Polly wanna routine! Cracker too pls, k thx.

[flexagon]

I really want to settle into my life again, and that means figuring out what "normal" means now. What is a normal week? What is a normal morning? (Believe it or not, I've been fantasizing lately about having a really stable morning schedule).

I was all proud of myself this last weekend for not oversleeping like crazy, but then I was struck down by the plague and essentially slept away 1.5 days. Pride goeth before a cold. Now, I'm taking a vacation day to work on a take-home algorithm exam. It's kind of cool -- it's not every day I get to stay home and do brainteasers all day -- but only kind of, because it's stressful (my solutions probably aren't optimal), and I feel guilty for missing so much work this week, between the algorithms and the plague. Not to mention, this is really not the normal week I've been looking for.

Help make my daydreams a reality... what works for you in terms of having a morning schedule? Do you feel you have this down, or are your mornings a bit random, characterized perhaps by disappearing globs of time that can't be accounted for? Do you move at your normal speed, or do you have to account for a "not awake yet" pace of doing things? Do you have it down to a routine, or are some mornings totally different from others because you have stuff to do?

I hate to admit it, but I think I took a turn in the wrong direction about 3 years ago when I started using my computer for a quick email/LJ/weather check in the mornings. It's not necessarily the most time-consuming part of my routine, but now that I have a clock in the shower it's the only place time can unexpectedly disappear.

Comments

[dr-alycat.livejournal.com]

Ah, morning schedules. Unfortunately, I have a schedule but it seems to always involve being 7 minutes late to work :)

Actually looking at the clock is a good start. So is setting your alarm ten minutes earlier than you think you need. But crucially, don't make my mistake of getting up early and then being like, "wow, look at all the time I have! I shall wash dishes/feed snacks to the squishies/write a post/stare at the fish tank for a while!"

I also try to limit my pre-work computer time to weather and headlines only.

[flexagon]

Oh, good advice. Yes, I may have to limit my "look at all the time I have" time to AFTER I'm totally ready to walk out the door. Of course, I used to do that and it would make me 10 mins late because it took me 10 minutes to get out the door (find shoes, find keys, am I wearing earrings?). But now I keep my keys on a hook by the door, so maybe that'll be all right now. :P

[motyl.livejournal.com]

I like schedules. So I get up, grab my cereal and eat while reading email/news/comics. Then 30 minutes of [something] (laundry, rosetta stone, work email) until darnok finishes running which is followed by shower, 10 minutes of [something short] with a hat on in the hopes my hair will stay down (ha!) and we head out an hour and a half after we got up.

Normally I'm a big fan of sleeping in as late as possible and squishing wake/eat/shower/bike into ~45 minutes but I'm encouraging darnok to run in the morning and it is impossible for him to sneak out of the room without waking me up. hmph.

[flexagon]

squishing wake/eat/shower/bike into ~45 minutes

Haha, I like schedules too -- but you just outed yourself as being one of those people who actually wakes up when they wake up. Thus, I can be interested in your schedule only in a xenobiology sort of way: ooh, see how they do it on that planet.

(I'm really slow and stupid in the mornings.)

[a-kosmos.livejournal.com]

I have designed my mornings so that I can get the maximum amount of sleep. I shower the night before, I usually pick out my clothes the night before, I check the weather before I go to bed, and we live 10 minutes from the university.

[flexagon]

I figured I'd know at least one "shower the night before" person. Picking out clothes and checking weather may be part of my optimal solution too, but honestly, I often have more trouble getting to bed on time than I do waking up on time, so I'm not sure moving too much to my going-to-bed schedule is going to help my life that much.

[a-kosmos.livejournal.com]

Part of the reason I shower the night before is that I hate,hate,hate blow-drying my hair. Hate. I have vehemently straight hair so sleeping with wet hair isn't a big deal.

[flexagon]

Oh, yeah, me too; I just go to work with wet hair. I've done that my whole career. It's never bothered anyone, that I know of... it's 2/3 dry anyway by the time I get to work, and I brush it sometime later when it's 100% dry.

[miyyu.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. My workday can (and does) vary a lot, especially in my field, but I need my morning routine in order to feel, well, normal. I've alterred mine for this job and I don't like the change, though I'm getting used to it. The hardest part is my commute got a LOT longer, so even though I'm getting up at the same time, I have less time to get ready. I do things in a certain order but I like not having to rush in the morning and still know I can get out on time, and it isn't really possible now not to rush, unless I get up earlier. And 5:30 is really my limit at this point.

[taegubcrusade.livejournal.com]

Wow, look at all these people with schedules! I can only run a morning schedule for a week or so before the whole thing falls apart. I blame it on other people—mainly the spouse and children—but I wasn't all that great at morning before they were around.

At this point I do have something of a routine. I get up, { lie in bed | joke around with the kids | start a load of laundry | etc } for 10–20 minutes, shower and dress while the rest of the family eats a sugar- and carb-heavy breakfast (usually oatmeal or cold cereal), grab something quick to eat, collect hugs and kisses, then leave for work. This takes around 90 minutes. And invariably it only happens 2 or 3 days each week. I'd prefer to have a more stable routine, but I've learned to live with it, I guess.

[hiddenbear.livejournal.com]

Six days a week I have no routine at all, which is how I like it. The seventh day (Wed), I have a 9am meeting which forces me to have a routine.

On Wednesdays, I:
1- Limit myself to one snooze only.
2- Shave face and head while G is still asleep.
3- Claim 1st shower, even if G is now rolling out of bed, but I limit it to 10 minutes if she is up.
4- Get dressed and fully ready
5- Usually, I am about 10-15 minutes ahead of schedule at this point, so I allow myself TV and an email check until it is time to walk out the door.

[silentq.livejournal.com]

My weekday morning routine: wake up with the alarm, one snooze button hit allowed. Put on biking clothes. Refill water glass, put vitamins in a small saucer, pour small glass of juice, put all three on dining table. [Make tea.] Pack clothes for work. Make up a bowl of [fruit,] granola, yoghurt. Pack a lunch. Eat at table while reading. Wash dishes, brush teeth, pack up bike, and out the door.
I budget an hour, as I don't like rushing eating. I can get it down to half an hour if I prepack the night before and don't read. :) On weekends I'll occasionally make a more involved breakfast, but I've always defaulted to cereal or granola first thing. If I need to check "just one thing" on the computer, add 15-20mins. :)
I don't like to talk in the morning (I can produce only grunts for the first five minutes or so), and I'm lucky that my partner also likes to read at the breakfast table. :)

[flexagon]

Thanks, I really like how detailed yours is. I need mine to be like this too. Too often I'm like "oh, there's food in the house, so maybe I'll eat before I shower since that wakes me up. But I need clean hands for eating, so while I'm washing my hands I may as well put in my contacts and that means... uh, what? food, shower, eating, hands, contacts, right, I should walk this direction."

I'm slow and kind of dumb in the morning. If I'm eating, I can't get it to less than an hour and a half.