Developing a Morning Routine

I am not a morning person by any means. I am an afternoon and night person naturally. My natural circadian rhythm (24-hour sleep/wake cycle) wakes me up at 10 am and has me falling asleep between 2-3am. Unfortunately, I worked a job where I need to be present and accounted for by 9 am. I need a morning routine that allows me to be awake and functioning before work. More recently, I have completely fallen off my routine, so I have just been waking up, getting ready for work, walking Nyx, and running out the door. This leaves a valuable morning time where I could be journaling, exercising, etc. in preparation for the day.

Proposed Routine

My proposed morning routine has me waking up every morning at 530am and going to sleep at 10 pm every night while my current method is to wake up at 730am and go to sleep at about 12pm-1am. To effectively pull off this change in waking up time, I plan to wake up slowing work my way down to 530am using the following schedule:

• 1st week – Wake up at 7a & Sleep at 1130p
• 2nd week- Wake up at 630a & Sleep at 11p
• 3rd week – Wake up at 6a & Sleep at 1030p
• 4th week- Wake up at 530a & Sleep at 10p

Transition Period

At the end of my four week period, my proposed schedule should look something like the following:

Activity	Alternate Schedule – Yoga at 7am at the Gym
Wake up – 530a	Wake up – 530a
Coffee. Reading.	Coffee. Make Breakfast/Lunch
Make Breakfast/Lunch	Exercise
Yoga. Exercise	Get Ready
Get Ready	Leave at 620a
Leave at 820a

Hopefully, this schedule gives me some balance in my life instead of attempting to do everything after work. Between the blog, work, the dog, my self-care, and graduate school, a schedule and balance are needed. Of course, I will check back at the end of four weeks with updates.