Archive for May, 2007

If you haven’t read Cicada’s last post, go do that first. I was thinking about blogging about the subject several days ago (after we first had the conversation), but then my laziness took over and I didn’t. So here goes. Keep in mind that after that conversation, I decided it was time to change my morning routine, so here’s what I used to do.

1. Wake up (1–5 minutes). At my last job I used to get up at 7:45 and leave for work at 8:45 so I could be there at 9:00. At my current job, I continued the habit of getting there at 9:00, but then I started getting up at 7:15 for some reason. Anyway, I have a CD player alarm clock, and I always get up when the first song is over.

2. Shower (25–35 minutes). This is probably what eats up the biggest portion of my time. I’m very groggy for a while when I wake up, and it’s nice to just stand there and space out. Also, I shave in the shower, so that sort of justifies the ridiculously long time I spend in there.

3. Get dressed (2–5 minutes). This only takes longer if I have to go get something out of the dryer (because I’ve been too lazy to take things out and put them away) or if I can’t figure out what to wear because my warddrobe is so small that it feels like I’ve already worn everything in the past week.

4. Do my hair (2–5 minutes). Just a little mousse or gel (or both), and voila. It probably never even takes 5 minutes, but I said that just to be safe.

5. Breakfast (0–15 minutes). I don’t eat breakfast as often as Cicada apparently thinks. I hate breakfast, too, but I also find I’m better off if I have something. Sometimes I have cold cereal, but often it’s just a shake or nothing at all.

6. Pack a lunch (5–10 minutes). I hate packing a lunch. I feel like it’s the same thing every day, so I often putter around and poke through the fridge and try to see if there’s anything other than cheap frozen food or sandwich fixings. Usually there’s not, though there was jambalaya the other day. Mmm, jambalaya.

7. Brush my teeth (2 minutes) (“Oh my gosh, that’s three times as long as it takes me!”). What else is there to say?

8. Read (0–15 minutes). You have no idea how relaxing it is to sit down and read for 15 minutes before running off to work. I love having a nice, leisurely morning. Since snooze never works for me (I just can’t fall asleep again that quickly, and if I do I still wake up groggy), the next best thing is to relax a bit before jumping in the car and heading off.

But anyway, after the conversation with Cicada, I started to realize just how much my morning routine had expanded (I’d added an entire half hour) and how staying till 5:30 every day just wasn’t worth it. I’ve started getting to work between 8:30 and 8:45 now (I’m still tweaking my revised routine, I guess). Taking my time in the morning was nice and all, but it’s so much better to leave at 5:00 and have more of my evenings free. Not that I do anything with my evenings, but it’s a start.