Monday, April 16, 2012

An Update on the Schedule Change

This is what we're trying to avoid.
Photo by Stuart Miles

As you may recall, I was working on trying to shift my hours to take advantage of those morning hours that I prefer to sleep through.  Since it's been a week, I thought I'd post an update.

Last week was spring break, so my thought was that I would kind of "ease into it."  It worked pretty well.  I was working by 9 am every morning, so that's an hour improvement right there.  I definitely felt more productive throughout the week, so I'm pleased with that.

Today was going to be the more difficult day.  I was going to be up by 6:30, sending my kid out the door by 7:30 and working by 8.  Wellll.... it's 9 am and I'm writing so it's not as bad as it was before.  But I found myself stomping off to go lie down a little longer at 7:30 rather than heading into the kitchen to start my coffee.

I see some success and I can identify the obstacles, so maybe I can still make this work.

First off, I'm working at 9 instead of 10, so that's still a victory, even if it's a small one.  Just like any other behavioral change plan, you have to celebrate the small successes, so yay me! (haha)  Secondly, I went to bed waaaaaay too late last night.  Then once I got to bed, I had a really hard time getting to sleep.  While I don't know of any way to force myself to go to sleep (at least any that I'm willing to try), I do need to work on getting to bed earlier.

Tomorrow I have to be up early because I have an IEP meeting for my son scheduled for 7:30 am.  Yuck.  It's not going to be a productive day in general though... too many appointments.  But hopefully it will help with the overall schedule reset.  I'll update in another week and we'll see where I'm at.

4 comments:

  1. I found that I became much more productive once I started getting up around 6:30 every morning, which I've been doing for over three months now. So productive, in fact, that I'm worn out by bed time and fall asleep more quickly than I used to!

    Good luck with your own efforts – it's worth persevering!

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    1. I've definitely increased my productivity! I've been getting up about 6:45 and starting work by 8 since about last Thursday. What a difference!

      Thanks for reading!

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  2. Hey, an hour is more than a small gain.

    Some folks do better in the mornings than others... listen to your body as much as life will allow is my suggestion.

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    1. I've found that when I get up, I am actually more productive in the morning. In the afternoon (especially after 3 when my son gets home) there are far too many distractions and concerns. I think I pretty much need to plan for my workday to end at 3.

      I also discovered another problem that was leading to my issues with productivity. I'm trying to decide if I want to post about it or not.

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