"There's no time like the present."
"Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today."
"There is no past, no future. There is only Now."
I am a firm believer in the truth and wisdom of these sayings. That being said, procrastinating - which is exactly the opposite of living in the present - is one of my most deep-seated habits. If I were to speculate, I would probably suggest that the tendency took place in high school. I still had the structure of a ready-made schedule, for the most part, but was introduced to long-term projects with a far-off due date and lots of flexibility in which to accomplish said project. Patience is not my strongest suit - I deal much better with the here and now (ironic, I know). And, as it happens, I perform very well under pressure. In fact, some of my best work I do under pressure. So when it comes crunch time, I'm happy to rise to the challenge. None of these things is very conducive to a steady, responsible, low-pressure method of accomplishing tasks in a timely manner. If it can be done later and there's something else to do now, why not put it off? Just one of the MANY bad habits I learned in school.
Fast forward to adulthood with even more flexibility and even less accountability, and here we are. I will procrastinate on literally everything possible if left to my own devices - beginning with the very first thing, getting out of bed in the morning! And it's all downhill from there. You get out of bed late. You're rushed to get ready. You don't have time to look overly presentable because, sleep. You don't take the time to make breakfast, so you grab something on the go, or swing by a drive-thru. You probably eat in the car. You may or may not spill food/drink on your clothes. You arrive at work, probably late, because you barely had enough time to get ready and probably left the house late, and then encountered traffic, etc. etc., so your start to the day is half a step behind, and the rest of your busy day is spent catching up. By the time you get home, you're tired from rushing all day, and you probably don't feel like cooking or cleaning or doing the chores that you didn't make time for in the morning, and none of it was made easier for you by planning and prepping ahead of time, because procrastinators don't plan and prep. You probably eat some leftovers, or whip up something quick and easy, or just say screw it and go buy something to eat. Something cheap, most likely, because although you're destined to be a millionaire, you're not made of money yet. And then you watch some Netflix because after such a long day, you deserve to relax and not think about anything. You go to bed late, because you're so good at procrastinating you even put off sleep. And you know it will just make the next step - getting up in the morning - that much harder, just like every other but of procrastinating that you do, but you do it anyway. And then the cycle begins again.
You've just read the Reader's Digest version of A Day In the Life of a Hot Mess. And that could be a blog in and of itself! But I don't want to be a Hot Mess anymore. I want to Get My Shit Together. And that is why June's habit it getting up early and getting my day going. Here's the plan:
5:45 - Alarm goes off. Get out of bed WITHOUT HITTING SNOOZE (This is a tough one. Don't judge me.)
Drink a glass of water. Swish coconut oil while washing face, spit and brush teeth.
6:00 - Morning yoga, 15-20 minutes.
6:20 - Morning run. This will start as a walk, and progress into a run. The goal is to run 5 miles Mon-Thurs, and hill sprints on Friday. I'm starting at 2 miles. After this month I won't have to get up early on Sat-Sun, but for the purpose of habit building I will get up EVERY day, but it will be a walk instead of a run on weekends.
7:00 - Feed and water the animal, clean her litter box.
7:05 - Get cleaned up, do hair and makeup, get dressed for the day
7:30 - Make breakfast. This will require planning ahead to be able to make breakfast in just 15 minutes.
7:45 - Sit down and eat breakfast. On the patio if it's nice out, at the table if it isn't. Enjoy the first meal of the day :)
8:00 - Leave the house.
It's June 4, and I've already been slacking 3 out of 4 days, so it's time to buckle down. If I can choose juice over solid food for 21 days, I can choose to start my day over snoozing in bed. I can do it. Here we go!
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