The Importance of Putting Socks On
I admit it: I’m terrible in the mornings. Terrible at getting up, terrible at starting work. I always feel half-asleep, usually for several hours.
Unfortunately, I need to get up, need to start work and get on with the day. Not having a real job, I don’t actually go to work. Being thus lacking in incentives like not getting fired, I have to find other ways to get me up and about.
This is where putting socks on comes in.
I don’t know precisely why it helps, but it does. Putting socks on is a declaration that I’m going to work. I’m not just sitting there, in my bedroom, fiddling about on my computer. I’m working. I am prepared for the day. I am going to Get Things Done. Putting socks on is a renunciation of apathy.
So, what do you do? What little rituals help put you in the right frame of mind to do a certain thing?
Last updated 13th Jan 2009
2 responses
Not only does one have to put ones socks on but one must also pull them up ;)
Seriously though I am trying to plot a scifi story and I have a lot of trouble because the effort of will interrupts creative sponteneity, this is my fault for choosing an impractical project. Apart from the ineffective ploy of endless finding-other-things-to-do which squid mentioned, one trick I use is a carefully crafted playlist alternating Bjork with The Cure which seems to have the desired effect.
It isn’t often that I do any serious writing at home anymore, but I feel the need to clean the entire place from top to bottom before I can get down to business in that regard. It’s a little procrastination, but it’s also because it’s just difficult to think with the clutter around, and frees up some space to work.
~ SquidDNA #