How to Survive Daylight Savings

I am not going to complain about Daylight Savings.

I am not going to complain about Daylight Savings.

Monday, I had a conference call for work. The conference call has always been at 930am. Always, for the past three months. Well, 930 Pacific Standard Time. The other ten people on this call are in Phoenix, AZ. So, this call has always been at 1030am Mountain Standard Time for them. Along comes our buddy, Daylight Savings, and all of us West Coasters are on the call at 930am like usual… only 930am is now 830am MST, thanks to daylight savings. No one from Phoenix made the call- they dialed in at 1030 am MST (now also PST) as usual.

Note to self– when working with Phoenix people, YOU need to adjust your Outlook calendar, not them.

So, what other tips have a I learned this Spring Forward? Well, I’m going to share them with you. I used to absolutely dread Daylight Savings like it was the dentist- on filling day. I love sleep, so I have a really hard time when I have to lose an hour of it. It’s almost like I end up with jet lag – without ever traveling anywhere. This year, however, I made it through Daylight Savings unscathed, and I’m going to share with you how.

5 Tips to Surviving Spring Forward:

1. Get up early the Sunday of Spring Forward. You heard me. I know this sounds counter-intuitive… but if you get up earlier, you’ll be tired earlier, and your day will seem more full. It won’t seem like you’ve lost an hour. If you normally get up at 8, get up at 7. I inadvertently did this (I set an 8am vet appointment on Sunday, and was therefore forced to wake up early). It didn’t seem that bad, and when it was bedtime, I was ready.

2. Remind yourself it is a rite of passage into summer. If Spring Forward is happening, that means spring is happening which means summer is almost here, and summer means beachtime and a natural glow. Free vitamin D. Longer days and coatless nights.

3. It was established purely to enjoy more daylight hours. That is something to celebrate- right? The opportunity for more sunlight?

4. It’s less torturous than in years past. As of 2007, the US Daylight Savings begins the second Sunday of March through the first Sunday of November. Prior to that, it was April to October. In other words, we got to sleep in an hour later for two more months than we do now. So it’s possible the transition was more difficult when we had a full six months of the extra hour.

5. Just change the damn clocks. I like to leave one clock on the old time, just to make sure my cell phone, computer etc did switch. But it’s like traveling, the sooner you just change all the clocks, the sooner you’ll be in ‘normal’ time.

I think Daylight Savings is as kooky as the next person. If I want to resist it, I can move to a country on the equator, most of Africa, Puerto Rico, Arizona or Hawaii. But we gotta deal with it, and if we have to deal with it- we may as well enjoy it the best we can (plus it only sucks for like two-three days, realistically, c’mon!!!).