Morning Challenges

I've started getting a routine down now that I'm home. I work until around 5pm and then on my way home I'll stop off if I need anything from the store. Once I'm home, I change out of my work clothes and take the dogs for a walk. We've been exploring different sections of a trail near the home. Once our walk is over, I make myself something for dinner and watch one show off the DVR. I try to keep active for the rest of the evening, cleaning the house, doing projects or whatever. Then I'll feed the animals and head up to bed, do a few crosswords and maybe read a little before heading to bed.

My ideal morning routine would be to get up, walk the dogs, feed the animals, shower and then get to work, however that's not how it's been going. Instead, I just keep hitting that snooze button until I end up having to rush to shower, dress, put on makeup, get the pets fed and get to work on time.



I have no idea why I'm not a morning person. There is no reason why I shouldn't be able to get up and do stuff after having slept 7-8 hours. However, that damn snooze button sucks me in every time. I wish I could figure out how to disable it, so I wouldn't even have the option. Often, I'm not even aware of how many times I've hit it. I'll remember hitting it once and suddenly I realize that it's been 50 minutes since my alarm first went off!

There are lots of suggestions out there on how to become a morning person.

• Put the alarm far away from your bed  - done that. I still get up, go over, hit snooze, go lay down and repeat ad nauseam.
• Get an alarm clock that plays music instead of beeps - yeah, but I can still hit the snooze button
• Get an alarm clock that has a built in light that slowly increases until it's brightest when it's time to get up - super annoying for anyone else in bed who doesn't have to get up when I do
• Don't hit snooze but go straight into the shower (or eat, or stretch, or a million other ideas) - but what about the fact that I don't even realize I'm up and hitting the snooze button?!

I'm going to try another letter to myself. The first one I wrote was all about why I should get up and go to work. However, I am doing that. I just need to get up earlier. Here are some things I'm thinking about putting in my new letter.

• I should get up now so I can walk the dogs - good for them and good for me!
• I should get up now so I don't have to rush to get ready
• I should not hit snooze because the extra 10 minutes doesn't really help.
• I should not hit snooze because it keeps waking my girlfriend up.

I'm sure I'll come up with some more, but that's a good starting place. Let's see if it works!