Hands down one of the stupidest things I've ever done:


Publicly declare that I would change my sleep habits in 20 days and start being on time in the mornings.


Ummm... Not so much. Apparently it takes more than a blog challenge to cure chronic lateness.

Though yesterday I was already awake when my alarm went off. But only because I was having trouble sleeping. Again.

Won't we all be glad when this ridiculous experiment is over?

That is all.

It's evident that I'm failing my little self-imposed get-up-earlier challenge. To be quite honest, I'm actually only getting worse at it as I near the end. When these 20 days are over, let's never speak of my laziness, constant whining and excuse making again. Deal? Deal.

Yesterday, I was 12 minutes late in getting up. However, in all fairness, I only got about three total hours of sleep. I was wide awake and out of bed from 2:24 until about 4:45. (I thought that maybe if I got up and did something, I'd get sleepy again. I didn't.) I wasn't back in bed for 30 minutes before KT's alarm started going off. And it went off every nine minutes until mine did at 6:15... Fun times!

This morning was not much different: ridiculously early wakeup (3:30), followed by inability to fall back asleep, and topped off by the hubby's unanswered alarm. 6:25 is just when I thought I was getting up. Do you see that snooze button there? I pushed it. Twice. It was 6:43 when I finally got out of bed. 




I suck at this.

At what point do I have to stop using the time change as an excuse?

The good news: I'm up on time.

The bad news: It's because I struggled with insomnia ALL night long. Seriously, watching the minutes tick by for hours in a row is the pits.

Maybe I'm just lazy but getting up earlier than usual is really hard for me. Especially when something throws off my schedule. You know, like daylight saving time...

Last night, I had a Home Tour meeting that lasted until midnight so I was up a little later than usual. Couple that with the time change and I may have accidentally turned off my alarm instead of pushing snooze.

Yup. That's right. I got up 47 minutes late today. But, I still got to work (almost) on time.

Also, I'm not sure how I managed to get up 20 minutes early but still get to work ten minutes late. The math just doesn't add up there. Apparently I'm quite easily distracted when I think I have extra time in the morning.

This 20 for 20 challenge just might be more difficult than I initially thought.

Each weekday, my alarm starts going off at 6:15 but, in all honestly, I'm not typically up and functioning until between 6:45 and 6:50. My goal this morning was to be up by 6:25 but the snooze went off at 6:24, giving me an extra minute to lie there (which turned into six extra minutes to lie there...).  Oops.

As I’ve mentioned before, I am always running a few minutes late. Especially in the mornings. Which is a bit of a problem for many reasons but, most importantly, because mornings are a huge source of frustration for the hubby and me. You see, the two of us work for the same company. And the hubby does not like to be late. At all. Ever.

My continual tardiness can be attributed to a multitude of things:

• I’ve never been the best at judging how long it will take me to get from one place to another and am notorious for underestimating travel time
• I’m always trying to fit in “one more thing” before I leave the house
• I absolutely despise getting out of my warm bed – though, once up, I’m surprisingly chipper

(Quick aside: In high school, though I was a straight-A making, super-involved student, I once got in-school suspension for having too many tardies. True story.)

It’s been said that getting up just 20 minutes earlier can relieve much of the stress and rushing around associated with trying to get out the door on time. So I figured that I’d give it a try.

Inspired by challenges such as Kendi’s 30 for 30 and Rosi + Tart’s 10 with 5 (which are both ultimately about keeping things simple), I decided to institute my own personal challenge: Project 20 for 20.

Here’s how it works:

Starting tomorrow – and for the next 20 work days – I commit to getting up and out of bed 20 minutes earlier than usual. I’ll keep myself honest by posting a screen shot of my cell phone/alarm clock daily and promise to let you know whether or not my getting up earlier has any positive affect on our morning routine.