Confession: I’m slacking 100% on one of my new year’s resolutions.

I told myself in December that I was going to go to bed earlier, get up earlier and get to work earlier, so I could leave work at a normal time. My office hours are really flexible, so no one is keeping tabs on when I actually show up. If I put in a solid 8 hrs a day, everyone’s cool. It’s great to have this flexibility, but it’s lead me to fall into a pattern that’s eating up my evenings, causing me to stay up way past a normal bedtime, sleep in too late…it’s a vicious cycle.

I’ve seen people on the street heading to work at 7am (this is usually because I have a meeting and have set 12 alarms), looking fresh and showered with ironed clothing and travel mugs. How the hell do they do it every day? Are some people just naturally more efficient in the morning? Maybe I could trim down my morning routine which goes something like this:

-hit the snooze at least 7 times

-shuffle into the kitchen

-smell the lavender plant, which I keep on the windowsill. Gaze out the window for 3 minutes.

-shuffle in the bathroom to pee

-smell the plant again (seriously, you should get a lavender plant.)

-sit on the couch with a cup of coffee

-check my email, facebook and some of the blogs I regularly read

-make my lunch for the day

-have breakfast – this may or may not include making fresh carrot/apple juice in my juicer. If it does, I also have to clean out the juicer

-look at the clock and realize I have 15 minutes to do what I really should have been doing all along

-spastically try to shower, dry off, thrown on clothes and dash out the door in 15 minutes

-leave the apartment approximately 1 hr later

-go back to make sure the stove is off (sometimes twice)

-walk briskly to the train…stopping for coffee on the way

I’m just a natural dilly-dallier. I love dwaddling, until I realize I’m doing it when I shouldn’t, and then that stresses me out. Maybe I should smell the lavender fewer times, or not spend as much time checking email.

Ok, tomorrow’s the day! I will get up at a reasonable hour, reduce my pokiness by at least 50% and join the normal people rush hour. At least the “running late” normal people.

Filed under: bagged lunches, stress