Where To Find the Time...part 2 and Writing

So, I have been doing this getting up early thing and I have to say I like my new routine with a few caveats that I will explain momentarily.  About three weeks ago, I had read an article at www.lifehacker.com about how this engineering kid was finding that he was essentially waking up, going to work, exercising and then was too tired to do anything that he found fulfilling.  He then turned his time table upside down and began to wake up at 5 AM, worked on the projects that mattered to him, exercised, THEN went to work and went to bed earlier.  His story really affected me, and I decided to apply his idea to my own life.

I can not yet even fathom getting up at 5 AM, but I currently have the alarm go off at 5:30 AM, and I was at first diligent about hopping out of bed and bouncing into the shower and at my computer at 5:50 AM, happily typing away.  The problem that I am finding is that I need to adjust the other portion of my sleeping schedule, the one where if I am getting up earlier, then I need to be going to sleep earlier, which at times I was not doing...although I am getting better at it.

Before my time shifting, if I was able to force myself to sit at the desk and write, I would be doing the head bobbing that I had not done since my school days and what came out of my skull was noticeably sleepy. Oftentimes, I would skip writing all together.  Last year, to get around the problem, I began working on my novel during my lunch period, but then I only had one hour, which included finding somewhere quiet that was not baking in the sun, turning on the incredibly long booting netbook and pulling my thoughts together enough to get cracking; this was pre-puppy.

Now, getting up earlier has been working wonders for me, but it does takes work and some preparation.  I try to make sure that the kitchen is free of clutter, that I have shaved, that I have my tea waiting by the stove so that I only need to heat the water, and that any and all distractions have been dealt with the night before so that I am not wasting time on menial tasks.  Then there are the times I wake up in a bad mood...like yesterday.

Did I have a bad case of the Mondays yesterday?  Fuck yes I did.  The moment my eyes opened I was pissed off.  I have no idea why, although I have a strong suspicion that it had something to do with the ever looming idea of heading off to work.  I got seven and a half hours of sleep and I was still grouchy.  I was cursing the shower, the fact that the tea kettle was sitting on the counter and not on the stove and of course having only two and half hours before the job started.  It was ridiculous...redonkuless, actually.  I did not even want to write.  But, I sat down, cursing to myself the whole way, and wrote the little Kick-Ass movie review.  I actually felt better about the day and was marginally happier, at least until I had to get in the car and then I did not cheer up until about 2 PM, but that is another matter.

So, I realize that there will be those days where I just do not feel like doing anything, but I will do the writing, whether on the blog or on my novel, because whether I like it or not this is all for me and I will feel better about the day after I have done something worthwhile.  For far too long now, time has been my enemy, but I am changing that and making time my friend....or at the very least my bitch.

I have slipped a little and have been doing one snooze before getting up, but that is going to stop and I will think about inching forward the time when I awaken so that I can not just write on this blog, but maybe do some editing or reading before trudging to the car to begin the second part of my day.  Anyhow, I may not love getting up early everyday, but I do love the end results and the added productivity that benefits me.  I am overall very happy about the change.  Wooo-Haaa.

Where To Find the Time...part 2 and Writing