One of the most popular questions our ABC15 Mornings team gets is, "What time do you wake up?"
So our own Danielle Lerner is giving you an inside look by detailing a typical day:
5 p.m. the night before: The trick to surviving the morning shift is discipline and routine. An extra bedroom or bathroom doesn't hurt either if you're married or live with someone. Every night I set out my clothes, makeup, jewelry anything I might need the next day, so that once my alarm goes off I don't keep my husband awake while I'm getting ready. It also keeps me from having to get ready in the dark!
6:30 p.m. the night before: Bed time! I function best on 8+ hours of sleep but since that's nearly impossible on this shift, I do my best to get to bed between 6:30 and 7 p.m. A former boss joked I was born to do mornings since I can pretty much fall asleep any time, anywhere!
1:30 a.m.: I'm a big fan of the snooze button, so my first alarm goes off at 1:15 a.m. I try to be up by 1:30 a.m., but know I can push it to 1:40 a.m. if I have to and still make it out the door on time! I do my makeup at home, most stations don't have professional stylists, so I'm just about TV ready when I leave the house. I always have coffee or a homemade latte in hand because caffeine is a must.
3 a.m. - 4:30 a.m.: By the time I get to the station, our producers have already been working since the night before, building our newscasts and writing most of our stories. My co-anchors and I spend the hours before the newscasts writing stories, going over the day's top stories, checking web sites and talking with the reporters, basically helping in any way we can. Then it's into the Makeup Room to put our final touches on hair and makeup (yes, the guys wear some makeup too).
4:30 a.m.-7 a.m.: We are live on the air and streaming live online, bringing you breaking news, weather, traffic, everything you need to know to start your day. We're also on Facebook, Twitter and abc15.com to make sure we're relaying as much information to our viewers as possible. News can change by the second and there are so many moving parts that our viewers never see. It's a true team effort with people in front of and behind the camera all working together to make the newscast as seamless as possible.
7 a.m.-9 a.m.: Our entire morning team has a quick meeting right after the newscast, to go over what went well and what we can improve, and then Dan, Chris and I trade off doing our live news cut-ins. They air every 25 minutes during "Good Morning America".
9 a.m.-12 p.m.: If I'm anchoring the 11 a.m. newscast I will usually take a minute to eat lunch (yes, "lunch" is at 9 or 10 a.m.) at my desk, then start preparing by reading scripts, going over the newscast with our producer and preparing for any guests we may have. Otherwise, I'll spend the rest of my day putting together stories to air in future newscasts. A photographer and I go out and shoot interviews or other elements we need, then I write and edit them together. We also create content for abc15.com and our station's Facebook and Twitter accounts. I usually wrap up my day between noon and 12:30 p.m.
12:30 p.m.-3 p.m.: I work out, run errands and will occasionally nap if I have to stay up a littler later than usual.
3:30 p.m.: Dinner time!
5 p.m.-6:30 p.m.: Prepare for the next day and head to bed!
