While I’ve never been one to ‘Lie In’, I’ve also never particularly been an Early Riser either. I would say around 7am feels ‘natural’ to me.

However, I’ve never moaned at having to get up earlier than that (sometimes, much earlier…) with cats, dogs, children as their body clocks can be a little different to ours. And I’ve just learnt to cope with it and adapt to the different situations as they occur…

Lockdown and Little Ones

My little girl was an Early Riser from the very start. Some mornings I’d be up with her from 4am, Doing All The Things and feel like it was midafternoon by 9am. 🤦‍♀️

By the time she’d decided that 6.30/7.00am was a better time to Start the Day, we were then into Lockdown and luckily/unluckily (whichever way you choose to view it…) my body clock was still in Early Rising Mode.

So, all the way through Lockdown, I would get up at 5am to get a clear two hours of work done before everyone else woke up and I needed to Mother/Home School/ Entertain… I could get Immense Amounts done before breakfast.

What it did mean though, was I didn’t have an evening. I would be falling asleep either with my daughter or Be Ratty at her bedtime as I was worn out myself. Time to myself was not even A Thing.

Back to ‘Normality’

Getting up at that time was completely working against my natural energy and so, when ‘normality’ returned, I was pleased to get into a routine with stress-free and quite pleasant school runs. I also gained some evening family time where I didn’t feel like I was keeping my eyes open with matchsticks. In other words, we were all running with our Natural Energy and it didn’t feel Forced or Unnatural.

More Time for You

Whilst I still occasionally wake early and get up and do stuff, I don’t force it, and I would never suggest to any of my clients that they make themselves get up earlier either.

Getting up earlier often means sacrificing something else: making our day LONGER isn’t always the answer.

So, what IS the answer if we can’t fit everything in and we find ourselves needing ‘more time’?

✅ Work out what is distracting you during your ‘working hours‘ and eradicate those distractions.

✅ Find pockets of time to work in (see last week’s blog).

✅ Sort out your systems! What are your repetitive tasks and how can they be recorded or automated so that they ‘flow’ more easily?

✅ Start automating some of your tasks – what systems are you using and how can they ‘talk’ to each other?

✅ Are you forever looking for things? Sort out your files, images etc so they are sensibly named and easier to locate.

✅ What can be outsourced? This doesn’t need to necessarily be administrative tasks – it might be cleaning – or asking another family member to do the shopping.

✅ Sort your emails out! Ensure you are aren’t jumping every time they ping – meaning you are living your day according to other people’s agendas rather than your own.

If you’d love a tailored plan about how you can Be More Productive WITHOUT getting up at 5am, book in with me for a 90 minute session.