The story of how I began to run my schedule, rather than my schedule running me

Today was "back to school" day.  I made a last-ditch effort to get all my grading done last night in about 3 hours, which meant I didn't go to bed until after 2am (and I didn't get the grading done.  Oops.).  Before I went to bed, though, I instilled resolution #1 for 2013:  to run my schedule rather than my schedule running me.  I described my morning to my friend Becka as such:

"Right now I get up at 6:30am and I have to leave for work at 7:05.  So, basically, I shower, drag a brush through my hair, throw the dog outside while I nuke my oatmeal, then fly out the door grabbing everything I see, and arrive at school looking something like a pack mule."

It's no way to live.

So, the logical way to solve the problem is to wake up earlier, right?  Have I mentioned that I'm not so much of a morning person?  No matter: enter the new year's resolution: running my schedule.  I can decide to become more of a morning person...right?  So before I went to bed, I wrote out the following schedule, tracking backward from the time I need to leave for work.

7:00am -- leave for work (which is really "gather up all my crap and try to get to the car by 7:05")
6:50am -- walk Gatsby
6:25am -- make and eat breakfast
5:55am -- shower/get ready
5:45am -- write morning pages (from The Artist's Way...another resolution I'll talk about another time)

Doesn't seem so bad, right?  It's a starting point, I figured.  What actually happened was I found it impossible to open my eye at 5:45am.  They opened at 6:15.  Whatever, eyes, I can make that work--I have a resolution! I skipped the morning pages and skipped that luxurious 25 minute breakfast time I dream of.  But, Gatsby got his walk, and I ended up leaving early enough that I had time to stop for coffee on the way to work.

That's me running my schedule right there, people.

Tomorrow morning I'll try it again.  The nice thing about a resolution is that it's based in the word "resolve."  Intention.  I wasn't perfect today--but I was a lot better than I would have been without intention.  Without resolve.  There will still be mornings where I'll oversleep, where my eyes won't cooperate, or where I simply decide "forget this, I'm sleeping longer."  Of course.  Tomorrow morning, though, I will wake up before 6:15.  Maybe 6:10.  Baby, resolved steps.

After all, that 25 minute breakfast is waiting.