The start of a brand new school year at North Cobb Christian School causes me to once again reexamine my morning routine. I have always enjoyed getting up early in the mornings and getting to school before all of the craziness hits. Even as a high school student, I would get to school super early just to have a chance to get myself organized before the day started. I dropped my brother and sister off at their school on my way each day…I don’t think they fully appreciated my early morning habit. They regularly had to hope the janitor heard them banging on the door and let them in so they wouldn’t have to stand outside. We laugh about that now, but fortunately my mom realized that it might be better for her to drop them off closer to a normal arrival time!
We bought an elliptical last December. Clint and I were both very excited about the opportunity to exercise at home on a more regular basis. We put the elliptical right in the middle of our closet so that we would be more apt to use it every day. Over the past several months, we have both had bursts of using the elliptical followed by long periods of walking around it and pretending it is not there.
Last week was in-service at school and I decided it was time to step up my game in the mornings. I always do my personal devotional time at my desk at school, but it used to be followed by catching up on Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. All of this was still before work hours, but I always felt that there had to be a better way to do that. Enter…the elliptical.
I get up at 5am each morning and have started spending around 20-25 minutes on the elliptical. I have decided that while I am “ellipticizing”…a word made up for this occasion…I would use that time to catch up on FB, Twitter, and blogs. I also usually read the headline news stories. This allows me to get the exercise that I want to get on a regular basis, as well as stay on top of things that I think I need to be aware of. Oddly enough…I am actually finding myself getting to the office earlier than I used to. However, it is now with the added energy of exercising each morning and having some of the superfluous reading out of the way. I don’t know if this routine would work for everyone, but it seems to be working for me.
I believe that one of the biggest challenges facing leaders today is the call to be a good steward of your time. This is one way that I am trying to be a better steward of my time. Do you have a morning routine that you think is beneficial that you’d like to share?