I hate rushing. I detest being rushed. I hate being late somewhere. For most of my life, I have been a tardy, rushed person. For years I have been saying this is something about myself I wanted to change, but for years I continued to do the same things that cause me to be late such as continuing to manage my time poorly. I don’t know why I thought if I continued in the same way I would have different results…that is quite crazy. I have been experiencing rushed mornings lately (again) and as I’m sure you know, they are not fun. They put me in a furious mood. It can sometimes even cause me to have a bad day. How am I turning this around?

I recognized that I didn’t allow myself enough time in the mornings. I have a lot to do before I leave out the door for work. I need to write; work on the zine and/or one of my book projects. I need to exercise. I need to shower. I need to get dressed, put in my contacts, put on a little makeup. I need to do some housework. I need to feed my kids and make their lunches for school. I need to pack my lunch for work. I need to feed the cat. I need to post to some of my blogs. I need to check my email. Guess how much time I was allowing myself to do all these things? A little over an hour. I kidded myself into thinking I could do it all by multi-tasking. ha!

I actually need 2-3 hours to do all these things (depends on how much I am writing). That gives me enough time to do one thing at a time and take my time doing it. I have nice, relaxed mornings now. I get up at 5am and by the time my family gets up I have done things important to me without feeling pressured or interrupted. I can do the things I have to do without feeling resentful or rushed. I can take my time with my kids in the morning, and talk with them in a pleasant manner instead of being grouchy and irritable and rushing them along just because I was feeling rushed. Best of all, no more running out the door without eating and running on empty. I have time to eat a nice breakfast and have a nice big cup of soothing tea before I head out into the world. I have time to talk and connect with my husband, have a real conversation with him before we go off to work.

I’m slowly unlearning the habit of rushing and tardiness. If you want to stop being late everywhere you go, and/or stop feeling so pressured and rushed, the key is to allow yourself time to do the things your need, want, and have to do.