What I read:
The ‘5 to 9 Before 9 to 5’ Trend Isn’t for Everybody, but It May Be for You
Harvard happiness expert’s 6-step morning routine for better productivity
The Best Morning Routine to Help You Live a Longer Life
5 to 9 before 9 to 5: Why TikTok is obsessed with the hours before work
What I’m thinking:
I’ve been blogging about very early mornings for almost as long as the blog has existed. See here and here and here. That’s just three. There are many more!
These days my new health news is affecting my mornings. There’s already medication I need to take in the morning one hour before I eat. So I usually take that at 6 am and eat at 7, roughly. But now I have a new medication that also needs to be taken on an empty stomach, an hour before I eat, but it can’t be taken with the first one. Don’t ask. This means I’m getting up at 5 am and eating breakfast at 7.
So what to do with those two hours?
It’s not quite the full four hours of self care that people are talking about in the “5-9 before your 9-5” but it’s something. At 7, I’m switching modes to the usual morning stuff– shower, breakfast, packing lunch etc.
I don’t think of any of that as self- care. It’s just my usual before work daily routine. Also, my work day often starts at 8 or 8:30 so I don’t have the full 5-9 anyway.
From 5-7 am, I have a goal.
I’m trying to avoid lying in bed, doomscrolling. It’s bad for my health, my mental health, and generally starting the day upset and anxious isn’t the best for my stomach, my heart, my soul, my mood.
So at 5 am I’ve been gratitude posting, sharing my #ThreeGoodThings on social media. I do Wordle. And then at 6 am, I share the blog’s daily morning post to social media.
But there’s still time to do more.
Here’s my list of things to choose from:
🕰 Write. I joined a monthly writing challenge where the goal is to write 400 words a day, 5 out of 7 days a week.
📚 Read. I have a new reading lamp and a big stack of books.
🐕 Walk Cheddar. He loves early morning walks.
🚴♂️ Bike rides on Zwift. The Herd has a bunch of low key social early morning rides that I like.
🧘♀️ Home physio.
I want to resist the wildly ambitious “do all the things before work” mentality. I don’t want a strict schedule. In the Atlantic there’s piece called The Logic of the ‘9 to 5’ Is Creeping Into the Rest of the Day in which Julie Beck writes “When life revolves around work, even leisure becomes labor.” I don’t want that. I don’t need a wildly productive morning. I’m happy with a gentle start to my day.
So I think I’m going to let myself pick one or two each morning to focus on. The idea, for me, is just to do something that’s not scrolling. I’m already awake.
Today I did physio and walked Cheddar.
What do you do in the mornings before work?
Sunrise over the mountains, line drawing, Unsplash
I get up most weekday mornings around 4:50 am now. I’ve been a morning exerciser for a long time now, but a class I’ve been going to starts at 6:15 instead of 6:30 am and it’s a 30 min walk, minimum. I usually get up, go downstairs, take my vitamins, refresh the dog bowls, make espresso coffee for my husband and I, bring that upstairs. Sit and do Wordle and Connections while drinking my coffee, get dressed for the gym. Then I go to the gym. If I’m WFH that day, I walk back and get another coffee from my favourite place, en route. Usually I log into work by 8:15 am. If I’m going to the office, I’ll take the streetcar back, take a quick shower, dress for work, take the streetcar to work. If I have time, I’ll walk (days I don’t go to the gym first, I definitely walk to work. On the days I don’t go to the gym, I go for a jog around 6. On the weekend, I’m still up most days by 6. Have coffee/do puzzles, go to some form of workout. All this means that, most nights, I’m ready to start getting for bed by 8:30/9. Not sleeping right away, but getting ready and cozy.
I love my 5-9 routine! First breakfast; one hour of reading; dog walk; exercise; second breakfast!
I’m retired now, but when I was working, I usually went to the gym on my way to the office (traveling by bike much of the time). Before that, since I generally wake up starved, I always eat a big breakfast pretty much as soon as I get up. I feel extremely sorry for you having to wrestle with that med schedule. I found myself wondering what I would do if I ever end up with a comparable issue. My least favorite days are those that require fasting blood work, or (thank goodness it’s not very often) colonoscopy prep days – and actual days.
I might consider setting an alarm for the middle of the night to take one of the meds if that was an option time-wise. I’m at an age where getting up most nights to visit the bathroom is pretty normal, so it would probably not be nearly as disruptive as having to go two hours after waking up before eating.
Your system is impressive!
Alas my 5-9 involves waking children up, making breakfast and lunches, and getting them dressed and ready for school. Ideally, of course, I would sleep until noon.