When I got to college I knew I didn’t want any 8:10 classes, but other than that morning classes were a go. It’s nice to have intellectual stimulation in the morning to wake me up for the rest of the day, and I like being done with school earlier rather than later. Of course, if I was up for a long time the night before doing work, I run the risk of oversleeping or being late to class. I also tend to need naps if I can’t sleep late in the morning. This school year is one of extremes scheduling-wise. Last semester I had two morning classes back-to-back on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (MWF). I got my learning out of the way early so the rest of my day could be filled up with homework and extracurriculars. My two classes were interesting and pertained to one another so I never felt like it was too jarring going from one to the other.
However, if I was up too late doing homework, I tended to wake up late and feel a bit groggy during class, like I was only half there. I also found myself taking long naps in the afternoon to make up for lost sleep. I felt tired a lot of the time and worried my teachers wouldn’t think I was participating. Nevertheless, having had a few weeks of my new schedule, I can say with relative certainty that I’d rather have that than what I do now.
Now, I have classes from 2:10-4:00pm on MWF, and it’s been a weird transition. I don’t need to drag myself out of bed in the morning, and I feel quite awake during classes, and I’ve barely taken any naps since getting back from break.
And yet…I feel a bit adrift. With no outside reason to get dressed and out of my room, I have a very hard time getting myself out of bed. Not using the morning to do things seems wasteful and self-indulgent. I feel like my day hasn’t really started till I go to class. “Then why, Katie,” you might ask, “don’t you just set an alarm and get up and get work done?” Good question, dear reader! Also, you sound like my dad.
I don’t have a good reason for you. I suppose it has something to do with the fact that as of right now there’s not a whole lot going on for me later in the day, so I don’t need to get homework done before the night. I’ve been trying to go to the gym more, and this has proved somewhat successful, but I still need to work on my willpower. I’m just not that good at motivating myself to do things if I don’t have outside structure. I do know, however, that right now something doesn’t feel quite right. This is hardly a complete list, but some things I can do to get myself going in the morning include: going to bed earlier, setting several alarms so I don’t ignore the one, setting up meetings in the morning, finding some sort of volunteer work to do, getting breakfast with friends, and establishing a routine and sticking to it. Hopefully by the end of the semester I’ll be back on track in time for summer!