‘I never knew a man come to greatness or eminence who lay abed late in the morning.’
Jonathan Swift
Day by day, the early morning is my favorite time of the day.
I take my time to slowly open my eyes, turn off the alarm clock at 6:00 am, stretch arms and legs, brush my teeth and wash my face, have a cup of warm lemon or lime water, put on the clothes, check the weather outside. I do all of those activities very, very slowly.
Notice that every day nature wakes up slowly too. It takes a few hours for the sun to raise high above the horizon line. The sun seems to be hurry-free, so do birds which start each day with the same routine, chirping for those who are willing to listen. Have you ever seen a sunrise happening too fast or too slow? Everything in the world has its biological rhythm.
Due to the fact that I hate the world hurrying me up, I came up with the idea of hurry-free mornings which I practice every day with true passion.
To begin with, when I made the decision to start going to bed at a certain time, after just two weeks, my body positively responded to this routine. Since then, I have never overslept, neither I am sleepy throughout the day because I am able to have between 7.5 and 8 hours of high-quality sleep every night. So, I decided to carry on because I love sleeping like a baby.
Then, I discovered that doing things slowly in the morning benefits my productivity throughout the day because I have clear mind that generates new and interesting ideas faster. I usually write one blog post very early in the morning. Then, I edit it carefully at least two times to maintain satisfactory quality of my writing. I manage to finish most of the important tasks before I leave to work because my creativity level is the highest during morning time. These days, I try to write a lot to get the blog going.
Another benefit of raising up early is that I have got plenty of time to decide what I am going to do during the day, and what I do not want to experience in my life. I simplify as much as I possible through prioritizing and deciding which activities do not seem too important. I do not schedule too many things to do each day, but always carefully consider: what goals I want to accomplish, what to publish on the website, what to eat for lunch and cook for dinner, where to go running, how to spend free time in the evening (usually with my wife and the baby, or reading).
However, I have realized that not everyone is as devoted to hurry-free mornings as much as I am. The people whom I observe on the streets every day are way too much in a hurry. They walk too fast to catch the next bus or subway train, eat lunch too fast and even use their phones at the same time when crossing the streets. It is dangerous to live like this!
Too many people rush their lives through several activities trying to do more things faster. That is why the idea of ‘hurry-free mornings’ helped to slow down my life, so I can do the opposite. And, I truly love it.
