Getting Up Early

I'm not one who puts much time or effort into New Year's resolutions. I always found them to be unattainable and unsustainable when I attempted to implement them into my life. With that being said, my wife and I decided to make a bold change in our lives at the beginning of this year that I have been able sustain for over a month now. We decided to no longer be night owls and have instead turned into morning people. No longer would we be sitting in front of the TV until midnight, tinkering around on the internet and being less than productive.

When did I realize we could do it?
During the week of January 9th, someone retweeted a post by Peter Shankman about why you need to get up early and how to do it. That same week, Business Insider had a story about 23 successful people who wake up really early. It was just the motivation I needed to make a serious change in my life. After talking it over with my wife, we decided this would be a good change and so far, I've been really happy that we've started this new routine.

We started on Monday, January 16th, and haven't looked back. There have been some mornings when I was sick that I slept in for an extra hour, but for the most part, we've been getting to bed around 10AM each night and then getting up between 5AM and 5:30AM each day of the work week.

What are some of the positives that come out of getting up early?
Here's a list of some of the things that are going well.

1. The first 2 hours of my day are much more productive than the last 2 hours of my day. By the end of the day, I'm done. I'm mentally tired, I'm physically drained, and all I want to do is veg. I don't feel like blogging or reading emails or engaging on social networks. My nights were full of TV and mindless internet surfing. My mornings are now full of answered emails and thoughtful internet engagement.
2. I'm on time to work. I'm no longer rushed to get out of bed, take a quick shower and. I now have time to collect myself and get the brain and body moving. I'm out the door with enough buffer time in case
3. I get a good breakfast or at least some time to digest my breakfast. I'm usually eating a bowl of cereal or getting some oatmeal instead of eating a granola bar on the run (that is, if I even remembered it).
4. I get to spend some time with my wife and talk about things while were actually awake. Many times, we're both just too tired to deal with anything at night. The morning gives us time to reflect properly on the day before and to talk about the things that are coming up.
5. I take shorter showers. It's a time saver for sure. I'm finding that I don't need the shower to wake me up any more. I'm already awake, which leads to a quicker shower.
6. My blog is getting updated. It's nothing spectacular, but I find that I have more motivation to update during the morning time.
7. I'm ready to go at work. Getting some 'Me' time in at the beginning of the day helps my mind start moving and I've been up and at it for 3 hours before that time.
8. I have time to read. I haven't been reading anything hard copy, but I do have time to catch up on my favorite news and blog sites.

All this to say, that being a morning person has totally changed the way I operate. My days are much different and I really want to get up each morning to have that time. I never thought in a million years that I could do this. I have always hated mornings ever since high school and have never had any motivation to get up in the mornings. I would've snoozed all morning if I could have.

Hopefully this is motivation for you if you're thinking about trying it yourself. I'd love to hear if any of you have made this kind of change in your life. How did it go? Are you still doing it? Why did you change? Any positives (or negatives) you'd like to share?

Cropper Makes My Life Easier

Cropper? What can Cropper do for me? Well, I don't know exactly what it can do for you, but I know what it has done for me. This easy to use tool allows you to take a snapshot of anything on your screen in any size by simply double-clicking. It's great for blogging, documentation, and technical support. A co-worker introduced it to me at work and I use it everyday. I can size the snapshot, then double-click and paste to an email or Word or PowerPoint. Such a great tool.

I just used it for the first time at home in my last blog post and I thought I would share it with you.

Cropper was created by Brian Scott. You can read his blog post about Cropper, including all features and fixes. You can download Cropper here. Enjoy!