Critical Chain Analysis and Morning Routines
Chaliren and I are a well-matched pair. She is organized, I am messy. She is responsible, I am creative. She is efficient, I am... well, I'd say I have more fun. But there is one area in which I am astonishingly more efficient than her: morning routines.
I don't know if she's slower than average in the morning, but I've always been able to go from the bed to out the door in a very short time. (That is, if I'm in a hurry. I'm not compulsive about it. I am content to laze about in the mornings as well, and I have been known to sit on the bed with one sock on and the other in my hands for minutes at a time.)
Anyway, here is the morning routine I had my senior year in high school, when my first class was early morning physics, which started at 6:55am:
6:34 Alarm goes off. Proceed immediately to kitchen and put a pot of water on the stove to boil. Head to bathroom and shower. 5 minutes.
6:39 Dry off and don underwear, proceed to kitchen and drop a package of Top Ramen into the now-boiling water. 1 minute.
6:40 Return to bedroom. Get dressed and grab my backpack, which has my physics book in it so I don't have to stop at my locker. 3 minutes.
6:43 Sleepily stand next to stove and wait for ramen to finish cooking. The "3 minute" promise on the packet is a lie. 1 minute.
6:44 Drain and prepare ramen. Drop an ice cube into it to cool it off. Eat. Rinse bowl and pot and put in sink. 2 minutes. Yes really.
6:46 Drive 3.5 miles to school at 32mph, which was 7mph over the speed limit. 6.5 minutes.
6:53 Park car and walk into school. Less than 1 minute.
6:54 Arrive at classroom with seconds to spare before 6:55am bell.
Yes, for a while I really did set my alarm for 6:34am and yes, you really can prepare and eat an entire bowl of ramen in 2 minutes if you drop an ice cube into it first. Eventually I moved my alarm back to 6:30 to allow for slipups in the schedule (one time I missed breakfast because I forgot to turn on the heat under the pot), and then to 6:21 so I could hit snooze once and wake up less abruptly.
I habitually drove 7mph over the speed limit at that age because I found out that most of the officers in Moab would not enforce the speed limit until you were driving 8mph over.
And finally, no, I don't do this in the mornings unless I have to. I have discovered over the years that rocketing out of bed and straight into work, while a useful skill at times, is a poor way to prepare for a productive day. But it can be done, is all I'm saying. :-)
I don't know if she's slower than average in the morning, but I've always been able to go from the bed to out the door in a very short time. (That is, if I'm in a hurry. I'm not compulsive about it. I am content to laze about in the mornings as well, and I have been known to sit on the bed with one sock on and the other in my hands for minutes at a time.)
Anyway, here is the morning routine I had my senior year in high school, when my first class was early morning physics, which started at 6:55am:
6:34 Alarm goes off. Proceed immediately to kitchen and put a pot of water on the stove to boil. Head to bathroom and shower. 5 minutes.
6:39 Dry off and don underwear, proceed to kitchen and drop a package of Top Ramen into the now-boiling water. 1 minute.
6:40 Return to bedroom. Get dressed and grab my backpack, which has my physics book in it so I don't have to stop at my locker. 3 minutes.
6:43 Sleepily stand next to stove and wait for ramen to finish cooking. The "3 minute" promise on the packet is a lie. 1 minute.
6:44 Drain and prepare ramen. Drop an ice cube into it to cool it off. Eat. Rinse bowl and pot and put in sink. 2 minutes. Yes really.
6:46 Drive 3.5 miles to school at 32mph, which was 7mph over the speed limit. 6.5 minutes.
6:53 Park car and walk into school. Less than 1 minute.
6:54 Arrive at classroom with seconds to spare before 6:55am bell.
Yes, for a while I really did set my alarm for 6:34am and yes, you really can prepare and eat an entire bowl of ramen in 2 minutes if you drop an ice cube into it first. Eventually I moved my alarm back to 6:30 to allow for slipups in the schedule (one time I missed breakfast because I forgot to turn on the heat under the pot), and then to 6:21 so I could hit snooze once and wake up less abruptly.
I habitually drove 7mph over the speed limit at that age because I found out that most of the officers in Moab would not enforce the speed limit until you were driving 8mph over.
And finally, no, I don't do this in the mornings unless I have to. I have discovered over the years that rocketing out of bed and straight into work, while a useful skill at times, is a poor way to prepare for a productive day. But it can be done, is all I'm saying. :-)