I love MSQT: Morning Solitude and Quiet Time
It is no secret that I am absolutely a morning person. Sun's up - I'm up. Sun's down - and so am I! I can't remember when I haven't been a lark. Now, that is not to say that I've not been up late some nights during my life or that I've never pulled an all-nighter, etc. Indeed I have. But, my preference has always been to go to bed and get up earlier than normal if I'm facing a deadline or working on a project and the sands of time have just about run out.
Now that I'm retired, my habit of getting up early has not changed. I might sleep in (get up at 6:30 am or 7:00 am) a morning or two. I love the quiet of morning and so look forward to it, even though it's pretty pedestrian. My mornings generally shake out like this:
Come downstairs to kitchen ...
Open blinds - and if the weather permits, the door to the deck ...
Take vitamins, brew tea and fix a glass of ice-cold H2O ...
Put away dishes in dishwasher and/or sink drainer while tea is brewing ...
Take frozen berries out to thaw ...
Set up my MSQT space: Ott light; Journal/s; Patti Digh's Your Daily Rock; Planner; Sketching supplies; iPad & iPhone; Pens; and Book/s I'm reading ...
The first thing I write in my journal are the date/time/temp and weather: cloudy; rainy; etc and then I usually review what I wrote the day before and move on from there. Sometimes I've ended with a question - and I'll write some more of my thoughts. Then I read and respond to the current/previous day's rock entry. Next, I update the Collect and DayONE apps I have on my phone and iPad and then, I move on to to planning and thinking about the day: what I need to do do; what I'm going to do; and also, what I still need/want to do from the day/s before. Somedays, I check email and blog jog - my term for checking the blogs I follow - though I usually wait 'til later in the day.
If I have an appointment or it's Monday (quilting day), I end MSQT about 8 am . Depending on the weather/season, I'll go for my walk about 8:15 - 8:30 am, arriving back about 9:30 am, in time to put Norman's milk in the freezer - he likes his milk "icy cold." And then, it's "hit the shower" and on with the day!
I love MSQT! What are you? A LARK or an OWL?
Cheers~