SoberinSyracuse

A/k/a...


Stay in bed too long? Waste your morning putzing around online? Late to work/first appointment of the day? Missing morning workouts? Let's replace these habits with ones that serve us better!

Dropsie and I are launching this thread to provide accountability partnership. We each make our own goals, plans, and report in frequently.

Suggested approach for your introductory post (just a suggestion):

1. 1. Post your time zone, and the local time you are making your post.
2. 2. Tell us your desired time for your morning wakeup or activity (ex: wake up at 6, be at work 15 mins early at 7:45, have house tidied by 8:30, etc.)
3. 3. Very briefly state what you think is holding you back.
4. 4. State what you are doing today to remove or overcome the obstacles and get closer to your goal.

I'll start...

SoberinSyracuse

My time zone: US Eastern time. It's currently just past 10 am.

Goals: I want to feel more satisfied at the end of each day. I'm self-employed so I set my own schedule. I want to feel like I follow a more consistent schedule, and am more productive.

1. Out of bed by 7 am.
2. Showered by 8 am.
3. House tidied by 9 am.
4. Work calls/emails handled by 9 am.
5. Engage in office or field work every work day.

Obstacles:

• Getting to sleep too late.
• Morning grogginess.
• Generally not wanting to start the day for trivial reasons -- place is messy, don't feel like making coffee or doing dog care, not sure what to wear, lack of a motivating plan for the day.

What I'm doing/first steps: I'm making a night-time ritual that includes the following:

1. Lights out no later than 11:30 (ouch!!)
2. Set up coffee and dog food.
3. Identify/prep wardrobe for the next day.
4. Make a plan for what I want to do the next day. Not down to the nanosecond, but just the high points.

I'll implement this tonight and report back tomorrow!

SoberinSyracuse

It's only Day 1...but this was VERY helpful! Just identifying a few of the causes for the slow start each day and remedying them.

Today was a GREAT day...all because of the dog food and coffee! :-)

Hawkeye13

coffee I get, but could you please explain the dog food?

SoberinSyracuse

Doggie wants IMMEDIATE care when I wake up. And when I'm groggy and uncoordinated, getting the dog food into the bowl seems like too much effort. So, I'm plating the food the night before, and in the morning, I only have to add water and put it down for her!

Feels like a total miracle!

Hawkeye13

Yes, that makes sense and that's what gets me out of bed 5ish too.
I have two elderly dogs, both mostly deaf, and one just starts whining
until I wake up to pass out the chow.
He can't hear me if I tell him to be quiet, so only solution is to get up.
So I do
I will try "pre-prep" dog food tomorrow and see if that makes things run smoother.
Also, if I'd just rinse out my french press and have the coffee ready and kettle filled,
I could be drinking coffee minutes earlier. . . which would vastly improve my morning outlook.
hmmm. . . you're on to something Sis

SoberinSyracuse

Nearly 10 am here and I'm just now sitting down with my coffee, having awakened about 15 mins ago.

This presents a good opportunity to consider, "Under what circumstances do I blow off getting my crack outta the sack?"

It makes sense to me that there would be a day a week or so where I enjoy a more leisurely morning. However, the rule must be that it's intentional. Otherwise, it leaves it open to just rolling over on any given morning, declaring it a "slow morning," and then dragging through the first several hours of the day.

So, methinks I'm gonna pick a day a week, either Saturday or Sunday depending on the level of weekend business activity, and take it easy. Declared in advance, the day before!

trachemys

Nothing wrong with a day off.

SoberinSyracuse

My little plan, expressed in the second post in this thread, is producing fantastic changes after only a few days!!

I have yet to perfectly hit every element in the plan to a T. Still, the combination of just having a couple of dreaded morning tasks prepped the night before along with a proactive plan for the following day... It's producing a whole change in my mindset!

The last few days have been fabulously positive and I'm feeling very good about this change.

least

Dogs woke me up at 7:30 to let them out. Got up, made coffee, and fed the critters. Then walked the dogs on this beautiful sunny morning.

Obladi

Walked the dog.
Started cleaning the kitchen from youngest's gathering last night. She shooed me out.

What's holding me back?

Youngest shooed me out. Friends are still here and you can be sure whatever cleaning happens will be half-assed. I don't want to shame her, so will fester in my room until later when hopefully I will still have the energy and will to "restore" order.

Don't advise me to have a talk with her about communal living and the responsibilities therein. I have tried, Lord I've tried. She simply does not get it.

RallyAly

Great thread concept!

Context: I work from home most of the time but we have an office nearby. My schedule fluctuates quite a bit, based on deadlines. However ti fluctuates more than it needs to due to my own cycle of procrastination/distraction->intense deadline driven push->exhaustion and low hours->repeat. I typically am at my desk rather quickly after getting up but half-work, half-putter around the web for a while.

Timezone: US MST, currently 11 am

Overall Goals:

• Be more productive during work time in order to better keep projects on task and reduce spillover of work into evenings and weekends.
• Work out of the house more in order to interact with colleagues and give/get space with spouse (who is currently not working due to disability).
• Bring in more income via more hours and better reimbursement tracking.
• Integrate "other stuff" more consistently (household tasks, workouts, etc.).
• Experiment, reflect, and refine to find what fits best.

Goal: February 22-26
Untangle work time and non-work time.

Objectives: February 22-26

• Out of bed by 7:15
• For :30-:45 minutes, have morning time instead of just going direct to desk (coffee, breakfast, catch up on news, clean up dishes)
• Working by 8:15 - no surfing or personal computer tasks
• One break including outside tasks mid-morning
• Work through until lunch and if I'm not working through lunch, then sit down outside of office for meal break

Barriers and Hold Backs:

• I am an curious person, and the internet provides instant and limitless rabbit-holes for whatever curiosity pops into my head
• I have a hard time being comfortable at the company office - some of this can be managed better (e.g. meal, snack, and beverage access)
• My job is sedentary - so getting up for little tasks is good, it's just easy to have this add up over the day.
• The bulk of my work is mentally high burn - to continue working for a good chunk requires interspersing less high-burn tasks or really getting into the zone, rather than taking a brain break surfing the web.
• I tend towards perfectionism and having a solid understanding of things before responding/writing/etc, which often means a slow-down in getting things on to the next step. I don't have an answer for managing this better yet.

Strategies to Remove or Overcome Obstacles

• Setting aside time and space for the things that I often fritter away time on instead of working.
• Shift in emphasis on task completion before moving on.
• Define and break tasks up into smaller chunks then end-cap steps completed with more consistent and better updates to the company's shared project management site.

OldTomato

I was just saying to my friend the other day that I would love to be awake earlier and more productive in the mornings, hopefully this thread will help me!

My time zone: Greenwich (GMT), currently 7pm.

Goals:

1. Catch up on TV
2. Read a chapter of my book
3. Be showered
4. Turn up to work/my desination ON TIME

(I know these sound kinda stupid but I'm really behind on reading and TV. )

Obstacles:

1. Staying up too late!
2. Pressing the snooze button one too many times

First steps:

1. In bed before midnight!
2. Move my alarm so I have to get out of bed to switch it off!!

I'm going to set my alarm for 7 tomorrow, future me is going to be annoyed.

Hawkeye13

Good Morning:

1. Post your time zone, and the local time you are making your post.
USA, Central Time Zone , 5:55 a.m.

2. Desired time for your morning wakeup or activity

Actually been up since 4:50, as I have decided to wake at 5 regularly.
Since I don't use an alarm clock, and the days are getting longer, I'm
trying to get my "internal clock" set to appropriate time.
This actually works really well--I give myself a mental suggestion before
sleeping and most of the time I'm up within 20 minutes of that time.
I do make sure not to stay up late, however, for this to work right. . .

3. Very briefly state what you think is holding you back.

I want to do more "productive" work early.
Mostly I surf on SR, do email, have coffee, feed dogs, etc.
Ultimately, I'd like to tear into prepping my workday after some morning yoga.
I want to spend less time on Internet, more time on prep.
Rising earlier, that is, consistently at 5, will allow me some time to have a little time on SR and email, but also to get going on other things.

4. State what you are doing today to remove or overcome the obstacles and get closer to your goal.

Starting early with the work-prep today.
Goal is to complete today's prep fully before leaving for the office.
I also need plan a peaceful space for the yoga in the downstairs part of my house
which I will begin working on later today.

SoberinSyracuse

Yikes! Off to bad start today!

Isn't it funny how I'm having this "relapse" after "just one" day off?

At any rate, the solution is to get up and start making this day happen! Have a good one, all!

Hawkeye13

Have some Dinosaur BBQ for lunch--
That improves any day Sis

Delizadee

I need to jump on this bandwagon too! Good thread. I've REALLY been struggling with keeping motivation and focus since sobering up.

Hawkeye13

Morning
5:15 USA Central zone
Got a lot of work done yesterday, but only part of the target work.

Gonna hit it again this morning.

Making a healthy breakfast added to previous plan.

Enjoy the day all

Soberwolf

Great thread

SoberinSyracuse

My trifecta (clothes ready, coffee prepped, and dogfood prepped) continues to work minor miracles! There's something about it: I walk with my head up and shoulders back 'cuz I'm just too awesome.

Today was a busy day and I was actually a few minutes early to my day-long training course. Tomorrow also has a good amount of office/field time so no lazing around in the morning.

By the way, I've always known that clutter bugs me. But I never realized how much waking up to a tidy household helps me get going. Nice little discovery, and fairly easy to accomplish!