I admit it: I’m terrible in the mornings. Terrible at getting up, terrible at starting work. I always feel half-asleep, usually for several hours.
Unfortunately, I need to get up, need to start work and get on with the day. Not having a real job, I don’t actually go to work. Being thus lacking in incentives like not getting fired, I have to find other ways to get me up and about.
This is where putting socks on comes in.
I don’t know precisely why it helps, but it does. Putting socks on is a declaration that I’m going to work. I’m not just sitting there, in my bedroom, fiddling about on my computer. I’m working. I am prepared for the day. I am going to Get Things Done. Putting socks on is a renunciation of apathy.
So, what do you do? What little rituals help put you in the right frame of mind to do a certain thing?
2 responses
It isn’t often that I do any serious writing at home anymore, but I feel the need to clean the entire place from top to bottom before I can get down to business in that regard. It’s a little procrastination, but it’s also because it’s just difficult to think with the clutter around, and frees up some space to work.
SquidDNA July 26th, 2005
Not only does one have to put ones socks on but one must also pull them up ;)
Seriously though I am trying to plot a scifi story and I have a lot of trouble because the effort of will interrupts creative sponteneity, this is my fault for choosing an impractical project. Apart from the ineffective ploy of endless finding-other-things-to-do which squid mentioned, one trick I use is a carefully crafted playlist alternating Bjork with The Cure which seems to have the desired effect.
booly July 31st, 2005