It takes me four hours to get ready to go in the morning. Even when I wake up at 6 a.m., I'm still not ready to leave for work until ten.
I've recently considered starting my days at 4 a.m. so I can be ready to go by eight, which is when I'm supposed to leave, instead of two full hours later at ten when I usually leave. (My boss doesn't read my blog, so he'll never know.) (Famous last words.)
The thing is, it's this four hour block of .... primping? that is causing a lot of the major time-suckage I've been complaining talking about lately. I thought maybe if I wrote about this phenomenon here, we could, together, as a team, help me find new strategies to becoming a person who can wake, eat, shower and leave in a more reasonable amount of time, like, say, one hour. One hour is reasonable. Four hours? What, am I being tied into my corset by my nursemaid every morning? Seriously.
So. What am I doing with four hours every morning: I spend about thirty minutes preparing my coffee and breakfast, then eating. I spend another thirty minutes doing yoga (or reading mommy blogs, depending on the day.) (OK, usually I'm reading mommy blogs.) It takes me fifteen minutes to shower and condition my hair, then thirty minutes to apply the various moisturizers, creams and lotions I use, another fifteen to twenty minutes fixing my hair and ... that's it. That's everything.
But that's only two hours and five minutes, tops. Where are the other two hours? Where? What do I do with them?
Yes, I realize that two hours and five minutes is a really long time to get out of the house, I know. You don't have to make me feel bad about that. I am perfectly willing to work on narrowing that down, AS SOON AS WE FIGURE OUT WHAT ON EARTH I AM DOING FOR THAT EXTRA HOUR AND FIFTY-FIVE MINUTES.
Because I have no idea.
8 comments:
In a word you are "living" - you are dawdling, stretching into the day, dilly dallying, awaking-no REALLY, wandering, imagining, one-last-thinging... creatives have this "issue", that's why the song says "life is like a dream" and by the by, children will definitely change all that, there just isn't time then to dawdle yourself, they NEED you, and perhaps then you'll find yourself adding those hours to the tale end of the day once they've fallen into the arms of morpheus (or whatever that sleep God is named) but you'll have to wait until then to find out, not only is it like a dream... it IS always an adventure xox ~ endedi
Wish I could help... back when I worked (or when I was going to school) the alarm would go off and five minutes later I was out starting car before my eyes had opened.
I know this doesn't work for everyone (read: I am a freak), but I shower at night to save precious minutes in the morning. I can go from bed to out the door in 20 minutes, and that includes making a lunch.
Disclaimer 1: I wear jeans and a Tshirt to work on most days, thus limiting both my outfit-picking time and my time-it-actually-takes-to-pull-the-clothes-on time. Also, on mornings when I want to look nicer, it definitely takes longer. Cause picking out earrings that go with my Tshirt takes time.
Disclaimer 2: I don't wear makeup. Today I forgot to put on sunscreen. Usually I wear sunscreen.
Disclaimer 3: I don't brush my hair. Seriously. I put it in a ponytail, and sometimes a clip. Sometimes it looks passable just down, if I run my fingers through it AND I slept on it right or something.
Disclaimer 4: I don't eat at home. I wish I did, but that would mean less time for sleeping. Usually I throw some yogurt or oatmeal in a tupperware and eat at my desk at work. Because I choose sleep in the mornings. Have I said that?
I wish I could wake up earlier and make a good breakfast, and eat it while I read the paper (ha! try mommyblogs) or do yoga or something. But I don't. And if I'm being honest, I don't really wish that. I WISH I wished that though...does that count?
Morning Routine in a nutshell:
7:30am - Will's alarm
8:00am - Will gets up, showers
8:20am - My alarm
8:30am - Get out of bed, throw on some clothes, brush teeth, see if I look decent enough to sit behind a desk all day. Yep.
8:40am - Make lunch, throw breakfast in lunchbox too.
8:45 or 8:50 more likely am - head out the door.
Some call it lazy. I call it efficient.
First off, I'm pretty sure (that's Pret-ty, Pret-ty Shure) that you don't spend that many minutes doing the lotion thing. And if you lotioned After getting your hair in the rollers and while it was drying, that would save time. Also, even I (Me!) can shower in less than 15 minutes, and I am a Luxury-Shower taker. Pretend you're in the Navy - 5 minutes and you'll be just as clean, really!
I'm one of the "takes five minutes to get ready if I'm not going somewhere special" people, but I will still try to help! Because that is what humans are good at, giving unwanted advice, and I am...celebrating humanity.
Ok, so you could shower when you get home instead of the morning. Either way, I would DEFINITELY save the mommy blogs for when you get home. Good way to blow off stress after a hard day, and you'll leave home earlier! Also, either pre-prepare breakfast or make something that takes a shorter time to cook.
I am genuinely asking this as a question: Do the creams actually do anything? Because in most studies that I've read, they don't?
Either way, if you're primping to look nice for yourself, you can "make it up to yourself later" by doing something else for yourself, like taking photographs or applying the creams later in a less hurried and less sleepy fashion. If you're doing it for how you look to others...if I can get away not combing my hair for a couple days and then putting it into a bun with crayola pencils, you can get away with less, especially since you're naturally beautiful.
Also, I didn't notice makeup in there? Unless you don't use it/are including it in the creams and lotions?
I have been giving this some serious thought all week. I am one of those who is out the door within 25 minutes of rising. Here are a few of my time saving techniques (though I don't have a husband or dogs to consider):
*I work out and shower at night
*I only do my hair once or twice a week (using the shower cap the rest of the time).
*I prepare my week's breakfasts on Sunday evening and eat en route, ie hard-boiled (cage free vegetarian fed independent local farmer) eggs, bananas, yogurt, etc.
*I prepare my coffee at night so it is brewed when I wake up.
*I will not allow myself to get on the internet. It is too easy to allow a quick blog read to turn into an hour...or two...or three.
Ultimately the only thing that works for me is a routine. Once I fall into that things go much much quicker.
Love you long time :)
OH! One more thing! I also make extra of whatever I am having for dinner and just take the leftovers for lunch!
...which may not work for you since you don't work in an office...
OK how is this? What if you only did your blog reading once a week? What if that was your Saturday morning ritual or treat? Catching up on the contents of your google reader?
How much of your time is used up trying to figure out what to wear? That was always the killer for me.
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