Day 16: Mornings Are Surprisingly Productive
I have always struggled with mornings. I consider myself an afternoon/evening person, because that's when I feel most energized and productive. But lately, I've been working on making better use of my mornings. Waking up on my first alarm, not hitting the snooze button, and not going back to sleep or waiting for when my other alarm(s) go off. I also turned on the option to have my phone read the time aloud, which I find helps me in my barely awake state and reminds me I only have a limited amount of time to get ready. I have surprised myself at how diligent I've been. I didn't do anything dramatic, I just told myself the night before I started that I was not going to go back to sleep after my alarm in the morning, and named my new wake-up alarm as such, "No snooze today!!" as well as choosing a new alarm tone (I like switching it up semi-regularly and I've had the same tones for my alarms for longer than I usually do).
I am not saying I'm a morning person now by any stretch of the imagination, but these small changes have helped me tremendously. I also have scheduled a daily phone call with my boyfriend, who also struggles to wake up on time, so we are both awake and can start getting ready early enough to get to work. For about a week now, this is what I've been doing: I wake up, lie awake for about 5 minutes, turn my lamp on, sit up, and start doing my wrist exercises with my weights (for my tendonitis), and then call my boyfriend. But for the past few days, I have also been pairing these new habits with my job search/application process, instead of waiting until I get home from work to do that like I have been doing. My afternoons/evenings have been busy, and it's been tough to fit everything in, and so finding that extra half hour or so when I get home from work to apply to another job has been difficult. Doing this in the morning when I first wake up has solved this. I think it's also solved the issue of my perfectionism getting out of control when I apply to a job, because I'm not awake enough at that time to really be able to let my perfectionism get any footholds.
However, I have noticed my sense of competition and ambition (and perhaps procrastination) is stronger at this time of the morning, because I feel like after I apply to one, I sometimes feel like I have time to apply to another! Or search for a few more listings to save for later! This is productive in that it saves me that time later, but procrastinating on getting ready, or on avoiding going to work, is not the best way to start my morning, and actually defeats the purpose of the other morning habits I'm cultivating - namely, fully waking up to my first alarm so I get up and have enough time to get ready. I'm figuring it out. But the progress has been great, because for YEARS I've just felt like I am trying to force myself to wake up at the wrong time, or convince myself that I'm performing self-care because I'm so tired that I need the extra sleep, and now, I just wake up. I don't always get out of bed right away, or after I finish my exercises or job app, but I feel like I'm making progress on that.
Day 16
Positive self talk (me to me) : Online shopping may feel impersonal, and morally questionable because of its potential to eliminate jobs in favor of efficiency, but it has really saved your mental health lately by helping you to avoid noisy or busy stores, decision overwhelm, not being able to find an employee's help if you need it, and feeling nervous about price comparisons and spending too much. It's okay to automate things, and it's okay to admit when you're feeling overwhelmed and to find an alternative solution that diminishes that stress and makes you feel comfortable, in control, and at ease. It's also saving you time, and saving time is one of your favorite things because it gives you the freedom to spend that time in a different, more productive, or enjoyable way.
Job applied to: Content Entry Specialist at a local hospitality company
Also, I've had 2 interviews this week, one for the brewery and one brief phone interview for the order management coordinator position I applied for just a couple days ago. The brewery one went well, I felt like, much better than the last one, and the other one went even better even thought it was very short. It's nice to feel like I'm finally making progress, and maybe next week will be the week that I just get flooded with emails and phone calls about all of these jobs I've applied to and haven't heard back from yet.
That said, my total count is 23 apps, and I think I'm at a 4/23 response rate, with a 2/23 interview rate. That measures out to 17.4% response rate and 8.7% interview rate, much lower than my initial goal. But, that's because my challenge and the response rate calculations were based on the whole month. So it should be 4/30 (13.3%) response rate so far, and 2/30 positive response rate (6.6%), with my goal having been 50% response rate overall and 10% positive response rate. I'm not doing too bad on the positive responses, but I may have overestimated these businesses' ability/interest to respond to candidacy. Stats nerd moment. I'm done now though.
I am not saying I'm a morning person now by any stretch of the imagination, but these small changes have helped me tremendously. I also have scheduled a daily phone call with my boyfriend, who also struggles to wake up on time, so we are both awake and can start getting ready early enough to get to work. For about a week now, this is what I've been doing: I wake up, lie awake for about 5 minutes, turn my lamp on, sit up, and start doing my wrist exercises with my weights (for my tendonitis), and then call my boyfriend. But for the past few days, I have also been pairing these new habits with my job search/application process, instead of waiting until I get home from work to do that like I have been doing. My afternoons/evenings have been busy, and it's been tough to fit everything in, and so finding that extra half hour or so when I get home from work to apply to another job has been difficult. Doing this in the morning when I first wake up has solved this. I think it's also solved the issue of my perfectionism getting out of control when I apply to a job, because I'm not awake enough at that time to really be able to let my perfectionism get any footholds.
However, I have noticed my sense of competition and ambition (and perhaps procrastination) is stronger at this time of the morning, because I feel like after I apply to one, I sometimes feel like I have time to apply to another! Or search for a few more listings to save for later! This is productive in that it saves me that time later, but procrastinating on getting ready, or on avoiding going to work, is not the best way to start my morning, and actually defeats the purpose of the other morning habits I'm cultivating - namely, fully waking up to my first alarm so I get up and have enough time to get ready. I'm figuring it out. But the progress has been great, because for YEARS I've just felt like I am trying to force myself to wake up at the wrong time, or convince myself that I'm performing self-care because I'm so tired that I need the extra sleep, and now, I just wake up. I don't always get out of bed right away, or after I finish my exercises or job app, but I feel like I'm making progress on that.
Day 16
Positive self talk (me to me) : Online shopping may feel impersonal, and morally questionable because of its potential to eliminate jobs in favor of efficiency, but it has really saved your mental health lately by helping you to avoid noisy or busy stores, decision overwhelm, not being able to find an employee's help if you need it, and feeling nervous about price comparisons and spending too much. It's okay to automate things, and it's okay to admit when you're feeling overwhelmed and to find an alternative solution that diminishes that stress and makes you feel comfortable, in control, and at ease. It's also saving you time, and saving time is one of your favorite things because it gives you the freedom to spend that time in a different, more productive, or enjoyable way.
Job applied to: Content Entry Specialist at a local hospitality company
Also, I've had 2 interviews this week, one for the brewery and one brief phone interview for the order management coordinator position I applied for just a couple days ago. The brewery one went well, I felt like, much better than the last one, and the other one went even better even thought it was very short. It's nice to feel like I'm finally making progress, and maybe next week will be the week that I just get flooded with emails and phone calls about all of these jobs I've applied to and haven't heard back from yet.
That said, my total count is 23 apps, and I think I'm at a 4/23 response rate, with a 2/23 interview rate. That measures out to 17.4% response rate and 8.7% interview rate, much lower than my initial goal. But, that's because my challenge and the response rate calculations were based on the whole month. So it should be 4/30 (13.3%) response rate so far, and 2/30 positive response rate (6.6%), with my goal having been 50% response rate overall and 10% positive response rate. I'm not doing too bad on the positive responses, but I may have overestimated these businesses' ability/interest to respond to candidacy. Stats nerd moment. I'm done now though.
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