To snooze or not to snooze

This year for Lent, I gave up my snooze button.

There are a few disclaimers necessary — I work nights, so I usually wake up around 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Additionally, I don't have a set time that I have to wake up each day, so if I know I'll be tired in the morning I'll set an alarm for a little later. So with that in mind, this isn't groundbreaking, but it is a little challenging.

Once the alarm goes off in the morning, no matter if I miscalculated when I'd want to get up or if I'm right in the middle of a good dream, that's it. Time to get up.

It's not like I hop out of bed and tackled the day the second my alarm goes off, but (so far) it has taught me a lot about obedience, following through with plans, and respect for my own time. Every day is a blessing. I feel like this has made me appreciate each day a little more. Sure, maybe some mornings I take a little while to physically get out of bed, and some mornings I really hate that I can't hit snooze, but it's been working.

This has been a huge help with a goal of mine this year — to not let my time before work escape me without feeling like I've accomplished anything. A lot of people still feel tired when they first wake up, myself included most days, but once I get moving around I feel more alert and more productive. By not allowing myself the opportunity to cave into initial tiredness and keep snoozing, I increase the likelihood every single day that I push past sleepiness and accomplish what I want to accomplish.

That's not to say that I'm trying to be productive all the time. It's dangerous to measure our value by our productivity — it sets us up to be too hard on ourselves when we just need a break. But sometimes, I want to get a little done — even if it's not much. Maybe I want to read some of my book, or meal prep before work, or any number of other things. By getting up — and actually getting up — when I plan to, I can accomplish whatever tasks are on my list without feeling rushed or like that's all I have time to do. Not snoozing allows me to be both productive and relaxed.

When all this is done, I think I might implement this (at least partially) into my normal routine. I haven't decided how just yet, whether it'll be only certain days or if I'll be a little forgiving with the snooze button or something different altogether. But I think in general, whenever we consider giving something up for a short amount of time, there's a bigger truth behind it. It's likely something we already think we need to improve on, but we just aren't ready to make a commitment to the change quite yet.

So I can't tell you how much I'll stick to this once Lent is done, but I can say this — I like the person that I'm becoming more than the person I was. That's a good start for me.