New years resolutions vol. 2

Which brings me to the morning, where i also have issues. Mainly these revolve around my tendency to sleep in, which i suppose is really not a tendency, but what I do all the time regardless. Well basically I tried a number of strategies to deal with this, mainly "factoring in" my sleeping in time to my morning schedule and setting my alarm ridiculously early. This doesn' t really work because I still know that i have time to sleep and if i just hit the snooze, its so easy. I'm not sure the the snooze is patently counter-productive, but I think at least until i can get in the habit of NOT using it, then I can possibly, eventually, use it, carefully.

Anyway, in the mean time, the first step is getting up when the alarm goes off. Yeah, I'm tired, but look, I'll still be tired and want to get out of bed even less in 20 minutes (even though it seems like I would feel more rested and ready to get out of bed if I slept in). So that's the basic thing for mornings: get out of bed as soon as the first alarm goes off. just do it. just throw the covers off and stand up. Yes it sucks, but it will soon stop sucking and become habit, just like swimming did, just like listening to japanese did, just like signing up for bento in the morning. Developing good habits, and getting rid of old, unproductive ones. That's the main thing.

I'm hoping that eventually I'll be able to move my going to bed and waking up times even earlier, because I think it would be good to be able to get some work done in the morning before school. Namely, meditating and doing flashcards. I'd like to have that up and running by april or may.

Which reminds me to mention that all the goals I'm taking one at a time; rather than stacking them all on top of each other. Its tempting to try to achieve everything in one fell swoop, especially with the burst of motivation and confidence that comes with the new years, but it's better, i think to get good at one thing, make it a habit, and move on to the next step. Better to do one thing well then try to do a whole bunch of things and do them all part way. Single tasking over multi tasking. The temptation is there when the motivation is high, but motivation is not the only thing. Motivation over time is what you have to maintain and that's best achieve by meeting small goals on a regular basis rather than big goals on a long-term basis. Which, of course is pretty much contrary to the way everything worked in life before "the real world" hit.

Anyway, after conquering the actuall getting out of bed problem, Ima work on the getting from the bed to out the door problem. Actually, I've been working on this a couple of months already, but there's still a few bugs to be worked out. Mostly its a matter of order of operations. A lot of shit has to get done in the morning, but for the most part it doesn't change from one day to the next. Keeping the routine steady and standard: repitition, is the best way to deal with things you have to do on a daily basis. So here's the routine:
1. Out of bed (put on slippers/sweater)
2. turn on news (ajatt stuff), heater in living room, heater in bathroom
3. make breakfast (i almost always eat the same thing these days: yogurt with jam and cereal. Milk coffee. Sometimes fruit. In theory, I'd like to make something like eggs, or toast, but they take a lot more time. I might implement this when I start waking up earlier)
4. Eat breakfast (timebox?)
5. Put away breakfast dishes and stuff
6. Take of PJs
7. Turn on shower
8. Take shower (Ok, i know how ridiculous and anal this all seems, but whatever this is how i operate. less thinking=more better)(anyway, with showers, I have the problem of taking too much time. Originally i tried timeboxing, but regardless I would always run into the alarm without having finished actually washing myself. Basically, I have the habit of going in the shower and then spending a long time just standing there, getting wet and enjoying the heat. Kind of thinking time (singing in the shower time i suppose). But that just kind of kept taking longer without ever actually, um, showering. Anyway, to fix this, I realized i could timebox the "getting wet" part of the shower (with the alarm i have there), so the alarm reminds me to stop getting wet and like... put soap on myself. that pretty much takes the same amount of time. the only other thing i have to worry about is the "getting the soap off" part which can easily turn into more "just standing in the shower enjoying the heat." So pretty much just gotta finish by the time that second alarm goes off, which is not too hard and then be sure to just turn off the shower and get out at that point. The final bit is the actual drying off, which can take an inordinate amout of time, too if I'm not careful, but generally is not that big a problem.

man i can't believe im writing about my showering habits.
my god am i weird or what?

9. Shave (if necessary)
10. Brush teeth/ put on deoderant and whatever.
11. Back to the living room to change.
12. Put clothes on (these should have been laid out the night before)
13. Put pocket crap in pockets
13. Put jacket on and gather computer, bag, (made ready the night before) keys, (garbage if necessary)
14. Roll out (Ideally, this would be about 7:35, giving me about 15 minutes before work officially starts to get work done. This time was originally set to compensate for waking up late, and just like with waking up, i tended to push this one back as late as possible and leave so I arrived just in time-and not infrequently-late. This time pretty much corresponds with what time I wake up, so waking up on time should lead to leaving on time naturally. However, that doesn't mean that If i wake up, I can dawdle around in the morning either. Hopefully mornings won't generally feel rushed, but that kind of nice feeling when you're getting what needs to get done done consistiently and at a good pace. Anyway, that's it. this post took about twice as long to write as I had planned (more on that problem later)...