Yesterday I talked about how it is important to recognize your strengths and weaknesses. I am currently listening to a book (The Power of When by Michael Breus, PhD) that is all about finding the best time to do things based on your body’s internal clock–and the author argues that there are four different types of bio-times that a body operates by. He has spent his career studying this and feels notes that many people fight against their natural body rhythm.
As I mentioned, I am a slow mover. I am a deep thinker. I am cautious. I won’t lie and say this doesn’t disappoint me a little to admit, but it is true and I must embrace it rather than pretend it isn’t so.
My main goal now is to understand how create and implement the best system for time management that I can. I am not a high-energy person and I am not able to get five things done before the sun comes up. Naturally, that is. I still believe there is great room for growth, but I also feel that at this point in my life, it is detrimental to put myself down for not being a certain way. Rather, I want to meet myself where I am and work on growing from here.
One system I have started to implement recently is to get up by 6am and write my blog in the morning. If I get up earlier, that is a plus because I have more time, but when I am up by 6am, it gives me enough time to brush my teeth, make my decaf coffee, grab a snack, and then open my computer to start writing. Since I am slow moving and I value a morning routine that isn’t rushed, I find that this gives me just enough time to do those things and finish my blog post around 7am, which is when I go upstairs and shower. Since my daughter is often up around 7:30, this has proven to be a nice routine for me lately, and it helps me feel accomplished because I complete one of my top priorities–writing a blog post–before my kids are even up.
This is a start, but once my daughter starts sleeping through the night, I intend to move my wake time even earlier. For now though, I value my sleep over getting up super early. I have to resist the urge to classify this as a failure because shouldn’t productive people be getting up at 5am (or earlier)?
It isn’t helpful for me to fall into this trap of comparison and negative self-talk. As I struggle to figure out how time management will look in my life, I think it is important to strive for growth while also giving myself grace to move into new levels of improvement.
