We’ve discussed a lot of things over the past several weeks that can be implemented to help find that balance among all the responsibilities that we bear as women.  Today’s suggestion will be one that either already comes easily to you or one that you won’t want to hear….

Get out of bed

I am not, let me repeat NOT, a morning person.  My natural tendency is to stay up late and sleep late.  This worked well the first few years of motherhood.  But as we began to journey of home schooling I have learned that we really need to get an earlier start on our day to be truly productive.  Starting at 10 just wasn’t going to cut it over the long term.  I also learned that if I will, at a minimum, get up twenty or thirty minutes before I expect my children up I can read my Bible, have a cup of coffee, and begin to prepare my heart and mind for the little people that are very soon going to be bounding down the stairs.

Over the past twelve months, I have come to appreciate just how much I can accomplish if I get up early.  I have been able to fit my running in without cutting into school or family time later in the day.  On days I don’t run, I can do school prep and other computer work that must be done in the course of life but steals my attention away from my family and my home.  I can even get a couple of hours of ironing done and watch whatever I want on television in the process.  🙂

The trade off for getting up early is the need to also go to bed earlier.  I can’t stay up until 11 or 12 night after night and get up at 5 day after day and function well for more than about, oh, 24 hours.  Part of growing up for me has been learning to go to bed at a decent time.  Sometimes this means I am going to bed at the same time as the ten-year-old.  But it’s the only way I’ve found to make it all work.

A daily schedule is a highly personalized thing.  The key is figuring out what works best for you and and your family.  You may not need to get up at 5 to accomplish all of your tasks, but I will challenge you – if you feel like you’re having a hard time fitting everything in each day – to consider getting up earlier for one week and see what a difference it makes.  Yes, you will be tired.  Go to bed earlier as well.  Or have another cup of coffee.  But try it for one week and see if you don’t get more done in your day.  And if you do, I challenge you to stick with it.  It took almost a year of regularly getting up early to make it a natural habit for me.  Now I find it difficult to sleep past seven (which used to be considered early), even on Saturday’s.  I also find that consistently getting up early is easier than trying to get up early some days and sleeping in others.  Getting up at approximately the same time every day is easier on both mind and body.

Getting up isn’t about a particular time on the clock.  It’s about knowing what time you need to get up to start your day and then actually getting out of bed at that time.

I’d love to hear how this goes for you if you decide to give it a try!  Here’s to a productive week for us all!

~ Sara