I pray the first hour at 6:30, then the morning prayers at 7am - then the third hour at 9:00 am, then the noon office (6th hour) (in full) between noon and 12:30 pm - then the 9th hour at 3pm. If I can't sleep, as soon as I get out of the bed to go do something else, I pray the mid-night office no matter what time it is. I have reminders set for me for fifteen minutes in advance - so that if I get busy doing something I can wrap it up and go pray. I also do not use incense during the hour prayers.
This is wonderful! I wish I was able to stick to a similar rule.
I'm curious though, why, since the Morning Prayers are but an abbreviation of the Midnight Office, you pray them after the 1st Hour and not before?
I'm not sure I understand the question. . . heh. . .maybe I have my hours mislabeled? I'll look at my lunch break and see if I made a goof.
In the mean time, I'll feed back to you what I think you mean. . .and you can straighten me out from there, if you don't mind.
I didn't know that the morning prayers were an abbreviated version **newbie here

** - and the super abbreviated version I pray if can't sleep is nothing like the morning prayers I use (the Morning Prayers from the Antiochian Liturgy Book) . . .hmmmm. I'll have to look at the long version and see if the short versions I use for praying the hours are actually in the same context.
Is this what you meant?
I tend to pray the 1st hour first because the prayers listed in the web site are a statement of faith that He will hear me in the morning. . .a good step into my morning prayers. A good moment to wake up and smell the coffee too. . .so that I'm fully awake and alert once I get to the Morning Prayers.
Does this matter? (Honestly asking. . .because I seriously don't know.)