getting up early Archives - Corporette.com

08/10/2015 by Kat

After Work Routines Here’s a fun topic: what is your after-work routine? Do you have one that’s necessitated by outside factors (must walk dog, pick up kids, etc) or internal factors (must put on gym clothes and go to gym immediately)? Do you find that it helps you transition your mindset to a more relaxing one? What do you do at the beginning of the day (prepare food, lay out clothes, etc) to help your after-work routine along?

As I’ve mentioned before, I do think an after-work routine can be a powerful way to segue from workmode to me-mode. My own after-work routine always involved changing into jeans when I got home from the office — it helped me feel like I could “be myself” and relax without putting pajamas on; I also found that I was more capable of hanging up dry-clean only work clothes neatly if I did it before total exhaustion set in. (I usually had already eaten dinner at the office or out and about with a friend.) I’ve never been great about being productive in the evenings (unless you count socializing), and personally workouts only happen if I exercise in the morning (sigh). These days, with small kids, my after-work routine is mostly driven by outside factors — reconnect with kids, make/buy/eat dinner, bathtime/bedtime GOGOGO. By the time the kids are asleep I usually space out for a while, watching TV and fussing with my iPad. I’ve discovered that I get a second wind around 10 PM, when I’ll sometimes work on personal projects (family albums, family research and planning, etc) or try to shop for future TPS/coffee break posts — but I’m starting to realize the better move is to go to bed before I get that second wind, hopefully so I can get up early to get focus work done, like writing (or, hey, working out) before the kids get up around 6:30 am.

How about you, ladies — what is your after-work routine? Do you have a schedule of after-work activities (gym class, book club, etc)? Given your druthers would you prefer relaxing time or productive time — and at night, or in the morning?

Pictured: Atlanta,Georgia,downtown skyline, dusk, originally uploaded to Flickr by apple.white2010.

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How to Get Up REALLY Early for Me Time

12/12/2011 by Kat

2017 Update: We still stand by this advice on how to get up REALLY early — but you may also want to check out our most recent discussion on whether readers take time for themselves in the morning — or if they just get up and go to work.

There was an interesting article in Forbes the other week about how power women wake up early, and commenters seemed interested in talking about it more, so I thought we should explore in an open thread. How early do you get up? What do you do with the time? Any tips that make it easier to get up then? For those of you who don’t rise that early, do you have another special time of the day?

For my $.02: I was always a night owl when I was younger. Term papers and graduation speeches alike got written in the hours between 12 and 3. I realized this was a problem sometime around high school when, reading a college admissions essay I had thought brilliant the night before, I realized a good two sentences were devoted to “finding a piece of licorice on the floor.” And not even in a metaphor way, just a “Kat had a dream while typing” way. Still, the habit perpetuated until after law school, I think. By then — working crazy long hours — I realized that my best time truly was first thing upon waking. So I started getting up earlier. [Read more…]