Early Morning Diaries of a Non-Morning Person

I’ve never been a ‘morning person.’ Although I’ve never been a ‘night owl’ either. (I really like sleeping, okay?) I’m usually a wake-up-around-7 kinda gal. But this year I wanted to change that.

My success rate with ‘waking up earlier’ has been….ehhhh-so-so-ish. Some days I have no problem at all, I’m already kind of awake before my alarm goes off. Some days I don’t even wiggle a toe until 10 minutes into the alarm, followed by 6-7 rounds of the snooze button.

This week has been a little better, though. I’ve been AWAKE by 5:45 every morning. And NOT HITTING SNOOZE. Guys, this is a breakthrough. I know, many wake up much earlier than this, and to them 5:45 isn’t that big of a deal. But for me, awake at 5:45 is big.

The problem, though is that sometimes I don’t actually get OUT of bed for awhile. I grab a book and start reading (also trying to break the habit of reaching for my phone to scroll through Instagram first thing.) And usually I doze back off a little bit. So my next goal is to actually GET OUT OF BED at everyday at 5:45. Maybe even 5:30 someday 😉

Waking up earlier is kind of the worst, but it’s also kind of the best. Worst because, well, I have to freaking wake up earlier. And like I said, I love sleeping. And when you’re sleepy and it’s still dark outside and you’re all cozy in the sheets, mustering the strength to get your feet on a hardwood floor is really a challenge some mornings all mornings. (I might be being dramatic, but really, it can be a dreadful task!)

Best because early mornings give you a little extra timeI wrote Sunday about how it seems like no matter how hard we try, there never seems to be enough time to get everything done. What suffers most with lack of time are personal pleasures, like reading and writing. I’ve tried staying up later for such pleasures, but if you know me, you know ‘staying up later’ isn’t in my vocabulary. But early in the morning, the time seems to last a little longer.

There’s just something about it. I get more reading/writing done in an hour before 7 am (as long as I don’t doze off) than I do in an hour any other time of day. It also might help that I don’t have email and social media open in the early mornings. I just focus on what I’m doing. And the early mornings, although painful initially, end up being quite wonderful.

I’m not sure how often or for how long one has to wake up early to earn the official ‘Morning Person’ badge, but if someone has an info flyer or a scoring rubric they could send, I would appreciate it.

And hey, you should try waking up a little earlier tomorrow. You might have time to write a blog post before breakfast. 😉

Curiously,
Tori