I saw this prompt on my dashboard this evening and it gave me pause. Not because I don’t have a clear answer, but because of how much my life has changed since I was growing up.

Up until my years as a college student I was almost always able to stay up late and sleep in until well into the morning.

Even later on, I’d like to think of myself as someone who’s more of a night person.

Then, I got my first real job far away from family and my ability to sleep through the night without paying attention to sounds (like the creaking of the forest outside that particular house) went completely away.

And yet, even with the earlier mornings, I still tended to stay up late rather than rise early.

Fast forward about a decade and age has finally started to catch up with me. It is getting harder and harder to stay up as late as I used to enjoy, and this is where the discipline aspect comes in and ties everything back to my current profession.

I don’t do well without decompression and quiet time.

As a middle school teacher, that is a precious commodity I don’t get nearly enough of.

So I did what one does, I started getting up earlier before my house mates. Before the world, really.

All to enjoy some quiet reading and a cup of coffee before the marathons and sprints of the day begin. To have some time to myself to spiritually recharge before the endless to-do’s pile in stacks on my desks and counters. To have a moment of serenity where I’m not checking my list of assignments as I work on my assignments for my courses.

So the answer is morning, but it’s also a little of both. When I’m free to my own devices I crave the creativity of the night and the freedom of not having to go to work the next day. During a busy work week, it’s the opposite, my discipline kicks in and I’m going for the same creativity, just in the invigorating early hours of the morning, rather than the sleepy hours of late night.