How a short lifestyle column, about the pleasures of completing early-morning errands, got lodged in my brain for two decades…
If actions speak louder than words, then the actions that we take routinely and automatically can seem to speak loudest of all.
People’s lives are defined by routines. When they try to change their habits – for instance, by setting a new year’s resolution – on some level they’re trying to change who they are.
That’s why habits, routines and rituals are a reliably fertile conversation topic. There’s a perverse pleasure to be had in examining other people’s customs and discerning a reflection, or a photo negative, of ourselves.
This blend of vanity and aspiration is why Stacey Kravetz’s piece ‘The Early Bird Catches A Nap’ made a lasting impression on me, some two decades ago.
Denial and reward
Taken at face value, the piece may seem to be focused on a trivial topic. It’s about how Kravetz routinely spends every Saturday from 6am to 11am ‘earning’ her weekend nap with early-morning errands. Or, as she puts it, ‘tearing around town like someone privy to inside information about the Armageddon.’
I recognized something of myself in Kravetz’s brief account (published in the ‘Rituals’ column of The New York Times) and I saw possibilities in her carrot-and-stick approach to self-governance. She wrote:
‘I function according to a kind of denial-reward mentality that requires me to earn that two-hour nap by tackling half a day’s worth of activities before most relaxed weekenders have finished their first cup of decaffeinated coffee.’
The piece struck a psychological sweet spot. It arrived during my third year of university, a time when my ‘denial-reward’ mentality had begun to strengthen (albeit inconsistently).
Like many aspiring students in their final years of study, I was labouring to throw off the bad habits of my late teens (complacency, distraction, disorganisation) so that I might stand a chance of achieving my academic goals.
Reading this column, I was struck by the fact that, like me, Kravetz was assuredly ‘not a morning person’ and yet was fanatical about the promise of an early start.
Sure, we both needed a lot of caffeine to make such a head start possible (a process akin to ‘filling my tank for the Nascar speedway’) but we shared the conviction that an early workout in a deserted gym, or a prematurely completed to-do list, would generate compound interest:
‘A two-hour nap after a whirlwind of activities is infinitely sweeter than simply sleeping in.’
Rise and grind and nap
Beyond the content, the presentation of the column also made an impact on me. I was stirred by the notion that 750 words and a deft illustration were all that was required to carve out a meaningful personal niche in print.
Other writers produced diverting ‘Rituals’ columns on everything from eating egg muffins on car journeys to tolerating parental Christmas letters to tangoing with strangers.
To a modern reader, the apparent masochism of the article and the accompanying drawing by Lars Leetaru might carry a retroactive whiff of toil glamour.
However, Kravetz’s piece ends with a rebuke to hustle culture. After her chores, she enjoys a two-hour nap and then takes things as she pleases. ‘If I spend the rest of the day with a magazine, I’m not concerned about wasting the day,’ she adds, with a shrug.
I clipped the piece for future reference – this was when ‘clipping’ literally involved scissors rather than a browser extension.
I’ve returned to it over the next two decades whenever I need to psyche myself up for a deadline, shake off a calcifying personal slump, or get inspired to complete some writing of my own.
Everything is relative – in my early twenties, Kravetz’s bijou description of pre-dawn Big City living seemed like a romantic if attainable dream.
Two decades later (and now living in the big city), there are mornings when I change my alarm so I can sleep in until 6am. I have endured Saturdays on which five hours of errands would constitute a comparatively light workload.
Even so, this piece of writing has remained evergreen for me, like a photo album or a favourite single.
I have not become – and may never be – the type to take a daytime nap, but as long as I have errands to complete, I find it helps to hold onto the promise of a fresh start.
