Life Hack: Make your weekday mornings feel like weekend mornings.

It's Friday again, and what better day to start learning a new life hack specially for your work life? Before you guys go "yay the weekend is here!" why not think about this question: How do you start your weekday? Getting out of bed, getting dressed and being ready for work? What's the first thing on your mind? Work responsibilities? Things you have to do when you get to the office? 

Most of us live by every single weekday of our working life with the purpose of waking up in the morning to go to work. 

Well what if I told you, the reason you had to wake up in the morning every day (yes even on weekdays) is because the day has started, and the day doesn't have to start with work? 

Think about what you do when you wake up on the weekends. Would you, on lazy occasions, roll around in bed a bit more? Would you get out of bed calmly, stroll to the bathroom for a long hot shower before preparing yourself and enjoying a leisurely breakfast? After that, maybe start your day by reading the news, getting dressed, or doing whatever you like to do in the mornings. 

What if I told you those could be your weekdays too? 

What if you didn't have to calculate the time you need in the mornings to the second, and wake up just in time to wash up (5 minutes) get dressed (15 minutes) and have a rushed breakfast (10 minutes tops) before leaving for work? 

I used to make the most out of the least amount of time on work mornings, because I would sleep in till the latest time possible for me to still not be late for work. Every morning when I pressed the snooze button, I made mental calculations (yes, making mental calculations while snoozing lol). "If I snooze for another 10 minutes, that would leave me 20 minutes before I leave the house, and I can probably do that if I skip breakfast. Ah what the heck, I'll snooze for another 15 minutes and I'll skip my make up routine too." 

The problem was, by the time I started my day, I was already in a rushed mood and that resulted in my weekday morning routine going something like this: "I must do this within 10 minutes, I must do that within 5 minutes, oh great, I've got another 2 minutes to spare, let me just quickly do my hair. Awesome, it's now 7.27am; I must leave before 7.28am if I don't want to miss the bus."  

There was no time left to spare, every single minute counted, from the time i got out of bed till the time I stepped out of the house. 

 

Then, recently, I decided to stop the vicious cycle of going to bed late the night before, and barely getting out of bed on time the next morning, being rushed to work, and all the 'me' time I have left went down the drain. 

For the past week, I had been going to bed early, and getting out of bed 1 hour earlier than I used to. The result? I had all the time in the world. 

I took long hot showers, took the time in picking my outfit, made myself breakfast, and actually gave myself time to savor it instead of gobbling it down (or, in some cases, skipping it altogether). After a nice hearty 30 minute breakfast, I started get dressed for work. By the time I was doing so, it didn't feel like the day had just startrd, and it definitely didn't feel like I was waking up only to fall into the "get ready and get dressed for work" routine, since I already started and enjoyed my day before getting ready for work come into my mind. 

I wasn't mentally exhausted and bogged down by the idea of work in the mornings, and that translated to having chirppier mornings, feeling less reluctant to drag myself out of bed for work, and the best part was that I started my day as I would if it were the weekend. 

And you know what? I am starting to enjoy my work mornings more and more.