If you would have asked me twenty years ago, I would have told you that I definitely was NOT a morning person. Like the typical young adult, I resented having to get up too early and starting work at 9:00 am seemed perfectly civilized to me. Weekends were for sleeping in and having the late breakfast out on the town. Well, fast forward twenty years, three kids, and building a life as single mom, and I’ve found that I really love the wee, dark, early morning hours after all.
Like most families with older kids, my house is incredibly quiet in the morning. I don’t have to compete for a computer, the kitchen, or the bathroom and while my kids slumber away, I can get up and get a good 2-3 hours of solid, uninterrupted work in before I even hear another voice. On days when I also have to be out doing work outside the home, getting a few early morning hours in first makes me feel like I really have a handle on things. I used to think that I could do evening work (and I actually could when my kids were much younger) but have found that my house is so bustling and busy in the afternoons and evenings that I have to wear my mom hat then and can’t get any work done with my home business–the evenings are for making supper, keeping track of teenagers, and taking advantage of the time to catch up when kids actually feel like talking to me.
I’ve also found that it is really hard for me to put in a full 8-9 hours of straight work in my home-based business. First, staying “on” and creative for that long is really tough, but it is also hard to carve out that much uninterrupted time when one works from home. So, if I get a jump start on the day’s work with some early-morning effort, then the interruptions don’t seem nearly so stressful.
Also: If It Wasn’t for Coffee
Finding Time for Time for Personal Projects and a Business