What a week! I have taken on several new English and Spanish students, wrote a myriad of articles for Yahoo (with many more to go), and have been catching up with old friends.
While I love to work, I have been experiencing some awful mornings. I guess I have never really been much of a morning person, but for some reason this week has been particularly awful.
Prime example of a horrid morning: yesterday. I was scheduled to teach some English classes back to back, meaning that I wouldn’t have much a break to eat some food. As I result, I figured I would wake up an hour earlier and get some breakfast at some place near my job.
I woke up just fine but ended up running a little late because of things I had to do around the house. Fate then decided it would try my patience as the bus was late, the trolley broke down, and Einstein Bros. had to make my breakfast sandwich from scratch almost causing me to be late for my first class.
Needless to say I was not a happy camper. This mood followed me for the rest of the day and has even spilled over to the rest of the week. This morning I woke up groaning as I quite literally dragged myself out of bed and got ready for my 9am class.
I am sure that I am not the only one in the world who hates mornings. In fact, I have rarely ever met someone who was a ray of sunshine at 6 am, especially on a Monday. So what can we do to make our mornings just a little bit better?
6 Things You Can Do to Brighten Up Your Mornings
(Note: This is an adaptation of my Yahoo article, 6 Ways to Get Rid of the Monday Blues)
1. Go to bed early. I say this at the risk of sounding like a grandma. If you want to efficiently battle your morning blues you have to start the night before. Go to bed an hour or two earlier instead of setting your morning alarm for a later time. This way your body receives the amount of sleep it needs without having to rush in the morning.
2. Use your alarm clock. When the alarm sounds and interrupts your sleep your first impulse is reach over and hit snooze. Half an hour later you realize you are late and begin your day by panicking. Avoiding this is simple: get up when the alarm sounds the first time. This is of course easier said than done so you may need to come up with some tricks to get you out of bed. I personally set my alarm on the other side of the room so I am forced to get out of bed to turn it off.
3. Look good and you will feel good. It is a known fact that when people think they look good they consequently feel good. Practice good grooming by showering and styling on in the morning. Did you buy a new outfit over the weekend? Wear it. Ladies, don’t sacrifice a little make up because you are in a hurry. Gentlemen, a clean shave is always nice.
4. Listen to Music. Common sense tells us that listening to music makes people happy. When you are getting ready in the morning play some of your favorite feel good music to shake off the blues. And don’t be afraid to sing in the shower either.
5. Eat Breakfast. Since people are always in such a hurry in the morning they sacrifice eating breakfast. Consequently, by midmorning depression is accompanied by hunger. Take some time in the morning to prepare a hearty and filling breakfast. This include something simple like toast or a full blown omelette. By eating breakfast you satisfy your hunger and gain the energy you need to fight the Monday blues.
6. Stay organized. A messy workplace can seriously affect your mood and impede on your productivity. To avoid the daunting task of cleaning your desk in the morning fix it up before you leave in the afternoon. Better yet, try to keep it neat and tidy everyday so you don’t have to waste time cleaning.
While all of these tips are great, the most important one is to stay optimistic.You will try these tips and probably fail many times before you come up with a schedule you can work with. Don’t let it get you down though, because you now hold they key to making your mornings a little less dreadful.
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I am so not a morning person! My roomie learned this about me in college when she’d try to have a full on conversation and grunt back lol. I used to be fine in HS but all the late hours in college messed me up. I’m now 3 years out of school and still not a morning person! I work at 9:30am and it’s still hard for me to be awake and on time!! I try to go to bed earlier but it never happens. I always eat breakfast otherwise I am miserable. Thanks for the tips!
Haha I had a room mate that would have entire conversations in her sleep. It was pretty awesome lol. And I’m pretty sure college made me nocturnal. I swear there was an entire semester that my room mates and I would be awake all night and then nap in between classes to get by. Not working out so well now lol.
This is really great advice. I’ve found that listening to music is especially helpful. Anything that inspires reminds me that there is so much to do each day and it energizes me to do it. Even though I love to sleep in, my best days are when I wake up at 6am. I’m on time, get so much done and don’t feel rushed at all.
[...] too long ago I wrote a post about how to have better mornings. I am happy to say that after following my own advice, and that of other lifestyle and productivity [...]
I thought I invented the ‘grunt’ response. I have it down to an art so that whoever is around me in the morning has to learn my ‘grunt’ language. I do find that the way I’m woken up in the morning makes a difference too, for example, if I’m woken up after a loud noise and startled, I’m not a happy camper. But if I’m pleasantly spoken to, it does make all the difference in mood.My biggest problem is going to bed early, especially since usually getting home late the night before. I never feel like I have enough home ‘down time’ so I don’t end up going to bed before 11:30 most times. It’s really a bad habit. But I will try to change that and see how it goes from there.
This was a great reminder.