Are You Fast Awake Or Wide Asleep?
You can’t function when you are “fast awake” or “wide asleep.”
I’m “fast awake”.
It’s 0600, alarm beeping, I have 10 mins, check phone, 37 WhatsApp messages, 26 emails, 9 Linkedin alerts, triage most of those and then check BBC news, same old, check BBC sports, football, great result for Brighton, cricket not so good, snooker, Ronnie not playing again, check share prices, ticking up, then back to the more difficult emails, I make one decision, defer another, delegate that one, check Calendar, ready for that meeting, not that one. 0605…what are we having for dinner? Do I have a shirt ironed? Do I need to bring my trainers to work? What day is it? I’m wired. I want coffee. But first, I need a shower.
I am more connected and informed than I have ever been.
The truth is that I’ve found myself in a world where being “fast awake” — constantly adapting to new problems, meeting deadlines, or keeping myself up-to-date with the constant flow of information, trends, innovations, and technologies — is perfectly normal to me. I don’t know any different. I can’t remember when it wasn’t always like this (no matter what my more nostalgic-leaning friends tell me).
But while I am constantly hyperaware of the demands being placed on me (some…
