I hate mornings. With a passion. I’ve never been a morning person and my peak hours are somewhere during the afternoon and early evening. On occasion I’ve written amazing essays and articles closer to midnight. So, when I started my internship doing regular 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. hours I had trouble adjusting. Now, during winter, it’s even harder to wake up before 7 a.m. when the world outside is pitch black and you know there’s snow up to your knees outside. However, there are things I’ve tried to adjust about my daily routines to make the mornings as painless as possible.
I lay out my clothing the previous night because if I’m supposed to pick an outfit in the morning when I haven’t even had coffee, it’ll end up being a tattered T-shirt with a Hogwarts crest on it and leggings. Business chic? …Not so much. Making the effort to put together my clothing for the next day ensures I look at least semi-presentable when I waltz into the office. I also put together my lunch the previous night. If putting together an outfit is hard in the morning, cooking is impossible. Also, it takes away from my precious sleeping time. You want to be able to minimize the time needed between waking up and leaving for work. Same goes for packing a bag. You will have it much easier if you look for your keys and wallet the previous night rather than in the morning. I have a habit of changing bags a lot depending on what I’m doing and where I’m going, which means that I also might occasionally leave my bus card in the wrong bag. By checking everything in advance, I save myself the trouble of paying for a more expensive bus ticket or calling my SO for keys.
I have also started showering in the evening. For most of my life, I was a morning shower kind of person. I still am during the weekends. But otherwise I just can’t be bothered to wake up half an hour earlier to have time for showering and drying my hair. It’s much quicker just to wash my face in the morning and maybe do something with my hair. No waiting necessary.
Treating my body like a temple (well, a temple that might sometimes get littered with chips and chocolate) has also helped my mornings. I take vitamins with my breakfast, vitamins C and D being absolute saviors now during the winter months, and I try to eat a full breakfast, lunch and dinner. No missing food times due to being in a rush and definitely no eating microwave meals because I’m too lazy to make anything else. I feel more awake and in better shape mentally and physically, which also helps with getting up in the morning.
Giving myself time to do something small, something non-work or school related has also made a difference. Just 10 minutes of me time can give you a little boost before work. I check out blogs and Instagram and cuddle my cat. Nothing major, but it sets the tone for the day. I also like to do that in the evening so that I can sleep better. If my sleep has been undistrubed and I haven’t been stressing out about work things during the last hours of the evening, I will also wake up better.
If it is possible to eat breakfast or drink morning coffee at work, that helps with cutting down your preparations in the morning. I always drink my morning coffee at work where I don’t need to guzzle it down before running to the metro. I like to properly enjoy the first cup of coffee in the morning, which I can still do while checking work emails and the social media updates on our company’s accounts.
Just as a precaution, I also have my phone on a desk far away from the bed so that when the alarm rings, I have to get up and walk across the room to shut it off. Snoozing is your enemy.
I’m still not a morning person but I have successfully woken up every morning at 6.30 a.m. For me, that’s a victory. If nothing else, I like to remind myself that I also get to leave work already at 4 p.m. while those who drag themselves in closer to 10 a.m. will be tapping away at their desks long after I’ve left. Hopefully some of these tips will help you too and you won’t find those mornings quite so tough!