February: The Month of Early Mornings, Part III. And so the month is done.

 

Drumroll, please.

The Cons of Waking Up Ridiculously Early:

• Waking up early is really, really difficult (for the first hour after you wake up, especially when trying to convince yourself to get out of bed).

• I miss a lot of time with my husband in the evening.  The kids are in bed by 8:30.  If I want to wake up at 5 a.m. I should be in bed, with the lights off, by 10 p.m.  I never seem to have enough time to simultaneously spend time with the husband, sleep, and do stuff like cleaning or projects around the house.   

• Our house is old and creaky and so my son has started waking up quite early as well.  He seems happy about it…my husband, who now has to get up when I head off to the YMCA to work out, is less happy about it. 

The Pros of Waking Up Ridiculously Early:

• Waking up early feels awesome (an hour after you get up).

• I’ve been exercising regularly.  Which also makes me feel awesome.

• I’ve been eating a healthier breakfast.

• I AM SUPER DUPER PRODUCTIVE.  I cleaned out my entire laundry room this weekend for the first time since I moved in the house…four years ago.  It’s swept and  organized.  It’s glorious, to the extent that a clean laundry room in an unfinished part of the basement can be glorious. 

And without further ado, let me present my monthly recap.

On a grading scale from A through F, how would you rate this?  Did you accomplish your goal?

This was a solid A.  The pros outweigh the cons in my mind.

It really is amazing how much of a difference this makes in my productivity levels and my willingness to exercise.  I’d recommend it to anyone—but make sure you also adjust what time you go to sleep.   Otherwise you’ll be cranky and sleep deprived and not at all more productive and you’ll be secretly angry at me because this didn’t work for you SO DO IT RIGHT, DARN IT. 

Did you do this each and every day?

Nope, nope, nope.  I averaged about 75% of the time, though.  

Will you do anything different moving forward?

Yes, absolutely.  Not every weekend and maybe not quite so early, but I’m still planning on bumping up my daily wake-up time in general. 

A couple of people have inquired what is next for March, and I'll give you a little hint:

"Ommmmmmmmmmmmmm."

February: The Month of Early Mornings, Part II

Full disclosure: I am failing at this.

I have not succeeded in getting up every single morning at 5 a.m. (weekdays) and 6 a.m. (weekends).  I have lots of unsatisfying excuses:  my kid got an ear infection, I got sick, work has been crazy, etc.  I was awful the first week of February.  Better the second week and third week, but still not doing waking up every single day at those times.

That said, I have generally been waking up a lot earlier.  Not as early as I planned but still an hour earlier than my norm—I would say that I’ve been averaging getting up at 5:45 a.m. on mornings that I don’t get  up at 5. 

And you know what?  It’s been strangely amazing.  

On the mornings where I work out, this used to be my routine: 

6:00 a.m.  Wake up, roll out of bed, and put on work out clothes. 

6:05 a.m.  Drive to the YMCA in a befuddled daze.  Try not to run anything or anyone over on the way.

6:10-6:40 a.m.  Work out.  Still half asleep. 

6:45 a.m.  Return home to get ready for work.

Now it’s like this:

5:00 a.m.  Wake up.  Go to the kitchen, make some tea. 

5:05-5:40 a.m.  Drink tea and eat a healthy breakfast of Greek yogurt and granola.  Play some games on my phone.  Read a chapter of a book.  Check Facebook.  Put on work out clothes.

5:45 a.m  Drive to the YMCA.  Sing along to the radio.  Marvel at the beauty of the sunrise.

5:50-6:20 a.m.  Work out.  Get really into the episode of This American Life and finish listening to it in as I jog extra.  Learn all of the words to Hamilton and attempt to rap silently.  

6:25 a.m.  Return home and have ample time to get ready for work and start the day.

It’s so obvious that it’s kind of dumb.  I feel so much better and so much more productive with the combination of caffeine + breakfast before I work out.  I used to wait until I drove to work to eat (in the car) and I had my first cup of tea when I arrived.  

So despite my failure, I think I'm doing pretty good for myself this month.  Next update:  Can I maintain this?  What do I have to give up?  And what do I do at 6 a.m. on the weekends?
 

February: The Month of Early Mornings

Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.

The early bird catches the worm.

We've all heard it.  I’ve read article after article after article that extols the virtue of being an early riser.  I personally know some very successful people that seem to run on sheer will power, manic energy, and caffeine. 

So this month, I’ve decided to wake up every morning at 5 a.m. (during the week) and 6 a.m. (on weekends).

This schedule is actually nothing new.  I’ve had two babies.  I’ve done the multiple early morning feedings, nursing a baby at 3 a.m. or dozing on the couch because my one year old was awake and ready to play at an ungodly early hour.  I know I can do it.  I’ve also woken up quite early before to keep an early schedule at work, so I could work from 6:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

But I’ve never woken up early for the sake of it.  It’s been out of necessity, not choice.  It’s no coincidence that I picked the shortest month for this experiment.  I love my sleep:  while my husband is the night owl that can happily survive on five hours of sleep, I typically need closer to seven or eight.

Wish me luck.  And if you catch me napping at my desk, falling asleep in a meeting, or chugging some extra caffeine, just remember:  all of those articles can't be wrong.  Right?

January: The Month of Drawings, Part III. Some final thoughts

I did it.  For the last week and a half of January, I switched from copying cartoons or pictures to drawing my own.

It went...okay.  I don’t love the drawings.  I feel like I didn’t work on them long enough to have a consistent style.  I picked things that made me smile but the final products make me itch to redraw them better, cleaner, and more interesting.

Let me present some of the Adventures of Fat Unicorn.  Very loosely inspired by Kate Beaton’s Fat Pony (http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=131), I wanted a cartoon character that wasn’t sexy or very difficult to draw. 

And now, time for the monthly recap.

On a grading scale from A through F, how would you rate this?  Did you accomplish your goal?
I’d give it a C+. 

While it made me remember how much I enjoy creating and drawing, I didn’t necessarily see myself as more creative.  I think this is one of those “fake it till you make it” things where I pretend to be creative until I believe it.  I'm better working towards a goal or a final product than just sketching whatever catches my fancy.  On the plus side, I think my drawing did improve in only a month. 

Did you do this each and every day?
I forgot two days in a row. 

Will you do anything different moving forward?
Not as a daily habit, no.  But this month made me realize that there are two things I’d love to do: 
1) Take a figure drawing class and
2) Have the chance to play with cartooning on a Wacom tablet.  If anyone would let me play with theirs, I’d be forever grateful. 

Coming up next:  The Month of Early Mornings