Enjoying Precious Morning Rituals – Daily Quote

/ JoHawkTheWriter

when-you-arise-in-the-morning-think-of-what-a-precious-privilege-it-is-to-be-alive-to-breathe-to-think-to-enjoy-to-love.-marcus-aurelius

Waking each morning represents my day’s primary challenge. But hitting the snooze button, and snuggling in my warm cocoon longer than I should, exacerbates my problems, and creates additional challenges. I hate when mornings become afternoons, and I have accomplished nothing on my list. I have fallen into bad habits, going to bed later, and using that to rationalize my late rising. This scenario is coloring my entire day, putting me in a foul mood, and hindering my progress on my goals.

Experience has revealed my prime productivity period is between 9 A.M. and 2 P.M. I’m fresher, more creative, and more likely to pursue my personal-passion projects during my sweet spot. It presumes I am awake, alert, and ready to work. A morning routine required to get me to that stage takes two or three hours. I need a change.

I am planning on adopting the schedule of extreme early risers, with a targeted wake-up time of 4 A.M. I intend to address the things I have been neglecting, reviewing my scheduled daily tasks, and enjoying my yoga workout before it gets bumped for more urgent responsibilities. But first, I need my coffee.

Do you have a set wake-up time?

_________________________________________

Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

20 thoughts on “Enjoying Precious Morning Rituals – Daily Quote”

  1. This rings bells with me, too.

    4am, you say? Eek! Time was I’d go to bed at that hour!

    Six weeks ago I started renting a shop and though I am enjoying the freedom of being my own boss and the responsibilities that come with this, I am naturally drawn to staying up as late as I would usually (somewhere around 2am would be an average). But I am constantly tired. The last fortnight I have dragged myself to bed by 9pm and slept through to my 7:30 alarm. I worry that I won’t have time to write, to rock, to roll – the thing is that I do still do these things, but they are of a poorer quality than they should be. I’m considering your revised sleep/wake pattern myself, but I realise that I need to relax into restructuring my day (my 24 hours). I’m going to give it a go. Good luck, Jo. Let us know how it works.

    🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    • Yes, 2am has been my normal bedtime, lately. I like staying up late to get things done, but like you, exhaustion is having a negative impact on my productivity, and unfortunately, I need to get some things done during “normal” business hours. I am sure the first few weeks will be a bumpy ride. I am betting on a big uptick. Let me know how your experiment goes, Nick. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  2. My weekday time is a hard 5AM. My weekend time, while squishier, is around 7AM. In both cases when I open my eyes, I pop out of bed because I get to embark on my favorite activity of the day: drinking coffee.

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Jo:
    I too, like you, prefer to get up early so as to be able to accomplish as much of my rapidly changing “to-do” list as early in the day as possible. In doing so, I do not feel so bad when around 3 or 4 o’clock, I say to myself, “Okay self, you accomplished quite a bit today so far, now you can give yourself some time to do what it is you want to do.” My problem with that philosophy though is that by the time “my time” rolls around, my brain is fried, my body is worn out, and my ‘get up and go – got up and went’ leaving me spent and exhausted not really in the mood to be creative and ready to put out 500 to 750 words for my blog or on some other creative writing project. Fact is that at my age – just turned 79 last month – if I don’t do the stuff that needs to be done first thing in the morning or early afternoon, it probably isn’t going to get done at all…leastways not that day. My usual morning routine – leastways the one I would like to get back to – consists of getting up, doing fifteen minutes of stretching exercises, about 20 to 30 minutes of walking around our community before coming in to have breakfast and then tackle the “to-do’s” I have written down that I want to accomplish. But I’m working on it – I did it before and thus I can do it again. Until tomorrow!

    Liked by 1 person

    • Hey Irwin. My thought process behind waking earlier is to address my priorities first, before I get to the more mundane have-to-dos for my day and hit the ‘brain fried’ part of the day. I am looking to reorder the list putting writing, ahead of things that don’t require much thought processing like doing the dishes. A happy belated birthday to you and best of luck finding a schedule that works well for you. 🧁

      Like

  4. Me again Jo….As you can see, I completely forgot to include writing as part of my “To-Do” list. Perhaps that is where I am falling down on the job. I should be including 30-60 minutes of writing every day as part of my everyday “to-do” list. Hmmm, by George, I think I got it! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  6. I’m an early morning riser, generally up by 5:30 at the latest. My rituals start around 6:00 am and around 6:55, I start my coffee. I like to watch one of the morning news shows and put my breakfast on in time to start at 8:00. From there, I’m ready to get started with the demands of the day as I’ve had my selfish time for about 3 hours or more💜

    Liked by 1 person

  8. I have mixed emotions on a daily routine. Healthwise it’s better to go to bed early but I love being a night owl. The problem is I still end up waking up early with only about five hours of sleep, not good. I think I have done some of my best work late at night – see my The Backside Of The Night. I like it because the house is quiet, the wife is in bed and I sit with a soft light by my recliner and let my mind wander, has worked well in the past. The next best thing is waking up early between 4 and 5 am. That has been productive time too and is probably better because I’m rested and wide awake. I think your new schedule is something you will like. They say you have to do something for 21 days in a row to make it a habit – just an FYI – Ha! Coffee is always the first step!
    xoxo 😊💖🌹

    Liked by 1 person

    • Only 21 days? I have read a newer study (July 2009) published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, that suggests, on average, it takes 66 days before a new behavior becomes automatic. Depending on the complexity of the task the actual time to form a new habit can take anywhere from 18 days to 254 days. I was shocked. But I guess I have it covered.

      I think drinking coffee in the morning only took 10 days to become automatic. 😄☕

      Liked by 1 person

  9. Drinking coffee in the morning is about my only ritual/routine that seems to last the test of time. I used to be an avid stretcher/walker but the older I get – the harder it is to get my mojo going. I know some say New Year’s Resolutions are a waste of time, but with all that is on our plate at the moment, I am taking the easy way out and saying that come January 2, 2010, I intend – scratch that – I will begin getting back in shape by stretching, walking, and light weight training. It is the only thing along with a proper diet that will get me to becoming an octogenarian come November 25, 2020 and I do so want to reach that point in my life. Thanks for your words of encouragement.

    Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.