I feel like my day has just started, but when my mom calls and says she’s just gotten home from her zumba class, I remember that for most people, the morning is half over. I chat online with a friend who’s sitting in her office 2 miles away, who has already dressed, gotten the kids off to school, managed her commute, and turned in a project to her boss, as I’m about to get breakfast. And the thing is, that’s ok!
I’ve never been a morning person. Now I know that I have a circadian rhythm shift, so of course I hated mornings. But I didn’t know that then. All I knew was the I wasn’t about to do anything more than I had to in the mornings. I loved turning off my alarm on weekends. When someone suggested I find time to work on a project or to exercise but doing it before work, I told them there was 0% chance of that happening, and I never understood how anyone could do things early in the morning.
Now that my sleep is a bit better, I can start to understand. My brain starts to function well within 1/2 hour of waking up. My body, though, is slower than ever.
As I have started to consider the possibility of earning a bit of an income, I’ve been reading books and blogs on solopreneurship. (Solopreneurship is entrepreneurship that’s done on your own. Often it’s just one person working from home or from a cafe with a laptop.) Many of them suggest being super productive by waking up an hour earlier than usual and using that extra time to get more work done. Doesn’t that sound nice? Gee, why don’t I just do that? Oh, right, because my body doesn’t work the way it should. I think it’s great advice…. for other people.
My mornings typically go something like this:
- Wake up 7:30-8am, sometimes with the alarm and sometimes without it.
- Read for 1-1.5 hours.
- Take pills.
- Get out of bed. Head to living room. Sit at computer.
- Check Facebook for a while.
- When thyroid pills have finished dissolving under my tongue and I have enough energy, get up for breakfast. This is usually around 10am.
- Return to computer. Continue on Facebook and other sites (and maybe some solitaire) while eating breakfast, with the blue light pointed at me.
- Around 11am-1pm finally get up, get dressed, brush teeth, and try to do 1 or 2 productive things like buy groceries, wash clothes, or straighten up the living room.
This might not sound like much of a morning to most people, but it’s what I can manage. And that’s ok! Sometimes my brain wants to do more. Sometimes my body has the urge to go out and enjoy the lovely weather. But it’s rare the two line up.
One day I’d like to get an earlier start to my days. I’d love to be up and doing things by 10am. That would be amazing! The reality is that it might never happen, so I have had to accept that.
What are your mornings like? Whatever they are, they’re ok! Because you’re doing the best you can, and that’s all you can ask of yourself.
Chronic Rants 
Well, heck, I know a lot of people who work 9-5 and still manage to stay in bed until 8. Looks to me like you’re doing just fine.
Thanks CM 🙂 Unfortunately, while I wake up at 8, I don’t usually get out of bed until 9 or 9:30. Still, it’s something.
I’m not a morning person by a long stretch, but my day starts at 5.30 a.m. I help my husband get our two sons out the door and then I’m back in bed by 6.45 and sleep until around 10. I sometimes take an additional nap after lunch. I write from 11-noon, then I text with my husband while he’s at lunch from 12-1. It doesn’t sound as busy as it feels, but there you are!
Oh wow, it’s good you can go back to bed once the kids are out the door! Hopefully as they get older, you won’t have to get up quite as early to help them. In the meantime, keep up the awesome self-care routine of extra naps!