See you in the morning

Let’s get it out there right away – I am not a morning person. I don’t understand the need to jump out of bed and into a flurry of activities to start the day (making the bed, setting out the breakfast dishes and starting the coffee maker.) Now that doesn’t mean that I don’t get up early every morning to work out, it just means that you don’t want to have a conversation with me as I pull on my sweats and sneakers. I prefer the quiet of a day not yet started.

My trainer gets it – he checks to see if my knees (or anything else) are hurting before we begin, but he knows that I will focus on the task at hand and I don’t need any chit-chat. (I have to remember to breathe!) Same goes for the days when we head to Planet Fitness. Everyone else will be ear-budded into their favorite news station or ESPN on the overhead TV’s. Me? I plug in to HGTV – mindless (although I do admit to glancing at the forecast on the TV next the one I’m watching.) I carry my phone with me for emergencies but growl when I hear pings and dings for messages or texts. Shhhhhh! Let me be.

It’s not until I make coffee, have a cup (or 2) and complete the New York Times crossword puzzle that I am really ready to face the day. Early in the week, when the puzzles are easier, it’s a shorter period of adjustment time before I head to the loft/office, cup in hand, sort through the to-do lists on my desk, and answer emails. Then I’m set. Only then will I turn on music (deciding if it’s going to be a Jimmy Buffet or a Bruno Mars type of morning.)

This is when I am most productive. Checking items off the list, responding to messages, planning, scheduling. Before I know it, the morning is gone and sometimes part of the early afternoon. If I have meetings, I try to get them on the morning calendar while my neurons are firing and I might actually be able to contribute a cogent thought. This is also the time I write.

If it’s copy for a client’s webpage – I do it in the morning. If it’s a review of meeting notes with accompanying suggestions for next steps – I do it in the morning. Talking points for the afternoon class I teach – in the morning. This essay – it’s 10:30 a.m. I try to stay off the phone, away from social media. Unfortunately, my kids also know my schedule and they will text with questions or requests. Which is pretty funny actually – as I’m likely to acquiesce to their queries without thinking. “Hey Mom, can you keep the dog overnight tonight?” “Sure.” (Wait, what?) All I want to do is keep the thoughts coming and the creative juices flowing and not get sidetracked by a long discussion about mundane details. It’s a race against time as I know that by 2 p.m. I’m toast.

So perhaps I am a morning person.

There is something to be said for the first peaks of light coming through the big loft windows. Or even the rain’s soft noise. Morning darkness, which we’ll see now until March, does provide a bit of a cocoon – keeping the demands of the day at bay. And I guess that’s all I really ask. Let me ease into the day, keep my mind uncluttered from the world for a while.