A New Routine
My daily routine has changed a lot lately.
My partner works as a teacher, and if you didn't know that's a pretty insecure line of work in Scotland at the moment. She's spent a while out of work this last year so I got very into the habit of waking up whenever the fuck I felt like it as long as I got online before my work's core hours started at 10. It was irregular and honestly didn't spark joy. I'm hard to wake up at the best of times, but without a routine it's even worse - it's genuinely like waking up from anaesthesia some days.
She's back at work now, and on real teacher time now - waking up at 5:30 and leaving the house an hour or so later. This isn't too far from how we used to do things when we lived in London, but starting back into this routine in the middle of Scottish Winter has been rough after months of rolling out of bed at 9. I was struggling with it for the first few weeks, but I think I've found a routine that works now.
The first key thing is that I organise the food. The first thing I do when I wake up is make my partner breakfast - and I mean the first thing. I do not stop to think until the tea is brewing. On days when I've actually got a clean kitchen and my faculties in check this might mean scrambled eggs, but generally the gift of breakfast is that she hasn't had to make it so it's just vital that I provide something. Sometimes I wake up closer to 6 so it's good to have some quick options available, but I can get from waking up to a full cooked breakfast with tea in 7 minutes these days.
Once that's sorted I'll handle any ablutions and get dressed - no getting back into bed, that way lies madness. This is where the second key comes into play - I don't actually have food or coffee until after 8am. I find this opens up the morning for other tasks, walks, trips to the shop, whatever. Lately, that's meant tuning into the top division and a half or so of the Grand Sumo Basho (Midnight Sumo has been a godsend this week). It also stops me getting too hungry before lunch, because I've learned in the past that makes me fucking miserable.
I'm able to start my work as early as 7:30 and have it be properly on the clock, so I do that, and it gives me such a long run-up to my day compared to my colleagues that it reminds my why I used to be in the office at 8. Nobody complains about me logging off at 4pm when they haven't been online before me in months.
The part that's easier than I thought it'd be is getting to bed at a reasonable hour. Used to be I was fucking feral, clawing for every minute of wakefulness before I have to sleep - and by extension, wake up for work. Now that I can take like 3 hours to get ready for work in the morning should my mood call for it, I'm way happier to get into bed and settle down before 10pm. Hell, I just saw the clock hit 20:00 and thought "maybe I should finish this in the morning?"
Changed days.
I'm broadly a lot happier with this routine, but the one downside is that the tiredness I feel in the afternoon is actual bodily fatigue rather than the previous "all I've done today is work" exhaustion I'd get rolling out of bed to my desk still in my jammies. There's something about having to fight off actual nap impulses in a boring 3pm meeting that I do not like - sets my teeth on edge to be visibly sleepy at work. I'm working on that with probably-too-much coffee, and upping my water intake.
I might be able to resolve it longterm by just getting good at being up early. It's a shame that literally everything in my life points to a terminal inability to form habits.