The Early Bird Gets The T-Shirt

Are you Team Early Bird or Team Night Owl?

I used to be Team Always Tired, but a couple of years ago I took a look at how I was living, and made some big and little changes. Adding more movement to my day proved to be critical and I found out pretty quickly that I couldn’t be trusted to do any exercise after work.

But if I knock out 15 minutes of stretching followed by a 20 minute walk or bike ride first thing, I feel better all day. Plus, I find that once I get started I’ll keep moving all day, even with a desk job.

But getting up early still required a few tricks:

First – I banned the use of the snooze. Easy to do because I use my iPhone alarm, and you can just turn off the snooze option.

Second -I put my workout clothes on the floor by the bed. No hunting around in the dark getting grumpy.

Third – I read about this trick where instead of setting a sudden, unrealistic alarm of say, 5:00 a.m. if you usually get up at 7:05, instead set it back 5 minutes the first morning. That was easy! Then you set it back 5 more the next. And keep on going until you get to the actual start time you want. If you hit a time that is hard to wake up at, stick there until you can get past it.

It took me several months, but eventually I have gotten to the point where I am getting up just a little bit before my alarm most days. And I’ve added literally hours to my own personal time that I can use anyway I want.

I’m committed to my mini workout plan and a healthy breakfast, but there is time for reading (serious or social media), minor chores, goofing around with Mr. SuzerSpace – anything I want before the responsibilities of the day kick in.

And what good would any of this be if I didn’t craft myself a custom T-shirt?

I’m using my favorite freezer paper stencil method, and you can review the basic steps from my Later Gator or Crabby T-shirt posts. But to really encourage you to try this out, I want to show you a little twist.

I didn’t stencil this artwork on the front or the arm of the shirt where it would always be visible. To mix things up, I’ve stenciled this down low toward the bottom of the shirt, off center on purpose.

I really did it because I thought it would look good; I never tuck in a T-shirt. But the secondary reason is that by putting the artwork there, I can still use this T-shirt as a layer even for work. With a cardigan or sweater over it, that artwork isn’t visible, so it will just read as a basic black T-shirt.

But I’ll know the secret. I’m Team Early Bird all the way.

If you’d like to make your own Early Bird T-shirt, the cut file is available at my Etsy Shop.

Pin this so you can craft your own Team Early Bird T-shirt.

This post will be linked up at some of these great link up parties.