The June challenge was almost over, with the majority of votes going to “Keep fresh flowers in the house.” I was excited, Kathryn was excited, and I was already looking up the public hours for the flower market when suddenly Josh came in and ruined the whole thing.
He tipped the vote to “Wake up at 5am” at 50% approval and that was it… my June was ruined.
I didn’t realize it at first. The first few days were hard, but a lot of people wake up at 5am, and I am a morning person, so once I got my first cup of coffee it was nice to have so much time alone in the morning to work on the computer, to read, to write in my notebook. I’d take the dog for a walk, go to the gym, and basically have an entire half day to myself!
Back in March the monthly challenge was to sleep eight hours a night. It was amazing and changed my life. If you haven’t read Why We Sleep I highly recommend it. Sleep is everything. So to get eight of hours of sleep while waking up at 5am meant I had to be asleep by 9pm.
But Kathryn did not have to wake up at 5am and so she did not need to go to sleep at 9pm. Her work day would wrap up around 4:30p and then she’d go on a bike ride and we’d have dinner around 7 or 8pm and then I’d be like, “well, good night…” It was very weird.
So I tried waking up early, then taking a nap in the afternoon, and then staying up late with her. It sort of worked, but also, didn’t really work. I mean, it was better than not taking a nap, but it wasn’t as good as sleeping eight hours a day. (The shareholders had me try polyphasic sleeping once, it was awful.)
About halfway through the month I felt like a zombie. I put up a vote to amend the 5am wake up and thankfully the shareholders approved a 6:30am wake up.
The difference that hour and a half makes is astounding. In the first 15 days of the month I only succeeded eight days in waking up at 5am. But I made it eleven days after it was switched to 6:30am. And that includes a trip to San Francisco and a trip to Portland. I’m still a morning person, I’m just not an insane morning person.