BennyEast.Com/Blog The official blog of Kenny West

The Early Bird Gets The Worm

"Yeah, but what if I don't like worm."

"Too bad.  Worm is what's on the menu.  Enjoy your worm!"

"Hey you know, this worm is pretty good.  Not too bad.  I'm not really big on worm but this worm isn't bad worm."

So today I got up SUPER early and went into work early.  It wasn't bad.  Tomorrow I'm back to the normal time.  SO, thats awesome.  It will probably feel almost like I'm sleeping in.  Yesterday I went in early too.  I'm happy to be back to the normal time.  I feel like once in a while though, I might go in early just for kicks.

Well, okay, what I mean is... When you're early, it just makes it feel like you're more on top of things.

It's interesting to come super early to work.  I mean, I'm not talking about 15 or 30 minutes.  I was a full hour and a half early.

It just feels like the day starts off on the right foot.  I think maybe once a month, I might just do that.  Come a good hour and a half early.

It also makes the regular day seem shorter.  If you make a long day every once in a blue moon, it will give you something to contrast things against.

See, I mean, I've been at the same job and the same organization basically my entire adult working life.  SO, I don't really have much to compare it against.

I know a lot of people change jobs every couple years, some even every few months!

I've just happened to have stayed where I'm at.  I'm always 9-5.  It's really 9-5 with an hour lunch.  It's supposedly a 7 hour work day.  I used to do that back in the day when I was a young one.  But, now a days I just eat lunch at my desk and remote in after hours... And come early sometimes.  And I'll remote over weekends generally too.

My coworker on the other hand refuses to do any of that.  He's strictly his hours, doesn't check his email outside of work, doesn't remotely connect... Etc. etc.  He's entitled to do as he pleases.

Different strokes for different folks I guess.  He has a wife and kid though, and I'm just a single guy, so I don't really have any obligations outside of my cats.

I'm one of those people who likes to go a little above and beyond though.  But that's just how I am.

Seriously though, the early bird does seem to get the worm... Now, whether you like worm or not is a different story...

But, like today... Going in early, it just makes you feel more in control of your work.

Also, if you're spotted being there early, people kind of give you that vibe like... "Oh... Hey... Look at you... Coming in all early and what not."

The opposite is true too if you show up late.

If you show up late, even by 10 minutes, at least when I do, it throws off my whole day.  I hate it.  I can barely focus.  I feel like I can't accomplish anything.

Anyways tomorrow... I'll be exactly on time.  I might aim for ten minutes early.  We'll see.

And whether or not I like worm, I'm still going to have some worm maybe once a month.

Just kind of get up randomly and come in maybe an hour and some change early.

All I know is that this week, my boss's boss wasn't going to my coworker to "check in" on things and "get updates on the phone carrier switchover..." She was coming to me.

Is that a good thing?  Who knows.  Just something I noticed.

But that's the thing, if you volunteer to show up earlier than your regular work hours... It makes people look at you differently.  You can just tell.  They look at you in a way, almost as if to say... This employee seems slightly more responsible than I previously thought they were.  I'll keep that in mind for the future.

But most importantly though with this whole worm thing... I don't know, surprisingly I liked it.  I thought I would really kind of be annoyed possibly, or just hate being there so early... I didn't even bother to leave exactly 8 hours after I arrived.

I was just like, I'll just stay my normal hours on top of the early bit.  I mean, I really didn't mind.  It was interesting.  I don't much care for worm usually... But today... You know the rest.