Listen, I know I’m not going to win any fans with this, but if you want to be less stressed and enjoy your mornings more, try getting up earlier. And I don’t mean waking up earlier, being in complete denial, and trying to fall back asleep. I mean actually getting out of bed.
I’m not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination. My kids know not to approach me, make annoying sounds, ask questions, complain about breakfast, or bring me forms to sign until I have had my coffee. Nor am I an evening person like my husband, who can exercise at 9pm while it takes all of my energy to change the channel with a remote. I’m more of an “I have a great two hour window about mid-morning and the rest can suck it" person.
However, not through any planning on my part, I started to get up earlier. I’ve always woken up around 6:00am, but technically don’t need to get out of bed until 7:00-ish, so I would stay in bed and one of two things would happen:
(1) I would spend the hour rolling from side to side, trying to find a comfortable position so I could go back to sleep, all the while being annoyed that I’m not actually sleeping.
(2) I would fall back asleep and either sleep past 7:00am or wake up in time, but feeling groggy.
So, I just gave in and decided to get out of bed when I woke up.
It wasn’t great when I first started doing it, because I was still carrying over the bitterness of losing an hour or so of sleep (see Point 1). But after a couple of weeks, I began to—gasp—like it. I could enjoy my coffee in peace while surfing the net. I would knock off a chunk of my work before I even had breakfast. There was more time to make lunches, so I wasn’t running around and throwing things into lunch bags all willy nilly.
There has also been a marked decline in my morning “oh my god what do you mean you’re not ready go brush your teeth and comb your hair why aren’t you wearing socks” yelling, although it hasn't *completely* disappeared. I'm not a miracle worker.
Over time, these early mornings have now become my favourite part of the day.
I mean, aside from the time when it’s socially acceptable for me to have a glass of wine.
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