Slow Mornings

[canyonwalker]

One of the things I used to pride myself on was being able to get up & out quickly. I could get up, do all the normal morning stuff including showering and getting dressed, repack my bag, and be rolling out the door in 25 minutes. That was huge when I was traveling frequently. I say "used to" and "was", though, because I've drifted into a different morning habit over the past year-plus.

Now I find I've habituated to a slow morning routine. I swat the snooze alarm a few times, sometimes several times, and then sit up in an armchair for 30-45 minutes catching up on personal mail and web surfing while gradually waking up fully. Then I shower and dress. It's often 90 minutes from the time of my first alarm until I'm ready to roll.

What's changed? The obvious things. And no, I don't mean "getting older". Coronavirus has killed business travel. Travel was always one of the occasions where speed and efficiency was important. I haven't traveled for work in nearly 18 months. (And it looks like even when business travel returns post-Covid it'll be way less frequent than before. But that's a topic for another blog.)

Coronavirus has also meant working from home. I only worked in my company office sporadically for the few years prior to the pandemic, but it was just often enough that I kept the habits of morning efficiency. Now with WFH being the new normal I've made different habits my new normal.

This morning I tried doing it fast to remind myself that I could. My "fast" wasn't really. I still snoozed my alarm a few times; then once I did get up, I still took 40 minutes until I was seated at my desk. Well, it's good enough for now. If and when frequent business travel or working in a company office becomes the new-new normal I'll re-readjust.

Comments

[culfinriel]

I think I'm depressed. Like, I need to have a motivation. Isolation from Covid and other stuff has been pretty severe. It is starting to have negative physical effects, too, but that probably hasn't reached irretrievable. Yet.

[canyonwalker]

I hear you. Motivation— or lack thereof— is a factor here. The backsliding situation with Covid and the continued isolation that's a consequence of it are demotivating. For me, work has also become demotivating. When work is engaging it lifts my spirits, often enough to overcome many of the negatives occurring in other aspects of life. But right now my job disappoints me every time I think about it. I know that at least some of my morning slowness is lack of motivation to start the workday. But it bleeds into non-work days, too.