A Morning Person Living a Night Person’s Life
I had a realization this summer. I am a morning person. Not sure why I did not really realize this before. I like being up early. There is something peaceful about being up before daylight, in the quiet morning. I am more productive. Things that I struggle to complete the evening before, seem to just be easier in the early break of day. Posts and articles write themselves. Doing dishes seems much less daunting of a task. I feel the need to clean and organize, believe it or not. But all I want to do in the evening is crash on the couch. Which is what I usually do (although I am usually doing work on my computer).
The interesting thing, though, if you happen to notice most of the timestamps on this blog, is thatI tend to stay up late. Very late. Usually at least to 1am, often later. And then I can't wake up early, so I sleep in, usually until about 9am. By the time I check email, shower and take care of a few other things, I find that the entire morning is gone! And I don't have time to clean or organize or barely get the kids something to eat before we are off somewhere.
So this past week, I have been forcing myself to retrain. I have been going to bed around 11:30pm and waking at 7am., sometimes a bit earlier. This seems to be the right amount of sleep for me as I am waking up without my alarm clock. I have not been perfect about this, but at least when I have gone to bed late, it has been midnight and not 2am!
The good thing is that I like it. I get the same amount of "alone" time as I did when I stayed up later (the boys usually are not up until 8am or so, and they usually watch TV or play on the computer for a little bit while they wake up). And I feel like I get more done. And I am finished with showers and email and whatnot earlier in the morning so I feel like we have more of the day when I am actually motivated to do things.
Now I just have to keep it up. I think that I will. I like it. It feels right.
Of course after writing all this, I have started to wonder about this whole need to be "productive" thing. I seem to be trying to cram way too much into too little time. And I don't seem to be overly comfortable just relaxing and not "doing" anything. Definitely something wrong there. Definitely need to think on that one.
I have been, believe it or not, cutting back on some of my email lists…not a huge amount, but some. I have realized that I actually get a lot of email advertisements (promotional emails that I have subbed to) so I have been cutting back there. Although it is easy enough to delete them, I am finding that the still contribute to the "clutter" in my life. And I am trying to remember that taking breaks is ok.
The interesting thing is that I am still trying to figure out how my life got so cluttered and busy. I have always tried to be aware of making choices and focusing on things that I enjoy and bring value to my life. I seem to have a bit too much of a good thing going though…between homeschooling the boys, participating/moderating several homeschool email lists, my VaHomeschoolers volunteer work, writing this blog, wanting to jump in on other blog conversations, writing for Life Without School, writing for the VaHomeschoolers newsletter and everything else, I am a bit overwhelmed. The problem is that I thoroughly enjoy everything that I just listed and do not want to cut anything out! But I think reality is settling in. I can't keep doing it and I can't truly enjoy myself when I have too much on my plate, even if they are things that I enjoy. Drat. That whole danged "finding the balance" thing again!
Looks like I need to go pull out my Voluntary Simplicity books again. It has been awhile.
