It’s 9am on a Sunday morning, and I’m at work. I don’t mean to spend so much time here. I do actually have a life outside of these walls, but lately, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Campus is abuzz with activity as frantic students hurry to turn everything in, and while I’m no longer one of them, I still feel the strain and stress of the semester end. In the next two weeks, there are yearly evaluations to conduct on my 30 students, summer projects to launch and manage, an increase in the support we provide as final projects and papers are due, and my own new work project. To top it all off, I’m struggling to retrain my body that work hours are no longer 10am – 6 pm but 7:30 am – 4:30pm.

Truthfully, its not the waking up that’s the issue. (That’s why God created coffee.) The issue is the going to bed. I’m innately a night owl. If I don’t watch myself, it’ll be 11pm, and I’ll think, “Hey, I should do some laundry… go for a drive… reorganize my life.” Then, the next time I look at a clock it’ll be 3:30 in the blessid am and I’ll wonder why I’m feeling sleepy. No wonder I’m the full-time staff member who gets the ‘sorry it’s midnight but we need you to come into the office calls’… everyone else is smart enough to be sleeping!!!

So starting tomorrow I’m setting up so new ground rules for my life. No more late-night caffeine, cleaning sessions, or drives to Winslow. Bedtime will be closer to when the sun goes down than when it comes back up. Work (when possible) is to be done only at work and left there. No more hauling stuff home to work on after-hours. Instead, I’ll just stay an extra thirty minutes to crank out what is top priority in the office where there are less interruptions. Also, breakfast is a must. If I discovered anything this past week, it was that going into work mid-morning without a real breakfast is no big deal. However, going into work a few hours earlier without breakfast equals a near-meltdown by 10 am.

I’m a realist.  I know that I’m not going to be able to adhere to these new rules every day of the week.  You can’t change a tiger’s stripes, right???  But, if I manage to do it at least 75% of the time, life will be much, much sweeter.