get to work 10 minutes early each day

OK, I only managed it for 2 weeks so far, and to be honest, sometimes I was only 5 minutes early BUUUT…

PLANNING to be 10 minutes early meant that I was only a touch concerned about making it to work 10 minutes early, and if I didn’t make it 10 min early then by default I ended up being 5 min early.

Whereas my former routine was to aim for being 5 min early-ish – I usually ended up arriving a little after that – meaning barely on time, and completely stressed about getting to work on time.
(This led to more expensive taxi rides, or walk/jogs in my winter coat than I’m willing to admit.)

Now mornings are less stressful, and that is good motivation to continue aiming for the 10-min-early mark!

Monday – 5 min early
(But I left my house and caught the subway I needed. The stupid bus left my connecting stop 2 minutes early, it was just driving away when I came up the steps from the subway. Argh – bus driver sabotage!!! But I walked instead, since I had 20 min ‘til work started.)
Tuesday – 10 min early _(yay!)
Wednesday – 10
Thursday – 5
Friday – 15

Tuesday – 5 min early
Wednesday – 15 min early
Thursday – 15 min early
Friday – 5 minutes early (oops!)

So far pretty good. Having it on 43T sure helps. I have been struggling with this ‘intention’ for a couple months now, but I seem to be kicking it. Maybe too early to get cocky about it.

However, I have NOT managed to go to bed earlier, so I should probably recycle that goal again.

I started setting 2 alarms – one to wake up and one for the time I’m SUPPOSED to leave my house.

Somehow I make it on time, but I’m just scraping by on that – for example, today I paid $7 for a 4-minute taxi ride. Arrived 5 min early. Would’ve been 5min late if I had walked.

Being late – even 2 minutes late, is a BIG deal in Japan. Not a big deal in that they’d say something to me, a big deal in that they’d write in my performance report exactly how many times I had been 5 minutes late, and which dates. Probably better to just call in sick for the whole day than be 5 minutes late. (Well, seems like it anyway!)

For the whole summer & fall I used to be a solid 10-15 minutes early.
The VP even said I could leave 15min early since I got there early.
Talk about positive reinforcement!
But I’m afraid I’ve lost my superstar status on that…

It was easier to get up early in summer, now it’s cold… I can’t ride my bike to work and the transit system actually takes LONGER.