Weird habits to start off a productive work session

Today I wanted to share a few thoughts on how we probably all have developed weird habits to start our work sessions or work days. I definitely have, already long before Covid. Although I think some might have gotten worse or maybe you only come to realize how weird they are once you go back to work in a office.

For my fellowship, I now can spend a few hours every week in an office. The fact that you might see colleagues from afar on the way between kitchen and office made me realize I have some weird pre-work rituals.

That is, specifically, making myself both tea and coffee, so I don’t have to get back up from the desk again for a while. This might not be the best habit for my back – but it’s a proven ritual to launch myself into working. I now realize that it must appear a bit weird to bystanders when I carry my whole battery of drinks to the office though 😀

That made me wonder why I even developed that ritual.

The efficiency and “not having to get back up from the desk for a while” aspect sure are a part of it. But I think, especially at the office, this stems from something else: That is the fact that in those good old pre-lapsarian, erm I mean pre-Covid times, the workplace kitchen used to be this wonderful social place. When I used to go in there to get coffee, this coffee usually didn’t even make it out of the premises because I started chatting with people and before I knew it, all the coffee was gone. So I had nothing to bring with myself to the office – which is the reason I had intially started my trip to the kitchen for, after all. So I guess I got into the habit of making coffee and tea simultaneously in the hope that at least one of those drinks would make it out of there.

So that was today’s ancedote for weird productivity rituals and pre-Covid nostalgia.

What are your weird rituals to launch yourself into work-mode (pre- and post-Covid)?

Best,

S

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