I check my email as soon as I wake
Yes, I am the one that commits the cardinal sin: as soon as I can open my eyes in the morning, I check my email.
My alarm clock goes off at 5:00 am (and at 5:05 am, 5:15 am, 5:25 am, 5:30 am, but that is a story for a different time). My natural inclination and instinct at 5:00 am is most definitely not to be awake, so I dutifully delay opening my eyes properly for a minute or two. And yes, that minute or two has ignorantly resulted in a twenty-minute snooze once or twice. That is why the additional alarms exist.
As soon as I then scrape together enough conviction to open my eyes, I fumble around for my phone and immediately open my email. I quickly do a run-through of the emails and archive one’s that I don’t need to (or want to) read. Maybe I dive into an individual email if it sounds intriguing enough. Otherwise, I move onto checking some business-related metrics, our team Slack and then my favourite past-time: reading the latest football news.
To put this indiscretion in context, you should read my post about disconnecting from the interruption. Be warned though that you might be shouting “Adii, you hypocrite!” from across your screen after that.
My morning routine that follows further underlines how this behaviour is almost alien in an otherwise wholesome combination of various decisions and actions.
I wake up at 5:00 am because until about 6:15 am, this is my time (and sometimes the only unchallenged or uninterrupted time that I have every day). So immediately after my email indiscretion, I will get out of bed, get coffee and breakfast (the same every morning), and then I’ll spend the next hour reading and meditating. Then at about 6:15 am the real day kicks off with logistics and to do’s (the first being getting the kids to school).
I would venture to say that most would agree that this is a slow, healthy and wholesome start to any day. But then, why do I taint it checking email as soon as I can open my eyes?
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I have learnt that the best way for me to stick to my 5:00 am wake up time and subsequent routine, is to ensure that I wake up my brain as quickly as possible. If I can get a few neurons to fire, I’m significantly less inclined to rely on those (fallback) alarm clocks set for 5:05 am, 5:15 am, 5:25 am, and 5:30 am.
My slow morning routine is also invaluable in setting up my day; so it is important for me to wake up for it.
In isolation, I view my action of checking my email first thing with the requisite amount of disdain it deserves. When I, however, consider the bigger picture, this action is merely a means to a much better end. Stopping short of proclaiming full justification for this action, I am aware of the purpose it serves and the bigger (better?) picture to which it contributes.
What then is my lesson learnt here?
I could use cliches like “the end justify the means” or “there is more than one way of skinning a cat” and both of these would be apt in communicating part of my sentiment. It is not merely this though.
Part of me feels proud that I have figured a way that works for me and that has had an immeasurable impact on my daily life. This way would, in part, be contrary to a lot of mainstream “advice” and I would then argue that I chose a tougher route (it is always easier to fall into the herd-like mentality of sheep).
This pride though only makes sense when I have a wider perspective on my whole morning routine (and day and — perhaps — life), where I am considering all of the individual cogs in the machine. Individually each cog could be aggressively debated but combined the sum of the whole is greater than its parts.
As my thoughts find momentum in this pattern of thinking, an alternative idea emerges which is about embracing imperfections.
If checking my email first thing in the morning is the blemish on my greater morning routine, then the acceptance and embracing thereof is the very action that culminates in everything that follows.
If this is true, where in your day, work or life do you have imperfections or blemishes which could open doors to new learnings or opportunities? Where has your resistance of these defects perhaps prevented you from making progress or feeling differently (even better)?
These thoughts come to me intuitively in this moment. The words on this screen seem almost contradictory when I read them over.
Maybe I am slightly grandiose in my belief that my conclusion is generic enough to apply to more than just my 5 am email-checking habit. What I do know though is that this is indeed an imperfection and by embracing it, I have carved out something that works for me.
So I too wonder whether there are similar opportunities to leverage elsewhere in my life.
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