clock

I am a creature of habit & ritual. Right down to my body's clock.

Yeah, there's some backstory. Read on.

Starting yesterday (and finishing tomorrow), i'm attending a 3-day course that's under development for Apple University on QuickTime Streaming. Everyday, the class starts at 8:45. I live in San Francisco. Apple is in Cupertino.

A normal commute (read: non-rush hour) takes me about 45 minutes each way. During rush hour (which starts somewhere between 7:30 and 7:45, as far as i can tell, and ends by 9am), it takes almost twice that time to reach work. I loathe sitting in traffic. I especially loathe it at a time of day when i'm usually waking up, putting coffee on, and puttering about to the shower.

So, i've been getting up around 6, and leaving my house around 7. Putting me at work just before 8. I find that getting up a few hours earlier and having to function does much more interesting things to my body than staying up a few extra hours. I think this is becauase my bedtime often moves around, while my wake-up time stays pretty static. (There's also the small factor that i'm a night person in the first place, so my body chemistry is a lot more malleable then.)

Yesterday was pretty interesting. The effects were definitely more pronounced than just losing a few hours of sleep. My body tried really hard to crash at 1, and again at 3, and again at 5. Around 11:30, i conducted an interview. I found myself queueing up questions in my head as usual, but they kept wandering out of line, out the door, and to play in the street. Again, this is still all much more pronounced than if i had gone to bed a few hours later.

So back to the habit; the routine.

I think, fundamentally, that my daily routine starts when i get up. Including what *time* i get up. My morning rituals are important too - if i don't get to shower as i start my day, i feel fuzzy-headed all day. Even if i get the shower later. If i don't get 20 minutes with a cup of coffee, and my email, i get *very* cranky. (Even if, say, i have the coffee in hand and am driving. It's the sitting quietly with the cup that is as important as drinking the coffee and mainlining the caffeine.) Even goofier are the tiny rituals with Russell every morning - but i won't subject you to all of those. (Noone should be subject to just how goofy we are behind closed doors; even for the sake of example points.) Ritual is powerful, and habit and routine are definitely tied up in my life's daily ritual.

And when i go to bed just isn't part of my habit, routine, or ritual. It just helps determine how much rest i get. So this whole getting up really early thing? They're thrashing my ritual! That's why it has so much impact!

That, or i'm getting old. ;)

Posted by meriko at March 28, 2002 08:37 AM