How to Make Over Your Morning, Night Owl Style
As I mentioned before, I signed up for the Make Over Your Morning Course by Crystal Paine, of MoneySavingMom.com.
I can’t tell you how many of my friends have asked me how that’s going! And some of you mentioned the same misgivings that I felt:
“I saw the part about her waking up at 5:45am, and decided that is not for me.”
Boy, I love that I have friends that I can relate to.
I have friends that are morning people too, and I’m always trying to get into their heads and figure out HOW they do it!
The other day, I asked one of my high energy friends this question– How do you get up so early?
She said, “Oh, I just love getting up early in the morning.”
Oh….
I figured she must have a great deal of self-discipline to make herself go to bed early enough to be able to get up before 6 every morning, so I forged on with my cross-examination:
“But how early do you have to go to bed to be able to handle waking up that early?”
And that’s the part where she admitted that she goes to bed around midnight but just doesn’t need that much sleep.
Which confirms it. She (and many others of you) is not human at all, but instead she is a super-human and must be of an entirely different species.
And that’s okay!
My body works completely differently from hers, and you know what?
That’s okay too!
Why should I begrudge her the gift of needing little sleep? Why should I beat myself up over my need for at least 8 hours/night? I am finished feeling ashamed that at 7 am, I often look like this:
I get up between 7 and 7:15 these days, but that is not always the case. Right now, Alan is in graduate school, so he keeps later hours than our norm. I’m one of these people who has to stay awake until everyone goes to bed. I can’t help it. I do. Since Alan stays up later right now, I do too.
I’ve tried to build myself schedules that did not allow for my sleep needs. Last year, I thought that in order to be a successful home school mom and blogger, I needed to wake up every morning at 6 am.
And I turned into heavy-eyelids-unhappy-snappy Mommy. No, thank you. I couldn’t even finish my day. I’d spend from 2 to 4 every afternoon just sort of laying on my bed and staring into space the whole first nine weeks of last school year!
Gradually, I realized that if I want to be a good mom, I need to sleep until 7.
Now, I have good news about the Make Over Your Morning course.
One change that she does not say that you have to make, and believe me, I refuse to do it, is getting up earlier.
Some people may genuinely need to wake up earlier, so you may feel lead that way, but that’s not what the course is all about.
So far, I’m only on day 7. It’s been more about reminding you to prioritize your time in order to be more productive, setting ACHIEVABLE goals for yourself, and having good morning and evening routines.
I love the videos of the Make Over Your Morning the most. It’s like listening to a motivational speaker everyday. I particularly loved this You Tube video, which is also referenced in the course:
It’s called “Dispelling the myth that I do it all”. No one does ‘it all’!
Some of you have asked if I made any changes from the series.
Yes! It has been a great reminder about setting attainable goals and breaking those goals into small tasks, but those were things I already KNEW to do. I just wasn’t necessarily doing it.
Here are changes I am making:
1. Spending less time on Facebook. Most of you already know that I spend too much time on there. I was able to cut back by NOT putting the Facebook app or log in on my new phone. I only check Facebook when I’m on my computer now.
So don’t think that I don’t like what you’re posting! It’s just that I’m reading FB a lot less!
I used to enjoy FB, so I spent way too much time on there, but lately it’s been full of extreme political stuff. And all that Planned Parenthood mess? Oh my gosh. That makes me want to throw up. I know the public needs to know about it, but I just can’t read it. I’ve had too many babies to be able to think about it.
2. Setting home school prep goals. I’m knocking them out a little at a time.
3. Getting up earlier plays no part in that!
4. I set a hard “Nap time is blog time rule.” So, at this moment, it’s 1:20, and I haven’t even finished cleaning up lunch, but JD and Dan are asleep, so THIS is the ONLY good blog time.
Also, there are a few advantages to being a night owl that doesn’t wake up at 6!
It’s not unusual to find me at 9:30 pm, scrubbing carpet stains out and vacuuming, something a morning person probably couldn’t do. Have you ever cleaned carpet stains out while the kids are still awake? It’s impossible. They track dirt on top of the wet carpet, making it worse!
I have the energy to clean the kitchen up before going to bed. Many people can’t do that!
I can stay up late making lesson plans without falling asleep. I’m not sleepy, even at 10pm!
We all just have to work within the framework of who we are. No need to try to be somebody else, right?
I can’t wait to finish this series. If you’d like to join me, here’s the link to the Make Over Your Morning site. Just click on the picture below:
Be sure to follow my blog (gettingmyacttogether.com) below and we night owls can encourage each other!
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I get up early and do the heat-producing chores, often before dawn. I am a Texan, and the morning temperatures start at about 70 degrees. I have enough time before it gets hot to get some laundry done and do some housework. Then the less strenuous chores are saved for the heat of the afternoon. This may not work if you have children in the home, but it works for me.
Oh my gosh, I am right there with you. Not a morning person at all, and I really need a lot of sleep. I started this course, so thanks for the reminder that I need to finish it. It does have a lot of great stuff to think about. Since I’m not a morning person, I tend to waste a lot of time sitting around sipping my coffee waiting to wake up. It’s a lot of time wasted that could be put to better use! I wouldn’t even have to get up any earlier to add time to my day.
Oh, this is funny b/c even waking up at 7, I have to sit in my chair and sip coffee for 10 minutes before I do anything else. Kids come down, and I’m like, “Mommy’s having coffee time. Then we will eat.” They know. 🙂 But yes!! We can still put first things first.
I can barely wake up before 8! 8! I’m ridiculous. I’m someone who needs a lot of sleep for sure. And I stay up late.. doing nothing. Eating ice cream.
I wake up and everyone else is on full force GO and I’m like, “Umm. hi?” Cassidy is grumpy in the mornings but don’t tell him I told you that.
Oh well, truth be told I do a lot of that too. You remind me so much of myself, only less southern, ha! Oh and ANY time it is possible, I sleep until 9.
I was always a night owl. And then my husband went to work at a place he has to be a work really early. I like seeing him before he leaves me for 8 hours. So I had to train myself to get up between 5:30 & 6:00 every morning. But keeping me awake past 10 pm is Impossible. I Cannot do it. I do still sleep in on weekends, but even then I can’t stay up late. I trained it right out of me. 🙁 And it doesn’t mean I’m very productive in the mornings. At least not until I get jacked up on coffee.
Ha! Yes, coffee! What would we do without coffee?? Oh, if I get up at 5;30, I am straight up useless by 7. You are doing really well, and your hubby should thank you!
Hi there! I’m not a mom, but boy do I relate to this! As a freelance writer, fitness lover and health coach, I have a flexible, yet always busy schedule. I’m also a chronic night owl since birth. I’m bright eyed and bushy-tailed at midnight EVERY.SINGLE.NIGHT. with the best ideas racing through my head, which leaves me working until the mid-hours of the night. But I sleep in and you know what? It works. My work has actually improved and I’m much more passionate about what I do, but I have to have a routine when I first get up so I don’t get off track too.
I love Crystal and this course looks great, I’m going to check it out. PS- I’m the girl that’s cleaning and scrubbing at 9-10 p.m. too:)
Sounds like a plan! I’ll have to check out your fitness blog.
love this post! I’m happy to have found your blog: I’m a Christian, sahm, homeschool 3 boys 🙂 night owl myself.
Oooo, thanks! Sounds like we have a lot in common!
I’ve enjoyed reading your post and the comments. You are correct about each person finding the schedule that works for them. It often depends on what season you are in life. College, graduate school, pre children and young children stages found me definitely a night owl, often functioning quite well on two to four hours sleep! I couldn’t do that now if I tried! As the children grew and left home I have slowly shifted to being an early morning person who is in bed by 9:30pm, sometimes earlier, and up at 4am. My HH rises at five and I LOVE that hour by myself (with the LORD – and the dog)!
Thanks! You are so right about it depending on your season of life. Oh, wow, I can’t imagine 4 am!
I can totally relate! I have learned over the years that if I don’t get at least 7 hours of sleep at night, I am not a good wife or mom. I am usually up between 6 and 7 so I try to go to sleep no later than 11pm. Only checking Facebook while on the computer is a good idea! My daughter recently fell in love with the Gummy Bear song on YouTube, so I am getting a taste of only being able to check my email, Facebook, Twitter, etc on the computer because she always has that song playing on my phone!
Hello, Chanity! By the way, I like your new blog design! So funny about your daughter and the Gummy Bear song.
Oh my gosh, sweet relief. Finally someone who doesn’t wake up before 6 and conquer the world before 9 AM! I used to be a morning person, but in order to do that I had to go to bed really early. I too need lots of sleep. When I had no kids and was focused on my career that wasn’t a problem. But since I had babies and became a stay at home mom, I found that nighttime was the perfect time to actually get things done. I usually clean the kitchen and bathrooms and do laundry after my kids go to bed. Also, that’s my “me” time. I can read a book, watch something on TV, or paint my fingernails without interruption. So, gradually, I have become a night owl. So many self-help courses insist that you wake up early, and you know what? That doesn’t work for me. My youngest still wakes up in the night, too, since he’s just a baby, so popping up in the AM fresh as a daisy usually doesn’t happen. Thanks for this. It’s nice to see someone in a similar struggle. 🙂
Thanks, I agree! It so depends on the place you are in life. Finding some me time is so wonderful!
Thank you for posting this, I am also a night owl and I have read many post on going to bed at 9 pm and getting up at 4 am. There are a few reasons I could never do that. One is because my husband works until 9:30 each night, I also home school and in the morning and early afternoon while he is home I am busy teaching. I also live in a small house. I wish I could get up and go down to the basement I don’t have and workout for an hour each morning before everyone gets up. Even me going into the kitchen and unload the dishwasher in my small house will wake the kids and my husband up. Ok, now I am going to go to bed at 11:07 and my alarm is set for 7 am.
Thanks! I’m glad others can relate! We all just figure out what works for us!
Yes! to this. I CAN get up before the family & love the idea of quiet time in the morning, but I have a small house and a 4 y.o. with super-sonic hearing. The minute my feet hit the floor, he is up as well. Which wakes the other 6 kids and it’s all downhill from there. It’s just easier for me to sleep in with them and carve out my time somewhere else! Enjoyed finally reading a post that doesn’t push a 5 am agenda!
And you have 7 children, so that sleep is extra important for you! I’m glad you can relate! That’s so true about little ones getting up the minute that we do. Mine do that too. This morning my husband, who usually wakes at 6, wasn’t here, so instead of waking up at 6:30, as they usually do, they slept until 7:15, and it was so amazing. I actually had time to lay there and pray over my day.
Is your husband a night owl too? Mine isn’t… Its hard for him to embrace that that’s me… I’ve tried to get to bed early, and wake up early, but even if I get to bed early, if I see a 6 on the clock (sometimes even a 7) I cannot get up, ha! He just doesn’t understand it, wanting to get to bed by 9:30. So how do I stay content with the way I’m wired when I’m trying to also to balance his needs too? I have waited until he falls asleep and then go do housework, lol. ????
I love this comment b/c this is so us, NORMALLY, but grad school is different. Normally, Alan is up at 5, or even 4:30 am—Can you imagine??? And he’d pass out at 9:30 too. I would go to bed, as though I were really going to bed. Then I would blog late at night. I did not get back up and do housework then b/c I’m not that good. Ha! When we had no children, 9am was early, I thought. Oh, 4 kids later, and how the times have changed. With the 1st baby, I’d put him in bed with me when he woke up at 6, and then we’d sleep until 7. When there were two kids, I shamelessly got up with them, turned on the t.v. and slept another hour on the sofa–sounds horrible, I know, but my husband was overseas. When I had to get up with kids early to drop them at school—oh, that was the hardest, b/c I really did HAVE to get up.
Wow. I am so happy to meet someone who needs a decent amount of sleep. I need about 7.5-8 hrs to be at my best. I can do 7 hrs for a couple of days, but not too many in a row. I prefer going to bed earlier in order to wake earlier, but I find myself awake to enjoy quiet at night…
And as a mom of 4…you know…it isn’t always easy.
Thanks! Glad you can relate! And yes, oh my goodness, with 4 it is so not easy!
This sounds like a great course! I am a morning person, but turn into a pumpkin well before midnight. I need some sleep. I know my strengths and have to place limits on my time and distractions. Finding the right balance is always challenging.
Me too, with the sleep. I need so much. But yes, placing limits is the thing. I’m having to do more and more of that. It seems like every time I kick one bad habit, I pick up another. Excited to see what you’re cooking with peaches!