Marriage & Relationships

The Lark and the Owl

My husband is a morning person.  He can happily get up at 4.30am, to study before work.  He has just finished 6 months of doing exactly that.  He now has a break from study but isn’t keen on the whole resting idea.  He wants to continue to get up at 4.30am.  He feels the need to do something else.  Sleeping, didn’t make the cut.

First he wanted to study the 80/20 principle.  ‘Also known as the Pareto Principle, this rule suggests that 20 percent of your activities will account for 80 percent of your results’.  So essentially, it’s about becoming more effective and efficient, in every area of your life.  Finding what your 20% activities are and developing those.  Avoiding, outsourcing or dismissing, the other tasks, that do not add value to your life.

This can be anything from hiring a cleaner so you don’t have to do that.   Batch cooking, to save time preparing meals.  Listening to study material, while working out or commuting.  You get the idea.  It is time management skills for your life.

After realising, we can’t afford to pay anyone to do anything for us.  That I do batch cook and he takes leftovers in for lunch the following day; this principle for our family was shelved.

Second idea was to become a Super Learner/Speed Reader.  My husband wanted to learn how to read and absorb, up to 800 words per minute.  When the course video advised, that following their instructions, he would learn to synthesize and digest huge amounts of information – he had a full-blown nerdgasm.  This new skill, would allow him to study faster and move through his qualifications quicker.

Third idea, was us both getting up at 4.30am, to embrace being early risers.  To read, to learn, to work out.  To do whatever we can, to stimulate our own person growth.

‘Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise’ – Benjamin Franklin

We are both morning people but I am a 7am starter with a nice cup of tea.  My husband is a 4.30am starter, with his laptop out and course material downloading.  I like to stay up late, watch a movie and have my mind taken away somewhere before bed.  He is a 10pm, lights out kinda guy, no exceptions.  He is up with the larks and Udemy.  I’m the night owl, that likes to read at a normal pace and watch movies til late.

Some mornings, I have been bombarded with spreadsheets, budget discussions, detox ideas and outsourcing proposals, while my eyes are still shut.  I’m reaching around for my cup of tea, like a zombie that has been hit by a bus; while my husband wants to brainstorm ideas, about how I will be improving myself in our extra time.

My husband is up learning how to be a superhuman.  Learning how to work smart, not necessary work harder.  He is absorbing life and time hacks; Fine tuning his brain to be more…more.

I am waking up at 6.30am with our toddler.  She has her milk and I am drinking tea, usually with my eyes shut.  Within the hour, my husband has gone to work and I’m ready to start my day of basic survival, with a very active 2 year old.

In the evening, my husband is sound asleep just after 10pm.  I’m laying there, eyes wide open.  The speed of the day, in all its successes, near misses and tantrums, are running through my brain.   I toss and turn.  90 minutes easily fly by; I still can’t switch off. Emails, shopping lists, errands, reminders and appointments, are all being confirmed and filed away in my big bucket brain…oh wow I am now getting sleepy.

Its 1am.  Guess that’s why my entire being, flips my husband the bird, when the alarm clock breaks the peace and quiet at 4.30am.  The owl has had a very busy night.  The lark is well rested and ready to synthesize. 

Fly free you cheerful but equally irritating old bird!  Keep the enthusiasm to yourself and don’t you dare, show me a sodding spreadsheet, til after my first dance with Tetley!

 

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