1. Q: How many years young are you and what is your living situation?
1. I'm 71. I live alone. But I'm going to get a cat.
2. Q: What's the biggest challenge you faced in changing your morning routine? How have you dealt with it/got over it/are still dealing with it?
2. Biggest challenge to changing my morning routine was my habit of spending hours on Twitter and Instagram every night, often until 12:00 or 1:00 am. My second biggest challenge was that I've always considered myself a night ow.
3. Q: What time did you wake up and go to sleep before you started using the Morning Sidekick Journal, and what time do you wake up and sleep now?
3. I used to go to sleep around midnight and often sleep until the last possible moment (8:00) to get to work at 8:30. Sometimes as early as 6:30, a lot of times in between.
4. Q: What did your mornings look like before you started using the Morning Sidekick Journal? What do your mornings look like now?
4. I would often allow myself only enough time to throw on some clothes and MAYBE put together a lunch for later and MAYBE eat breakfast or take something to eat at work. Either I'd get up really late, as above, or I'd wake up and get coffee and scroll through Twitter endlessly until I had to rush again.
5. Q: In one sentence, what's your favorite thing about the Morning Sidekick Journal?
5. My favorite thing about the journal is the structure: not only the structure of keeping me accountable, but the way there are 3 phases that build the habit.
6. Q: How long have you been using the Morning Sidekick Journal?
6. I started my first journal in late August of last year and went through it again starting in November, and just finished. I'm planning to continue with the PDF you sent me when I first started.
7. Q: How has using the Morning Sidekick Journal and doing your morning routine impacted your life overall?
7. Some background: I'm working in a 2-person office and my boss is full of drama, interruptions, stream of consciousness conversations. I'm working on being more assertive with her, and looking for another job, but in the meantime I come home from work quite frazzled. (I just read in Forbes of a study that says it takes 23 minutes to get your focus back after an interruption. I have about ONE minute. FRAZZLE CITY.) Because of this, I would come home, sit and have a snack, get on stupid Twitter again, maybe eat dinner, and crawl into bed with hobbies and projects (including a blog for an organization I'm involved with, Project Redwood. If you google it, it's NOT the yacht... LOL) untouched.
It dawned on me that if I would come home, eat dinner quickly, and go to bed really early, (like 9:00 or 9:30), then I could get up at 5:00 or so, and do the things I want to do.
That's when you guys and your wonderful journal came into my life!
I have made progress. Sometimes I still go down the Twitter rabbit hole. But more and more, I hit my goal timing. It's more like 9:30 or 10:00, but I've been waking up earlier. One morning I woke up spontaneously at 4:30 and just stayed up.
Doing the journal has not only helped me with my end-of-day problem, but I have gained a sense of accomplishment from achieving these goals, even imperfectly.