Tuning the Routine

I wasn't too happy about last week's steamy bus incident. And the next morning when I was again waiting at Sullivan, I saw the same bus rolling up, again with all its windows open. I stepped aside and again waited for a different bus; that one went to Central, so I had to jump on the Red Line to get the rest of the way to work.

The margin of error in my commute is already precarious, and I hate the idea of being late due to not wanting to ride on a bus without air conditioning. Over the past couple of weeks I'd been assessing my morning routine, trying to see if I could tighten it up enough to leave the house earlier. When I started this assignment, leaving later was working better for me, but that has ceased to be true. And I was finding that I would almost be ready to leave when the earlier bus came—I was off by maybe three minutes. (The buses run every 20 minutes in the mornings, so I have to aim for a specific time to be ready to leave.)

I came to the conclusion that I needed to start getting up earlier. Not by much, but if I wanted my mornings to go more smoothly, I needed a bit more time. Last Friday I happened to be ready early enough to catch that earlier bus, and I arrived at work 15 minutes earlier than I'd been getting there. That also meant I could leave earlier, which is just a bonus. So Sunday night I backed up my alarm by 10 minutes, and that seems to be the difference I needed. Yesterday and today my routine has worked better and I've been able to leave the house in time to catch that earlier bus. And I'm avoiding the no-AC bus as well.

(No hitting the snooze bar either; when the music comes on, I get up. It's disorienting for the first few minutes, but it gets easier. Now I have to work on getting to sleep earlier...)