The Ponytail Plan

Clearly it hurt to get up in the middle of the night this morning in the dark, when for the past week the only reason I had woken up during darkness was to pee, have a sip of water, blow my nose, or a combination of the three. Having to respond to an alarm that blinked 5:20 was torture. Thank god I could hear my coffee brewing downstairs.

But then I had a moment of clarity. While I was putting on my mascara, just after I remembered that I still needed to fill out discipline referrals on some students who cheated on a quiz before vacation, it occurred to me that I can make my life a little easier these next couple of months while it’s cold and dark in the morning and I’m craving more sleep. How?

Ponytails.

Yes, I spend lots of money to keep my hair styled and “the right color,” but who the hell really cares if I wear it down? In fact, half of why I keep my hair long (well, shoulder length) is so that I can pull it back on those early mornings. Why not just commit to them for the next couple of months? Showers will take 10 minutes in the morning and will not require the 20 minutes of hairstyling, which needs to follow 15 – 30 minutes of air-drying time, which means—yes—I get an extra 30-45 minutes of sleep! Every day! I can wash and dry my hair at night, when I’m just hanging out watching TV. Because really what’s more important? Knowing that Russell Brand and Katy Perry broke up, or having a strategy for sanity and sleep (and clean hair)? Plus, it’s not like Access Hollywood and Extra don’t cover the same celebrity news stories back to back.

Won’t it be nice to put my hair in a ponytail because it was the plan all along, not because I couldn’t get my a*s out of bed and hit snooze 3 times and it was the only thing I could do to make it to school in time. With The Ponytail Plan in place, I’ll start my day having accomplished something: sticking to a plan, not feeling defeated—again.

And getting off to a good start is a good start...