How Slow is Your Morning? The Benefits of UTILIZING THE EARLY AM’s
PC: @moyamawhinney
I’ve never been a morning person. No matter how much I love slow mornings and the concept of having some time to myself in the quiet AM hours, I’m just too tired to actually wake up. I end up getting out of bed with just enough time to take my dog out for his off-leash hour playtime, and then rush home to login to work while I start brewing my coffee.
It’s not an ideal morning routine. I’m someone who loves to have a quiet moment to herself just to journal, meditate, read, or work on my personal projects. But that time is far too elusive when I’m juggling a million things at once while living in one of the most hectic cities in the world. If the after-work hours are already booked up with either the gym, events, doggie playtime, or an attempt at writing for this blog, then when do I get to actually have my peace? Carving out an hour in the morning just seems like the most logical solution.
For the next few weeks I’m going to commit myself to waking up an hour before my usual wake-up time, which will be 7AM for me. While that might be straight-up late for some people, for me it’s a struggle to even open my eyes that early. But, the few times I’ve already done it have been extremely rewarding. Starting my morning intentionally sets a great tone for the rest of the day. I’m more focused through work, my to-do list feels less daunting, and I’m overall feeling much more positive.
While I would love to one day get into the habit of going to the gym before work, I’m going to keep it realistic and consider that a sometimes thing, and not an always thing. I’d rather allow my body to wake up gently, finding productive things I can do from the comfort of my bed while my dog continues to sleep by my legs. I want to get all the little things out of my checklist so that they don’t all pile up to be completed in the evening. Those things for me are a cocktail of the following:
From the bed:
Reading
Journaling
Working on Florré
Editing a vlog
Planning the upcoming weeks
Enjoying a slow breakfast while catching up on Youtube videos
Outside of bed:
Taking Finnly out on a longer walk and treating myself to a coffee & pastry
Going to the gym (rare, but it happens)
Cleaning / laundry
Each item may not seem like a lot on its own, but they take up hell of a lot of time when I try to squeeze everything into the weekends or after-work hours. While I don’t know how well I’m going to keep this routine up, the goal is to at least get into the habit of waking up earlier and becoming more productive in the long run. I’ll come back with an updated blog about my progress, so stay tuned!
