I have never been a morning person.
In college, I worked at a bar. I routinely worked until 3 a.m. and had a 4 a.m. bedtime — an 11 a.m. wakeup call for noon classes. At my first post-grad job, I was routinely so late to my 9 a.m. starting time that my boss kind of just accepted it, and my morning start time slowly just shifted to 10 a.m.
Now, at the Tribune, I start my day shifts at 10 a.m., which isn’t too bad.
But (because nothing can ever be uncomplicated in a relationship between two journalists), my boyfriend Mando was recently switched from his afternoon shift to…
A 6 a.m. shift.
Major groans. SOS smoke signals. Pleading cries for help.
Because I spend a lot of time working (full time at the Trib, freelancing and blogging), it was really important to me that I have some free time to spend with Mando. So, the two of us worked out a schedule that would have me waking up at 5:30 a.m. during the week so I could put in some blogging and freelance hours while he was at the Tribune, and then I would have some free time at night once I finished up my eight-hour work day.
The only downside to the plan is the whole waking-up-before-6-a.m. part.
So, I’ve gotten pretty good at downing unhealthy levels of caffeine and figuring out other tips and tricks for getting on a morning schedule.
Trick one? Coffee. In a cute mug.
