Become a Morning Person in 4 Quick Steps

If you're not a morning person, there are some things you can do to make it easier to rise and shine in the morning.

I will freely admit that I am so not a morning person. After I wake up, it takes me a good hour before I feel like I am even functioning. For me, there is nothing more annoying than a cheery morning person. But, there have been times that I needed to become a morning person in order to be at work on time. This can be especially true if you have kept a more relaxed morning schedule while looking for a job, and have to transition to a job that gets started bright and early.

When you are trying to change your built in sleep cycle, it can be a challenge. For me, I feel more energetic late at night and, if left to my own devices, I would wake up somewhere around 10 am. Still, there have been times in my life when my normal awake/asleep schedule just doesn't work. If you want to change into a morning person, either for a job or simply because you want to take advantage of the morning hours, here are four things you can do to make the transition easier:

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  Get prepared the night before – Until you get into the swing of things, prepare for your morning the night before. This means lay out what you want to wear, pack up the things you need to take with you and do whatever you can to make the morning a little easier and less hectic. You might even want to get a to-do list together to stick on the bathroom mirror or the back of the front door, so you'll be sure to have everything you need before you leave in the morning.
  
  
  
  


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  Find a reason to wake up – This one works really well for me. When I need to change my schedule, I try to plan something exciting for the morning. This can be as simple as having a box of my favorite breakfast cereal, a new bag of gourmet coffee or an outfit I am excited about. Whatever it is, it just has to be something that will give you are reason to not hit the snooze button and instead get up and get motivated. Once you get adjusted, you can get away with only doing this on days when it is especially hard to get up, like Mondays.
  
  
  
  


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  Set a bedtime – This one is trickier. The natural thought here would be to set an early bedtime and try to stick with it. That might work for some people, but it never works for me. Even though you might be pretty tired for the first couple of days, it is easier to try to go to sleep when you first get tired. Your natural rhythms will make you get tired a little earlier each day until you find the time that works best for you. If you don't work with your own body's cycle, the odds are good that you'll be spending a lot of time in bed, trying hard to get to sleep and not being able to.
  
  
  
  


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  Get some fresh air – Make going outside, (weather permitting) part of your morning routine. Take a morning walk, go for a jog or just take your morning coffee outside. There is something about the morning air that can wake you up and make you feel motivated. Once you get into the habit, you might even decided to keep doing it long after you have gotten adjusted.

Are you a morning person? What do you do to cope? Let me know in the comments.

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By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for HealthcareJobsiteBlog. Along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.

Making the Transition from Stay-at-Home Parent to Employee a Little Easier

Finding a good balance between working and still having a happy home life is tough, especially if you are considering going back to work after having a child. When you are the full-time caregiver for a small child or several children, just the idea of adding a full-time job in there is scary and overwhelming. Typically, these are the sorts of decisions that moms face, but I know that there are many stay-at-home dads who are in the same situation as well. In this economic recession, even people who have been out of the workforce for some time are finding themselves faced with the need to go back to work.

So, how can you make the transition easier? It will take a lot of planning ahead, and there will be tough adjustments for everyone involved but with some hard work, it can actually be rewarding. Here are some tips from iVillage for making the transition back to work a little easier:

• Trust that it will be OK – Going back to work after being the primary care-giver for your child causes separation anxiety, not just for the child, but for the parent as well. Trust in the fact that everything will work out. You aren't going to scar your child for life if they have to spend time with a babysitter or in a daycare situation. Spending quality time with your children is the most important thing, so even though you can't be there all the time, you can still maintain a tight bond with your children.
  
  
• Unplug after work – It is tempting to bring your work home with you, or spend a good portion of your home time being online. Plan some time after work to turn off the phone, computers, cell and television and just spend some face time with the ones you love.
  
  
• Start slow – If you can, try to ease into things by working part-time at first. This will give you a chance to “get your feet wet” without having quite as much on your plate. Once you get adjusted to your new routine, you can work on transitioning to full-time hours.
  
  
• Trust your gut – There are plenty of people who say that parents who work full-time are short changing their children. And for every one of them, there are others who think that stay-at-home parents don't really “work”. Both sides are wrong. Raising a child is a full time job, whether you stay home or have a job. You have to do what feels right to you. Don't let other peoples' opinions keep you from doing what you need to do.
  
  
• Quality over quantity – This goes for both work and home time. Even though you may not be able to work as late as you did before you became a parent, it is the quality of the work you do, rather than the number of hours you spend at the office that count. The same is true of family time.

Deciding to go back to work is a tough decision, but it can be rewarding and profitable for your family. The most important thing is to look for creative solutions for the time management problems that are bound to arise. When you do what feels right for you and your family, and you get everyone on board, the transition can be much smoother.

By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for PhillyJobs and Beyond along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel. You can read more of her blogs on Phillyjobs blog.