4 Reasons You Should Get Up Early

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Well it's officially Day 16 of being at college + I'm amazed at how fast it has gone by already. I've been anxious-excited about it for months...it feels like college is all I've been thinking about for a year now! So now that I'm here + settled, it feels so strange that this place almost feels like home. Except for the 100 degree weather. I will never get used to that.

But amid the craziness, I've managed to make one lovely change over the last month or so: I'm getting up early. Not early early, but a comfortable eight o'clock. I'm lucky in that I don't have an 8 am classes (my first is at 10:40! Aww, yeah!) but I've gotten in a smooth routine of productive mornings. And there's nothing that makes me satisfied quite like productive mornings. 

I'm one of those people who just has to share when good things happen--I want you to feel the early morning goodness too! But in case you're just not convinced why the heck you should get up early, let me explain why I do. 

+ I get alone time. As an introvert (granted a fairly social one), I loooove spending some quality time with myself. It makes me so happy to read, cross-stitch, doodle or even watch Netflix by myself. However, living with a roommate generally makes this difficult. Especially with our schedules, we find that we're often at home at the same time. Which is great, don't get me wrong--I love my roommate. But sometimes, I just need a little quiet time. By getting up early, I have at least half an hour to work on stuff or get ready before anyone else is up and doing things.

+ I have time to plan out my day. The other day, I made the mistake of staying in bed until 9:30, which sounds fine, until I realized that I needed an hour to shower and get ready and then 40 minutes to allow for our unreliable bus system to get to class. And to save you from doing the math, I'll tell you that I was almost late to my 10:40am class. When I get up early though, I can easily plan out my morning--and even my whole day! I like to write a list of my classes + to-dos for the day, and then figure out where I can fit tasks in my day. I get so much more done!

+ I feel accomplished. This sound silly, I know. BUT we all know that getting up early is hard. Really hard. But when I get up early, I've already done something awesome. It may just be a simple mind trick, but after getting up early, I feel like the rest of my day will be easy.

+ I make time to do things that I might not otherwise get around to. I know I don't really, but getting early helps me feel like I have a little more time in the day. When I stay up late, I'm rarely productive. But early in the morning, I'm eager to get stuff done. This means I get to write blog posts, read my Bible, read blogs or listen to music. Other days, these things just don't happen + I'm a little less happy because of it.

Do you get up early? Why or why not?