Today, for example, we learned that President Obama (it is so awesome to type that) "shows up at the Oval Office shortly before 9 in the morning, roughly two hours later than his early-to-bed, early-to-rise predecessor. Mr. Obama likes to have his workout — weights and cardio — first thing in the morning, at 6:45." (Full story is here. He eats breakfast with his family every morning. Obama is so friggin' cool.)
What's interesting is that nearly everyone profiled is a morning person, in that they do something substantive and meaningful (usually exercise, writing, or exercise then writing) first thing in the morning. In fact, when one calculates the aggregate, it becomes clear that most of the profiled individuals do their most important personal item as soon as they wake up.
I'm terming it a "most important personal item" because, for example, President Obama's exercise is probably categorically less important than most of the other stuff he does all day; but it is probably top-of-his-list in the category of "things he needs to do to take care of his person; things that no one else can do but him."
Exercise and writing.
(I exercise every morning. I don't write. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if I did write, but I haven't made time for both and so I choose exercise.)
Anyway. The point of this is that, about a year ago when I was all career-search-angsty, I tried to do an exercise in which I wrote out my ideal daily routine (in the hopes that it would illuminate the types of jobs I should pursue). I was going to poke fun at that post, since--before I re-read it--I could only remember that my then-ideal daily routine consisted of starting every day with eggs for breakfast. (I was a starving grad student at the time. Eggs were a novelty.)
But when I went back to check, I had actually written that I would start every day with yoga, then eat eggs, then bike/Xootr to work.
And here's my current daily routine:
6:00 a.m. Wake up. (I used to wake up at 5:45, then realized that it actually took me longer to get ready with less sleep.)
6:02. Drink large glass of water. I learned this one from French Women Don't Get Fat. It changed my mornings.
6:15-7:30. Yoga, either at yoga class or in my apartment.
7:30-7:50. Check Twitter, email, Google Reader. Tweet.
7:50-8:30. Shower, etc.
8:30-9:00. Walk 1.7 miles to work. 3,900 steps from apartment to office.
Breakfast isn't eggs, but has become a ritual of Kashi GoLean! Crunch with homemade yogurt. In the evenings I walk the 3,900 steps back to my apartment, and I don't have a true evening "routine," though there's usually cooking involved and I'm experimenting with trying to read something substantial before bed (instead of reading internets).
So there you go.
But now I'm curious: what are your daily routines? Can we meme this thing out? Do you also get up and do something vital first thing, or is yours more of an XKCD morning?
2 comments:
I need a daily routine. Or at least something resembling one. Part of the problem is that I need to stick at the office until the job is done - which can mean 11 or 12 hour workdays, like today. Then I get home & don't want to do anything but relax, end up staying up too late, and then get up too late in the morning. My life-work balance really sucks at the moment.
Anyways, my ideal schedule would look like this:
6:00 am - Get up, change into running clothes, go running with the dogs.
6:45-7:00 - Return from running, feed dogs, jump in the shower.
7:30-8:00 - Eat breakfast & catch up on the news.
8:00-9:00 - Something productive, then off to work.
7:00 pm - Arrive home (hah! - it's almost always closer to 8 on the good days), and take the dogs for a walk.
7:45-8:30 - Cook, clean up the house & eat dinner.
8:30-10:00 - Something productive, then off to bed.
your morning sounds incredibly fine-tuned. I'd like to wake up at five and get some writing done before breakfast time at the zoo hits. I'm going to try today.
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