I am a morning person.

But to be clear, I am a morning person because I enjoy having that time to myself. To plan out my day, to go for a workout, to have some time to think and enjoy the quiet.

Since I have arrived here, I have realized my mornings are no longer mine. When I wake up around 5AM, it is 1PM on the East Coast: yesterday. I am immediately greeted by many (many) emails, a bunch of Slack messages, a number of texts and, generally, calls that start at 6:30AM, if I’m running late. And when I start my series of calls, I have to be completely on it and ready to go, having digested the emails and Slacks and texts already—plus any materials that clients may send me ahead of our calls. By the time I’m done with the calls, it’s about 11AM (7PM on the East Coast—people are starting to wind down). So then I get to go back through all the emails and Slack messages and actually get to work.

But here’s the good news.

I have realized that most things actually take care of themselves. That had I been in the same time zone, I would have lost quite a bit of time reading and responding to emails that I didn’t necessarily need to be involved in. I would have been distracted from my actual work by responding and chiming in. Instead, by starting my day at the end of my team’s day, I can quickly synthesize what has happened and see the three to four items that really need my attention. I am more efficient.

Ever wondered how much of our time is spent doing things we don’t actually need to be doing? I hadn’t, but now I’m learning it—because I don’t have a choice.

I don’t like waking up with this sort of a jolt, and I hate feeling like I live in the future but I’m behind on the past.

But I do love a more efficient process.

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Frederique

Hi. I'm Frederique. You can call me Fred. I am the founder and CEO of Her Corner Inc., a global network of women business owners committed to growth in their businesses. When I'm not managing the business operations of Her Corner, you can find me either running accelerator programs for Her Corner members or at the Kogod School of Business at American University where I teach entrepreneurship, business management and organizational behavior. I am passionate about the topic of Entrepreneurship, and in particular the State of Entrepreneurship for Women.

Latest posts by Frederique (see all)

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