6.55am – Get dressed
7am – Get Little K up
Now… anyone with a one year old will know that it is impossible to schedule the time your little angel will wake up, so there will be some flexibility in this, but the main joy of this plan is that by the time she gets up, I should be mostly ready meaning that I have gained 45 minutes just to be with her. Not running around sorting our lives out; just time to cuddle and play and enjoy…
I’ll let you know how I get on…
The Ad-Lib Mummy 