A good point of context for why I started Non-Slop Fun in the first place is what my average morning routine has looked like for the last few years.
7 AM: Alarm goes off. Immediately hit the snooze button.
7:09 AM: Alarm goes off again. Wonder why alarm snooze functionality has a nine-minute window instead of a ten-minute one. Hit the snooze button a second time.
7:18 AM: Alarm goes off for a third time. Ruefully climb out of bed, turn off the alarm, stagger to the bathroom. Immediately head to the coffee pot and start a full carafe. Bold settings, obviously.
7:23 AM: Back in bed, waiting for coffee to brew. Grab phone, check email and Twitter for the day’s headlines. Feel an immediate sense of despair. Head over to Instagram for funnier content. Continue feeling terrified about the state of the world.
8:30 AM: WTF?! It’s 8:30?! How did that happen? I need to shower and… oh, I guess I did hear the coffee maker beep.
8:45 AM: I’m one cup of coffee down, but somehow still in bed listening to a YouTube video about Baldur’s Gate 3. I need to get ready for work!
8:50 AM: Hair saturated, check. Face washed, check. Important bits all scrubbed, check. Do I have a 9 AM? No? Okay, great, I’ll brush my teeth and moisturize before I get dressed.
9-9:15 AM: I’m finally at my computer, checking Slack and my corporate email account. I need more coffee. The YouTube video is still playing.
It’s 2+ hours of noise, none of it productive. I end up stressed and unfocused, unsure of how to prioritize my work and oblivious to what is most important to me in any given moment. And the entire time it’s happening, I’m fully aware that I’m wasting my time– all that time spent in bed, waiting for the coffee to be ready as if having a hot cup of bean juice is my permission to behave like a functional human, is time that I could have spent journaling or reading or drafting or any number of things that don’t actively harm my mental health and well-being.
I go through waves in which I’m really good about remembering to lock down my phone before bed with Brick or just leave it in another room instead of charging it on my bedside table, and during those periods, I’m pretty good about getting up and starting my journaling while the coffee is still brewing.