Hacking my morning schedule

I've always envied those people who can wake up at 7:00 and be at work by 7:30, but only in that vague way I envy Olympic gold medalists: it sounds great but it's not something I've ever been in the running for. The way I wake up is "slow and stupid, and with no sense of time". Even after the snoozing of the alarm clock ends, I fall victim to random trances when sitting at the computer, sitting on the couch, standing in the shower, and forgetting which way I meant to walk. As a result, it's always taken me 1.5 to 2 hours to get out of the house.

The last really effective tweak I made to my morning schedule was in April, when I decided to not turn on my computer in the mornings. It keeps me out of a trance (I do wake up verbal) and gets me to work faster.

Well, I'm trying a new hack:



Not the husband, he's past the trial stage, I mean the elliptical machine. For the last two workweeks, with the exception of Election Day, I've gone over to it first thing in the morning and slogged away for 20 or 30 minutes (30 is normal, 20 is "I overslept"). This is my first-ever attempt at morning cardio and it's working a lot better than I thought it would:

• The time goes fast, maybe because it never takes longer than it ought to. 30 minutes is exactly 30 minutes.
• The time is made up for completely by my getting ready for work afterward at awake-person speed instead of asleep-person speed -- so to my surprise I don't have to get up earlier in order to do it.
• I can read on the machine, which feels like a guilty indulgence, while actually being virtuous.
• I'm awake and hungry when it's over, so I'm eating breakfast earlier and definitely revving my metabolism. I'm starving by lunchtime these days.
• Obviously, I'm working out more if I've added 2.5 hours of cardio to my week, even if it's low-intensity, and so I feel less sluglike on the 2 days/week I don't have a regular workout.

The most difficult part of the morning is now the 10 minutes it takes me to (slowly, stupidly) put on exercise clothes, feed the cats, get a drink and walk to the machine. And then there's the first few minutes on the machine, but only going straight to the interval program really hurts. Anything that ramps up gently is quite painless. It's good to wear layers so that one layer can peel off after 10 minutes.

What the web says to do in a recession

I've had some fun in the last two days searching the web for "things to do" recession, which brings up a lot of blog posts and articles with 3, 10, or 20 recommendations. All of them seem to assume the declining economic indices are affecting everyone, and a surprising number of them recommend starting a blog (heh). Here are some prevailing attitudes:

Snarky: Take up whatever instrument you played in high school. Clarinet players are excused.

Zen: embrace the empty shikishi board.

Condescending: Conversation. Conversation was perfected during the Renaissance, after people stopped the incessant prayer that characterized the tedious High Middle Ages. Here's how it works: Two or more people discuss issues that concern at least one of them. One person says one thing. Another says another. Pretty soon, everybody's talking. Then you go home.

Obvious: Buy stocks - the old adage, “buy low, sell high” applies well when the stock market is doing poorly.

Snarky part deux: Start a blog on depression. Think of the audience you can get.

Techno-escapist: Any time I want designer clothes, I can get them for my sims. Instead of spending thousands of dollars remodelling my kitchen, I just satisfy my travertine-envy by pimping out a sim domicile.

Inhumane: Read every book in your house before buying another one.

I find it hard to get either too cavalier or too excited about this "recession" thing. Plenty of people do well during hard times, and poorly during good times, so not everyone needs to adapt for it. Also, basic principles of living below one's means don't change much. It's nice to see this country's news media focusing more on frugality, but I don't like seeing it depicted as a strategy only for when the Fed's in a frenzy.