I admit that I am not a morning person. Mornings have never agreed with me for whatever reason. At boarding school we had to be awake by 6:30AM every school day. By my senior year, we got to sleep in a little later, but it was still early for a teenager. This cycle of hating mornings and feeling bad when I woke up continued for a while.
In April 2017, I started work by opening with the morning stock crew. We had to be there at 5AM. Despite my dislike of waking up early, this excited me because I was looking for a change since I was always closing for my first couple of years there. As time went on, we had to be there at 4AM, and then go in at 3AM on some days out of the week. Yikes!
Although this seems very daunting, there are some advantages of having this kind of work schedule. One reason why getting up so early for work is helpful is that the commute is easier. The area I live in is sound asleep in the middle of the night. By driving to work when most people are asleep, I can drive calmly and be alone in my thoughts as I drive with few distractions.
For me, the most advantageous reason getting up early for work is that I normally finish sometime in the afternoon. This allows me to take time to run other errands I have to do, or to decompress by reading, catch up on some DVR recordings, or go to the shooting range. What I most like about having the rest of my day to myself after getting off work is that I can spend the evening with my friends or family, or participate in activities at church.
Since I have gotten used to getting up early I have began to naturally wake up early on my own on my days off. Sure I can sleep in if I have nowhere I have to be, but I have realized that if I do that I am losing time I could be using to be productive in areas outside of work. For example, since I am usually off work on Fridays, I use that as an opportunity to go to daily Mass on Friday mornings. Also when I wake up early on my days off it gives me the chance to cook myself a decent breakfast. I like breakfast!
Now if I am ever told I have to be to work at 6 or 7AM that is a sleep-in for me.
Bo Thompson 