1. Q: How many years young are you and what is your living situation?
1. 39. I have a husband named Kevin (who is out of the house by 5am weekly) and a lab/greyhound mix named Bella who spends the day with me while I work.
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. Sticking to the hour I set on my alarm clock. Old routine was setting one alarm that would get snoozed. New routine: I now set TWO alarms (one fake time - earlier time I don't need to get up, and one real time - the LATEST I'd like to be up), and now get up ON the second alarm.
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 was getting up at 5:30 every morning for a morning commute to downtown Cleveland. Now I work at home, so I've adjusted to 6:20am. I go to bed by 10:30pm at the latest to get almost 8 hours of sleep.
4. Q: What did your mornings look like before you started using the Morning Sidekick Journal? What do your mornings look like now?
4. My mornings were rushed - grabbing a portable coffee mug and pouring coffee into it, setting up my work bag and making sure I had my badge, getting dressed, starting the car, letting the dog out, making sure she ate so she could go to the restroom before I was gone for ten hours, etc...now, I get up at 630a (my dog sleeps in since she knows I'm not leaving), I make a cup of coffee, sit in my chair by the window, sip coffee, have my morning devotions, and start up my computer to be sure I can get reports running before my start time of 7am.
5. Q: In one sentence, what's your favorite thing about the Morning Sidekick Journal?
5. I love the Affirmations and Pro-tips. It's great to learn different perspectives on how to stick to a routine.
6. Q: How long have you been using the Morning Sidekick Journal?
6. Since Jan 1, 2019.
7. Q: How has using the Morning Sidekick Journal and doing your morning routine impacted your life overall?
7. I bought the journal to learn some new tricks, to motivate myself to stick to a schedule, and to also learn how to give myself grace when I screw up. Normally I buy a journal and when I skip a day, I feel like I've messed up, so I tend to give up because I'm disappointed in myself. But with the morning sidekick journal, even when I screwed up one morning (my two alarms literally did NOT GO OFF) and I scrambled to get ready DURING HELL WEEK, previously I would've lost my mind. But I didn't. I got up, started my day, felt a little off, but reassured myself that I would start the next week to get back on track and not let it make me feel bad. Even the journal says it's okay to skip a day and start again when ready. Instead of the negative self-talk I've become accustomed to, I have transitioned to more grace in my life, and allow for error without harsh judgement on myself. I feel like I now have the ability to move past it faster now.