kestrel

kestrel
2019-11-14 21:16:02 (UTC)

Prompt 049: Morning Routines

49. What is the importance of having a morning routine? Are your mornings usually identical from day to day or do they change? Is one way better than the other? Why or why not?
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During the work week (in my case, Monday through Friday), days are largely identical. I report to an office every day of the workweek (working from home is possible, but in my case it's rare), and I'm there over 8 hours a day. I am the head instructor generally every other month of the year. I also facilitate evening classes on occasion.

I mention this because my mornings, too, are largely homogeneous. When we have clients in, I set up coffee in the mornings. I most often "wipe down" the tables in our training room with antibacterial wipes (because I'm concerned about people spreading germs during the training, and classrooms are notorious petri dishes). I make and eat my breakfast. I do a handful of other things pretty much the same every single day I'm at the office: some not-so-good, but mostly good.

I dare say that organization and in particular morning routines are symptoms of productive people. I'm not saying this just because I think I have a solid morning routine. Note that all manner of habits can be part of a morning routine - and I did qualify earlier that both good and not-so-good things are part of my personal morning routine.

Ugh. I realize now that I'm ashamed of one of my morning routine items. I play an old-skool online game as part of my morning routine at the office (and on weekends, too). It's something I learned about earlier this year. It's a game called "Legend of the Red Dragon" or LORD for short. It was originally one of those old "door games" on BBS'es back in the day. Like the early- and mid-1990's. When dial-up Internet connections went the way of the dodo, so did BBS'es and door games. Then someone figured out how to emulate a telnet connection, emulate a BBS interface, and the rest is history. Time is sucked away from people like me.

I need to stop playing that game. It's fun. But it takes all my attention, and I could be turning that attention to something more useful - particularly when it comes to my day job. I can play video games at literally any other time of my day. So this needs to stop. Today is my last day. I'll uninstall the telnet emulator tomorrow morning. I will write this into my day planner tonight, while I have adequate willpower, so that I'll feel like shit if I don't do it when I tell myself I will.

...So now I'm adjusting my morning routine. How about that?

Full disclosure: it's been a weird day today. So maybe that's why I'm not concerned about my willingness to do something a bit more drastic or reactionary (at least, as long as it affects only me, and not others).

I should write at least a little about the strangeness of what's been going on this week. To sum up (and to echo an earlier sentiment), some things have been good and some things have been not-so-good.
- I'm hosting a lunch for my coworkers at a local restaurant early next month, using some of my settlement money to pay for it
- I'll be on vacation for a week at an oceanside resort town for some peace and quiet in the off-season, in about a week from now
- The city I work in has racked up it's 300th murder this year, and my emotions are all over the place about it
- I had a discussion online where I expressed my dismay with Twitter as an online platform, and I think I started to get sick of listening to "armchair radicals" tell me how uncool I was for not being in on it or whatever
- I set up a month-long sabbatical from my day job so I can visit an ecological retreat/laboratory in mid-2020 so I can learn about permaculture, sustainable construction, and other ecologically-sound lifestyle practices

Not really much in the way of reflection. But dropping that bad habit in the mornings will be something that made all this worth it.




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