Ten Minutes Early

Frugal Friday

Last week I talked about being frugal with your time—scheduling yourself accordingly so you don't overstress yourself.  This week, I'd like to look at the benefits of getting up ten minutes early. 

We all know that getting up an hour earlier would give us lots of time to get things done.  But who wants to sacrifice an entire hour of sleep?  Especially if you can't get to bed any earlier.  I know I can't survive on only six hours of sleep. So I tried something different—I set my alarm for ten minutes earlier.  That's it—ten minutes.

And I was pleasantly surprised! 

I couldn't believe as the mornings went on what that ten minutes meant to me.  I used to get up and get dressed to walk my daughter to the train station, then go for a walk through the neighborhood.  I would take a different route depending on the time I had to get out the door for clients.  There were days I'd be rushing around trying to get the dogs fed, read and respond to emails, post on Facebook, and tidy up the kitchen before I left. 

Getting up ten minutes earlier made my life so much easier.  You wouldn't think ten minutes can do much.  But now I can put away a load of laundry, select my clothes for the day, put away dishes from the sink, write out a check to pay a bill, or any number of little things that I'd try to do when I got home from my walk.

Doing this freed up my time later.  If I get my breakfast ready before my walk, I have time to do some upper body work with hand weights while I'm waiting for the dogs to finish eating.  If I set my clothes out before my walk, I can use that time later to scan in a document my accountant needs.  I've used the time to call utilities, to file papers that are laying on the kitchen counter, and to send a quick email to a client.  My mornings are much less stressful—and because of a measly ten minutes.  Who knew?

What would you do with ten extra minutes a day?