Don't Perish on that Hill
Another realization from the land of Almost Thirty
Low Hill From Cofton Hill (1853) by: Elijah Walton
There is so much information available to us about the right and wrong way to do things. When it comes to productivity,there is a vast pool of proven, practiced and deeply reviewed methods of getting as much as we can done in the most efficient manner possible. So you may find it surprising when a productivity method that seems to work for everyone else doesn't seem to be working for you.
This is the dilemma I keep bumping into with my routines. I have been masquerading as a morning person for years because that's what the productivity world touts as the most optimal time of the day to get things done. And while that's true for some, that is not true for me.
I don't like waking up early. I like squeezing out every little drop of sleep I can before my alarm goes off. I love how it feels to just lay in bed and exist and think of nothing before the demands of the day come into focus. Sometimes I even fall back to sleep(though the goal is not to do that on work days). My point is, my mornings are for doing nothing.
The realization that I am not a morning person has come to me recently when, after another week of not completing a to-do list, I stepped back and looked at when I was trying to make myself do these things.
- Journaling? - In the morning.
- Reading? - In the morning.
- Exercising? - In the morning.
What got done? Nothing. None of those things got done in the morning no matter how many times I tried to do them. I would change the order, the location, the tools, and all the methods and nothing ever changed. It felt like a physical wall was blocking me from doing the things I knew I should be doing. It wasn't until stepping back and looking at the times of day in which I did accomplish my to-do list items that a clear pattern emerged: I work best in the middle of the day and early evening.
For so long I thought that if I wasn't being productive in the morning the way everyone says you should, I was just lazy. And in the moments in which I did forge through and be that busy and productive morning person, I felt great. But what I have come to understand is that there are certain seasons in my life where I have to meet myself where I am. Sometimes that means I will feel the call to rise early and get going and do all the things. Right now, that's not where I'm at and that's fine. I'll shout it from the roof tops: I AM NOT A MORNING PERSON! HERE ME SNORE!
Life is hard enough without imposing other peoples rules on your life. Wear what fits and shed what doesn't.
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