Trading the Good for the Bad... Unintentionally?

When you mismanage your time, you trade having a good day for a bad day... lemme splain.

I've never really been all that much in a hurry to get up and out of bed in the mornings. I used to get up like 40 minutes before it was time to leave. That was enough time to have coffee, get ready and bolt (and I do mean BOLT) out the door. Mind you I don't get up late on the weekends, I'm not a sleep till noon type of person. However, I was still always rushing around anyway.

Matter of fact, in my early 20's a friend of mine used to drive past my house in the morning before work and hong their horn like a loon because I'd sleep through my alarm clock. LOL ... which was VERY sweet of her.

After my daughter was born I had to get up earlier, of course, to get her ready first, give her breakfast, then get ready myself. Still I was always pushing my time limits. Always RUSHING... I didn't "seem" to mind, you hear similar stories from other people all day, every day about how BUSY they are... so you figure, you're not doing anything different so... you're okay.

My daughter was late for school sometimes, I always felt bad about that... we were rushing around like... there was no other way to get out of the house in the morning. Now... who created THAT MESS? Me... I did... Yup.

After a while, I started to get up earlier because I wanted a 1/2 hour to an hour to myself, before my daughter got up. My "me" time... need that. Otherwise I'm a bit crabby. When school started this year, she had to be by the bus stop at 7:30... oh boy, that was a whole hour earlier than I've had to leave before.

Ug.... yaaaaaaaaawnnnnnnnnnnnn... seriously... do I have to be a grown up today? Can't the bus just drop by my door on it's way past? LOL I'm not done w/my coffee!!!!

Up until about 1.5-2 years ago I was always in a hurry to get to drop my daughter off and then get to work. Even if I did have extra time, I'd innocently fritter it away.

When the goal developed of wanting to get back into shape, time began to become a lot more important to me. Right? Sure it did... if I wanted my me time, and then some workout time, then get ready for work or my day, that meant a significant shift in when I got up in the morning... Oh yah... I didn't like that idea a lot.

HOWEVER, if I wanted to work out and still have the things I was doing before still work for me... I had to get up a little earlier.

Now, why am I writing about this? Who REALLY cares when I get up in the morning?

For that matter...

Who really cares how much less stress I have in the mornings now?

Who really cares that I found the ideal way to monitor how much time I have left by setting the timer on the stove to go off at a particular time so I have a warning? GREAT IDEA THAT TIMER!

Who really cares how smoothly my mornings now go?

Who cares how I'm not saying to my daughter anymore "Hurry UP!" Lets GO we're late! (my fault) And of course... making her feel rushed in her day too... that's just a shame. But I've fixed that ... which is kewl.

Who cares how I feel soooo good when I work out in the mornings and start my day off with a nice little workout?

Who cares how I almost never have road rage anymore because I'm not rushing like a big baffoon to get from point A to B without being pissed that some moron in front of me who ... what? "Is not in a hurry because I am" ... :) (You have to love that one.)

Who cares that I now have contingency time (left over extra time) to get gas or stop off at the supermarket briefly in the morning to get some lunch or dinner stuff if I need to without being massively ... anxious that I'm squeezing too much into my day. hmmm...

Yah, I wouldn't really care about these things either.

What you may want to think about ... is all those things I just listed that you really don't care about... that make my days go so much smoother now.

All from adjusting myself, my day, putting the timer on to help myself not fritter away time...

No stress... OMG... :) A calmer me? Ooooh...

Oh, yes and Who cares if you're on time or even EARLY for work and alleviate that stress of tearing into work for fear you'll get into trouble w/your boss? Yah... we don't care about that either. You're used to that... Right?

Who cares that we're not coming up with flimsy, transparent excuses for WHY we're late when ... dare I say it? It is your fault... :) (Barring an accident or something of course)

You can restructure your life, and how you manage your time... any "time" you want to.

Oh... I see... you like rushing, yelling and complaining all the time about how there's not enough time in the day... Okay then. Keep doing what you're doing.

If that's workin for ya... by all means. Keep freaking yourself out... not recognizing that time is something that you can manage or have some control over. Sure, sure... you don't have to change at all... Noooo... Stay the same. Be crabby and grumpy and stressed out ... ALL THE TIME ...

Feel guilty and stressed when you consistently find yourself forgetting things because you're rushing out the door. SURE!

Risk getting into a car accident because you are contributing to all the other people who ALSO what? Don't manage their time well... over promise themselves for certain things... rush out like there's a fire under their behind...

So... how do you fix that?

Reprioritizing your morning.

Reprioritizing what you do to get ready.

Set the timer... this is SO COOL...

Pay attention to what you can be doing differently...

This can take a little while... but, it's not like it can't be done... I did it.

I didn't like it initially, had lots of resistance and grumpies about it... but what was I losing?

oh... yah, stress, anxiety, guilt, road rage...

So... are you ready to modify how your day goes to feel better?

No? Okay then... well, you can stay the same and I'll smile at you in the morning as you wiz past me all flustered and worried, and think... Hey, I used to do that... :)