Prior to the pandemic, I woke up most mornings at 5 or 5:15 a.m. I would meditate for 20-30 minutes, while my coffee brewed. I would drink my coffee while I read the paper, wrote a little, and/or surfed the web for porn (typically checking my four favorite sites for their daily updates). At about 6, I would shower and dress. I would make sure the family was starting to move forward at 6:30, at which point I would do some dishes and get some breakfast ready, all so that, by 7:20 or 7:25 I could head out the door with my son. (We share 80% of our commutes.)
In the early days of quarantine, everything changed. I slept a bit later, as I had no commute and as my son’s day no longer featured getting up before 9 or so. I simulated a commute, walking for 20-30 minutes before my work day began typically at 8 or 8:15.
By May 2020, though, I began returning to my office. And until my son returned in-person to school – this past Fall – I would wake at 5 as before, meditate, surf, shower, and then – I would leave. At 6:30 a.m. A solid hour earlier than in my pre-pandemic days. Some mornings, I would stretch. Others, I would work out. Other times, I just began work an hour earlier. Or wrote. Or something else.
Of course, in the Fall, my son did return to in-person school (for his final year of that!). And our household schedule essentially returned to its pre-pandemic normal.
Until the last month or so.
In the last month or so, I’ve inserted two variations – one voluntary, one involuntary. My voluntary variation: after my meditation in the morning, I’ve begun heading to the gym. I can arrive at the gym – 10 minutes from my house – at 5:30, and I can be back home at 6:35 or so. I kinda like that addition. It moves my workout to the very start of my day, and it gets me out the door with my blood pumping for work.
The other, involuntary, variation? It seems I now just wake up some time between 4-4:45.
That? I could do without.