Why I don’t do mornings

I am not a morning person.

Never have been.

Well, actually, that’s not strictly true. I have had my moments, a few occasions when I arose early and went for a walk, or went birding (see my birding blog here). Often those occasions were when we were out camping in the Australian bush and the birds woke me up at dawn – or a stronger call urged me to commune with nature in the early rays of the day’s sunshine.

I did have a great few months of early rising in the latter part of last year. I was in training for a trek in the Himalayas in Nepal last January (read my Travel Blog here). I would rise daily at dawn and go for a 2 to 3 hour training walk. It felt great. It also helped my attempt on the approach to Everest (we got to within five days walk of base camp).

I am a great admirer of those who regularly rise very early and go for a walk, or do some gardening or write several thousand words before breakfast. (Yawn – just the thought makes me tired.)

Here is a short list of reasons excuses Why I Don’t Do Mornings:

1. I am inclined towards laziness.
2. I am a procrastinator.
3. The bed is too comfortable, warm, cosy (whatever).
4. The air outside is too hot, too cold, too windy or too wet.
5. I lack the discipline.

Now for a list of Reasons I Should Do Mornings:

1. So I can go for a walk.
2. So I can go birding.
3. So can combine 1 and 2 above.
4. So I will feel better.
5. So I will get more writing done.
6. For my health (I’m trying to manage my recently diagnosed diabetes).

In the recent group writing project on ProBlogger one of the lists included an entry called Five Reasons Why Mornings Rock submitted by Health Hacker. The article has five useful suggestions on getting more out of life and leading a healthier lifestyle – just by getting up earlier in the morning.

On this site I also found another great article on depression – something that I have struggled with over the years. The link to this article is below. The article also had links to very useful articles about sleep and rising early. These appear on Steve Pavlina’s blog.

Even getting up a half hour earlier each morning would be very beneficial. That is all I need to get in some essential exercise. With spring just a few days away and the hot summer is only months away, the early morning is the best time for walking anyway. In this way I should be able to get into the writing earlier each morning.

I think I’ll try it.
Related Articles:

• Five Reasons why mornings rock
• Beat depression with exercise – and why it works
• How to be an early riser
• How to be an early riser part 2
• Group writing project on ProBlogger
• My submission to the group writing project