Rolling with one change a month…April…
In a previous post I wrote about rolling into the new year with a plan to make one change a month this year. That post was the introduction to the series and my idea was to write about each change in a separate post. I’ve been resisting this structure a bit, because I’m trying to keep this blog unstructured and maintain it as a free-form forum for my thoughts. I’ve been bouncing back and forth on this approach and have decided, at least for today, to just roll with it and write the second entry in the series.
It’s getting pretty close to the end of April and I really haven’t implemented a change yet. I did sign-up to volunteer at a community garden, which was the original goal. Given scheduling difficulties, I haven’t had an opportunity to get started with it yet.
I did start a daily coffee routine last week. As I made coffee this morning, I decided to make this the change for April. It feels a little bit like cheating, however in the spirit of just rolling with it, I decided to give myself permission to make this the change for April.
The idea was first intoduced to me through Tim Ferriss’ post about the secret coffee ritual performed by Apple’s design team. This stuck in the back of my mind for a while, especially since I had began making coffee in a Chemex pot about a year before reading the article.
Choosing the Chemex represented something to me when I chose it a while ago, however I wasn’t quite sure what it represented at the time. I did realize that choosing this way to make coffee was also making a conscious choice to take a bit more time making coffee each morning, since it was a manual process.
Thinking about the article and my choice of the Chemex method started to connect, as I realized I had slowly been taking steps toward starting my own morning coffee routine. Right now, I’m fortunate enough to have an extra 10 minutes in the morning to do this and as a result, decide to take it one step further, by grinding my own beans. I ordered an inexpensive, quality, ceramic burr grinder and started to get really excited in anticipation of its delivery.
The grinder arrived last week and I’ve been using it since then. Grinding the beans only takes another 2-3 minutes, which means the entire process takes about 10-15 minutes.
So why this change? I thought that being able to simply focus on doing one thing well might be a simple and easy creative outlet first thing in the morning. It also helps me slow down and catch my breath, before the day gets revved up to its usual pace. The routine has helped me start thinking about how my body has been trained to jump out of bed, ready to attack the day, which usually triggers a “fight” response immediately when I get up each morning.
That’s not a fun way to get started each morning and as part of making things just a little bit easier, it’s something I’d like to change. Taking a few extra minutes to enjoy the coffee routine helps. Each simple step in the process is a reminder to slow down and using nicely designed and simple products also makes the process an enjoyable start to the day.
Doing all of this with the anticipation of a great cup of coffee at the end is an enjoyable and simple reward and payoff for the effort. I’m finding that so far the daily coffee ritual is helping to set a nice foundation for the day ahead.
Here’s a recap of the daily changes for the year —
January — Begin daily writing habit and unplug on Sundays (daily writing to me is part of Question 41 and unplug to me is part of Question 22 of the 77 Questions)
(OK, I know this is two! I resisted the urge to put more than one change on the schedule for each month, however really felt like I needed these two to start the year…)
February — Write down three things I’m thankful for at the end of each day
March — Start writing in the 5 Minute Journal
April — Original: Begin helping at a community garden (Question 18 of the 77 Questions) Updated: Start a daily coffee routine