Experimenting with Time

I’m always trying to improve myself, down to the second. To make myself a machine efficiency, somewhat out of necessity to conserve my energy for what matters most during my day and prevent fatigue later on, but also to just get better at doing the things that I love and not the things that seem to always get in my way. Like getting dressed in the morning. Collecting all of my items for the gym that I will need, laying them out and then heading into the bathroom to take my shower and then eventually dry off and get dressed, leaving me on my path to downstairs, where I will have either grabbed my protein shake and pre-workout drink energy bite bag that I will take downstairs with me. I’ve learned that it’s easier to just have it waiting at the bottom of the stairs for me so I can take it with me to the car, but sometimes I just don’t get it in time and I have to take it from upstairs. It’s an endless game, I’m always playing end it just amuses me, rather than makes me frustrated, it helps me know that there’s always a way that I can get better. Even if it’s just tweaking my time.

Last night I thought it would be challenging to take a shower at night instead of early in the morning before the gym, but I was worried about fatigue. I just put the water on a little bit cooler so that the heat did not make me tired. I haven’t taken a hot shower and I don’t remember when.

I laid out everything on my nightstand so I could just grab it and get ready in the morning in the bathroom, but apparently my eye mask feels just like a sock when it’s dark. So I got everything into the bathroom already to get dressed and ready and was so proud that the time on my iPhone was about a half an hour before I usually am. Then I cross my leg over my knee, which is the only way I can put on pants or socks or shoes because of my hip weakness, so it’s a pretty big deal for me the energy that I use to do this task.

When I realized that I had my eye mask on the counter instead of a sock. I was missing a sock and had left it on my dresser.

This seems like such a simple task to the average person that you can just go out the door and grab your socks and come back and put on your socks, but if there’s a lot of steps in the process for a person who has limited mobility,, It’s a whole different ballgame. It’s a reason that I need to re-analyze the steps in getting my clothes ready in the morning, and how I place them on the dresser.

What’s the fix? Well now, and my lessons learned, sorry it’s the project manager in me, I have to put my eye mask in my drawer when I’m finished using it, and have my socks separated from it always.  It’s not like I can have a light on next time, even if it’s on my iPhone, I just don’t wanna wake up my husband. Or my son sleeping across the hall.

Truth is, my set of processes also help me from tripping over myself in the morning and falling. Once I did four sideways and broke three ribs in my kitchen. I was by myself. Don’t worry, they heard my screams, but experimenting with my time, that’s really big for me. Reading the atomic habit was a huge win for me, because I saw that I was not the only one nitpicking at everything I do down to the second. There is a need. Especially when you have limited mobility, or even just some chronic illness when Fatigues you with every bit of effort you put forth.

So that’s what happened this morning, it was mistaking and I am ask for a sock, and I see what the broken link is. It was similar the other night when I put my iPhone underneath my clothes and it muffle the sound of the vibration that was supposed to wake me up. Where I put my clothes is very important, and also my own mask. And I’m still up early. I guess it’s time to load another blog post into the schedule. I only dreamed that would happen someday soon. But here it is. Stay tuned for my next post, which will be a little bit about A previous step in my career, more about me later.