Early To Rise…I hate to admit it!

So I will just come out and admit it – I do not enjoy waking up early.  I just don’t.  I don’t know exactly why…perhaps it’s because I typically end up staying up late into the night most nights so that when morning rolls around I am super tired and want to stay in bed…

This morning I had a board meeting that was beginning at 7:30am in downtown Salt Lake, which meant I needed to be up and dressed to leave my home by 7am.  EARLY!  So I forced myself to get to bed at a reasonable hour last night so I could wake up when my alarm went off at 5:30am this morning.  And wake up I did.  I didn’t like getting up, after all it was freezing cold and my bed was so snuggly and warm.  But this time I didn’t allow myself to hit snooze when the alarm went off.  I forced myself to get right up and jump into the shower.  Because I hadn’t hit snooze I was even ready early to head to my meeting and I was excited to have a few minutes to watch the morning news, a luxury I rarely get.  And then the text message showed up from my Admin telling me that my meeting was cancelled this morning due to the snow. CANCELED?!? Are you serious?  After I just woke myself up at 5:30am and got all dressed and ready?!?  You mean I could have slept in a few more hours?!?  ARGGHHHHHHH…..

So now I had a decision to make.  Here I was all up and dressed and ready to go, but I no longer needed to be awake yet.  Should I curl up under my warm covers in my snuggly bed and go back to sleep?  Or should I grab my computer and get to work?

Begrudgingly I decided that I may as well get up and get busy, which is exactly what I did.  And what followed is something I almost hate to admit to…because in admitting it I have to also admit that I really do need to make a big change in my life…something that is never much fun to do 🙂

I went out to my family room.  The house was dark and eerily quiet as everyone else peacefully slept.  The quiet was heightened by the blanket of snows outside, which always seems to silence things.  I booted up my computer and I went to work.  I now had a few hours of quiet time before I needed to be at the office for my first meeting of the day.  What happened in those next hours shocked and amazed me.  The amount of work I was able to get done was nothing short of incredible.  Perhaps it was because the rest of the world was still sleeping so I could work without interruption.  Perhaps it was because I had just woken up and I was focused and my mind wasn’t yet clouded with the worries of everything that had gone on that day.  I don’t know exactly what the reason was but I do know this – had my meeting been in the afternoon and I had gotten a few hours of my afternoon back I would never have accomplished as much with that time as I was able to first thing in the morning….and THERE IT IS…the part I hate admitting…the part that means I need to make a change in my life…getting up early in the morning and hitting the ground running allows you to be far more productive with your life.  Not just a little bit more productive – far more productive.  Like magnitudes more productive!  Dang it, I hate admitting that….but I know it was true….and the results were so drastic that it would be impossible for me to deny it….even to myself…:)

Try it.  Try waking up way earlier than you need to tomorrow.  Wake up before the rest of your family would even consider getting up. Then don’t hit your snooze button.  Jump right out of bed and into the shower.  Then get going on your day, and by the time the day is over, you tell me if you weren’t amazed at what you got accomplished.

~Amy

1 Comment

  • Nick Giammusso says:

    Your post made me laugh as this is a regular topic of conversation between my wife an I.

    I am such a night owl myself. I HATE getting up early! I am so productive and creative at night when everyone else is asleep. I’ve tried to change but have realized that staying up until 2-3am and waking up at 9:30am is my natural body rhythm.

    Thanks for the post.

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