I’m A Serial ‘Faffer’ At Heart – So Here’s What I’m Going to Do About It!

I used to be the person who would naturally and quite easily spring out of bed ridiculously early. I even remember back when Damien and I had our PT and we’d get up at 5:30am, 3 mornings a week to make our sessions before Damien started work. I’m not saying that was the easiest of tasks, especially in winter, but still, we did it and it just became a regular part of our routine.

Even post early morning PT, throughout last year I’d find myself naturally waking up around 6:30 am, feeling ready to spring out of bed and start my day (yes, I was that annoying person)….

Fast forward to the start of this year and everything seemed to change. Suddenly I was no longer the quite so smug, early morning person I once was. Getting out of bed had become a real chore at times, and for the most part it’s continued to be so up until now. You’re probably thinking ‘welcome to my world’, round about now, and admittedly, I have sort of embraced my new ‘just a bit longer in bed’ lifestyle. I’ve took it as a sign that my body has maybe needed the extra rest, and so I haven’t put much pressure on myself to get up early. In fact, I’ve enjoyed many welcomed lie ins, and not just on the weekend either. Some mornings I’ll find myself swanning out of bed and into the shower at 8:45am – the perks of working from home and only having to ‘commute’ as far as downstairs to your dining table office. To some this would still seem early, to others, this would seem late, I guess it’s all relative and depends where you live, what you do and if/how far you have to commute.

It also largely depends on if you’re a morning person, which I, (as you may have already guessed) am. So as a morning person who has been depriving themselves of a chunk of their morning for quite some time, I’ve been really starting to feel it.

Let’s not make this too much about productivity, because there are plenty of life enriching things you can do with your early mornings without making them a cause for productivity, but then one could argue that anything ‘life enriching’ is productive – I don’t know. Anyway, I digress, my point is, yes, it does help me to be that little bit more productive, but, more than anything, getting up earlier allows me more time to simply ease into my day.

I’m a serial ‘faffer’ at heart. I try not to be. I’ve downsized my wardrobe, simplified my morning routine, organised my home, basically everything I possibly can in order to minimise ‘faff’…but guess what, it still happens. And so I’ve come to the conclusion that the only way I can truly combat this is by having more time. I can have my outfit laid out, my hair washed and ready, my makeup routine to a minimum, and still wind up running 10 minutes late (I know, I hate me too). The problem is you can’t make more time, but you can wake up that bit earlier and give yourself some more minutes in the day, even if it is simply to allow for faffing.

This doesn’t have to just be reserved for days when we know we need to be somewhere, because let’s face it, none of us are going anywhere around about now (corona….let’s not even mention it). I generally tend to faff regardless of if I’m going out or staying in. I like to take my time with my morning coffee, maybe listen to a podcast whilst I exhaustively do my skincare routine, write some morning pages in my journal, maybe even do a workout if I’m feeling really intrepid (check me ready to take on the world with my morning routine of champions). I may only even wind up doing one of those things, but having the time to choose, dither, swan around in my dressing gown for half an hour longer if I so wish, is a wonderful thing. So that’s why I’m taking back my mornings!

Last night as I chatted about some of my thoughts to Damien, I found myself feeling motivated by the prospect of a new month. We decided to set ourselves a daily challenge that we’d complete together throughout April and we (mainly me) came up with the wonderful idea of taking things to the extreme and getting up at 5am every morning for the next 30 days! (I know right, what a brilliant idea…not). Maybe after the long winded intro into my sleeping habits, you won’t be so surprised when I tell you that after our alarm went off at 5am this morning, we chose to ignore it and go back to sleep. I know, I know, talk about trying to dive in at the deep end.

So we failed our challenge before it even begun, but all is not lost, because we then did in fact decide to wake up an hour later at 6am (still a good hour and a half to two hours earlier than I’ve previously been getting up), and I can’t deny, it was still a struggle, but we did it!

Did I have the most profound morning ever? No. Did I get an important task done? Erm, does showering and actually getting dressed in decent clothes count? Did I workout? Absolutely not. But I did have time to listen to that podcast, put on a dress and wear something other than sweat pants for the first time in a week. I even did my makeup (go me), purely to make myself feel good. I then got Damien to quickly snap these photos before he started work at 7:30am (go us)…and I even got to work on this blog post, which ashamedly so is my first of 2020! I’d forgot how much I enjoy the catharticism of getting some of my thoughts out into a blog post, and the enjoyment I get from planning out the images to fit around my text on the page.

So here’s to earlier mornings. More time to fulfil faff and ease into my day. I hope you have a good one!

Today I’m wearing…

This star print maxi dress that I picked out as a gift from Baukjen a couple of years ago. I actually nearly got rid of this in my wardrobe clear out that I did the other day, as I haven’t really worn it near enough as I’d have hoped, but then I realised what a wonderful ‘working from home’ dress it is. Not only does it feel like giant nightdress to wear, whilst still looking good (comfort is key folks), but it also lends itself perfectly to layering underneath. It’s quite chilly in our house at the moment, so to prevent living with the heating on constantly, we layer up! Today I’m wearing a long sleeved knit and leggings under this floaty number!

Granny slippers. Because what ‘working from home’ outfit would be complete without a pair of ridiculously comfortable footwear to boot!

Liner & Lip Balm – When I’m feeling lazy, but I still want to put something on my lips, this is my favourite little lip combo. The Marc Jacobs (Poutliner) in shade (Nude)ist, seems to be the most perfect ‘nude’ shade for my lips. I line with this and then smudge it into the centre of my lips a bit as I apply my Lanolips 101 ointment (my favourite lip balm).

Perfume Roulette – Over the weekend I had a HUGE Spring clean. It involved creating a home for everything, including my vast selection of sample perfumes, which I have now found this little glass jar to house them in. It seems the perfect time to try some different scents each day, so I’m diving in and picking one at random to spray each morning. Today I’m wearing Herve Gambs Coup De Grace. This one’s not for me if I’m honest (lol).

I’ve also pulled out my Fitbit because I realised I’ve been very inactive since being stuck at home. My aim is to try and get 10,000 steps in today. I can only laugh at how ridiculously ambitious this goal is. According to Google an office worker walks an average of 7,570 steps per day…well I wore my Fitbit for the first time in a while yesterday and I did about 3,000 steps, so I’m probably setting myself up for a fail here…shall we make it 5,000 instead?