Morning People
May. 22nd, 2020 11:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tealinI have finally started working again. In the way of things, after a hard slog all Tuesday, I hit my stride around 8pm and kept going happily and solidly until 1, without the aid of any stimulants. I turned off my alarm and woke the next morning at 8.30; was coffee'd, dressed, and breakfasted by 9; did a little pottering in the garden and kitchen before sitting down to work at 9.30. Considering that, in order to be at my desk by 9.30. I had been in the habit of setting my first alarm for 6,* this was food for thought.
I have always been a night owl, even when I was a child. This has never been OK. School started early – 7.25 am by the time I got to high school – and, of course, I had to get to the office at a decent time. Starting work on the book could have given me an opportunity to shift my hours, but living in a house with three other women, all of whom had regular jobs, I considered it better all around not to compete for bathroom and kitchen time, so I did all that before the others woke up and then left the house. A couple hours later it would be empty, so I would return then and make use of as many of those empty hours as I could. This also served to give my day some much-needed structure. Now that everyone is working from home, the advice is to give yourself a 'commute' just to trick your brain into thinking you're working. I turns out I've been doing that for years.
So, one way or another, I've been trying to train myself to be a morning person for most of my life. Whether it's age or the delayed payoff of my efforts, this has been easier in recent years. I would frequently wake up before my first alarm, even if I was still half-asleep. But now I have no external factors either pushing or pulling me to get an early start, so why waste my hours of wakefulness being groggy and useless when I could better spend them getting things done late at night?
My alarm has been off since then, and it's been interesting to observe the transition. I am still waking up early, and although this is sliding gradually later it's still with that anxious start and wash of stress. Luckily I don't need much convincing to roll over and get back to sleep, and feel better about getting out of bed when I do eventually do so. And, as described above, going through my morning properly awake is much more efficient. It's made me wonder if the stress of fighting my internal clock and the pressure to hit the ground running at a point when I can barely walk might have been a slow-burning contribution to the flames of anxiety over the years, smouldering away under the big obvious things like a toxic office culture or a hostile housemate. I am curious to find out if ditching the conventional work hours not only improves productivity but improves anxiety as well. Maybe it will boost my immunity, too? We will find out!
*First alarm at 6 to tell me it was time to wake up. There was no way I'd actually get out of bed then, but it gave me half an hour to get my brain up to speed enough to get out of bed at the second alarm, 6.30. Then another hour to crawl through the regular morning things before leaving the house, counting on the fresh air and exercise to wake me up the rest of the way. It didn't feel like I was going slower so much as that time was passing faster – getting dressed usually takes 5 minutes tops, yet somehow before 9am the same actions took 15. Just goes to show how subjective our relationship with time is.
I have always been a night owl, even when I was a child. This has never been OK. School started early – 7.25 am by the time I got to high school – and, of course, I had to get to the office at a decent time. Starting work on the book could have given me an opportunity to shift my hours, but living in a house with three other women, all of whom had regular jobs, I considered it better all around not to compete for bathroom and kitchen time, so I did all that before the others woke up and then left the house. A couple hours later it would be empty, so I would return then and make use of as many of those empty hours as I could. This also served to give my day some much-needed structure. Now that everyone is working from home, the advice is to give yourself a 'commute' just to trick your brain into thinking you're working. I turns out I've been doing that for years.
So, one way or another, I've been trying to train myself to be a morning person for most of my life. Whether it's age or the delayed payoff of my efforts, this has been easier in recent years. I would frequently wake up before my first alarm, even if I was still half-asleep. But now I have no external factors either pushing or pulling me to get an early start, so why waste my hours of wakefulness being groggy and useless when I could better spend them getting things done late at night?
My alarm has been off since then, and it's been interesting to observe the transition. I am still waking up early, and although this is sliding gradually later it's still with that anxious start and wash of stress. Luckily I don't need much convincing to roll over and get back to sleep, and feel better about getting out of bed when I do eventually do so. And, as described above, going through my morning properly awake is much more efficient. It's made me wonder if the stress of fighting my internal clock and the pressure to hit the ground running at a point when I can barely walk might have been a slow-burning contribution to the flames of anxiety over the years, smouldering away under the big obvious things like a toxic office culture or a hostile housemate. I am curious to find out if ditching the conventional work hours not only improves productivity but improves anxiety as well. Maybe it will boost my immunity, too? We will find out!
*First alarm at 6 to tell me it was time to wake up. There was no way I'd actually get out of bed then, but it gave me half an hour to get my brain up to speed enough to get out of bed at the second alarm, 6.30. Then another hour to crawl through the regular morning things before leaving the house, counting on the fresh air and exercise to wake me up the rest of the way. It didn't feel like I was going slower so much as that time was passing faster – getting dressed usually takes 5 minutes tops, yet somehow before 9am the same actions took 15. Just goes to show how subjective our relationship with time is.
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Date: 2020-05-22 09:50 pm (UTC)If you can roll with delayed sleep phase, DO EET, IMHO. :D