Column

Screw Productivity Hacks: My Morning Routine Is Getting up Late

Anyone who brags about a 3:30 a.m. gym routine is sending a clear signal: Time is a thing to be optimized rather than enjoyed

Jessica Valenti
GEN
Published in
3 min readDec 3, 2019

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Photo: Tetra Images/Getty Images

II am not an early riser. I don’t find mornings invigorating, I don’t do yoga with the sun coming up, I don’t read the paper in a quiet corner or sip on hot coffee as I check my email. I hate that shit. Up until recently, I actually felt a decent amount of shame about it. After all, my husband was getting up at 5:30 a.m. Before my daughter and I woke up, he had already been to the gym and answered all his emails. I, on the other hand, was waking up at 7 a.m., miserable and slogging through my kid’s before-school routine with a fairly unpleasant attitude.

My husband was sure if I just got myself on an early schedule I would love it. I’d be so productive! I got a SAD lamp to reset my internal clock and played soft rain sounds to lull me into an earlier, deeper sleep. I even stocked up on melatonin and Ambien. But no matter what I did, mornings still felt brutal.

Finally, after realizing how miserable I was, we just embraced our natural time preferences. Now my husband wakes up with my daughter and brings her to school, and I pick her up after…

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Jessica Valenti
GEN
Writer for

Feminist author & columnist. Native NYer, pasta enthusiast. I write about abortion every day at abortioneveryday.com