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Abstract

details. <b>It’s about being an absolute freak about my routine.</b></p><h1 id="a16e">Wake Up Early</h1><p id="6cc2">My last two relationships probably failed, in part, because my partners liked to lay in bed. When they got out of bed, they liked to lounge around the house. I can’t do either of these things.</p><p id="1a3d">No matter what time I go to bed, I naturally wake up between 6:15 and 6:45. At that point, I have a choice — spring out of bed and get on with the day or fall back to sleep. On days when I did the latter earlier this year, I noted feeling depressed in the afternoon no matter how much positive affirmation waited in my email. So I literally spring out of bed. I have a loft bed, so I have to spring up, then climb down (?) a ladder. But there’s no lapse between waking and being active. If could literally be up and out the door I would do that.</p><h1 id="cdd1">Shower the Night Before</h1><p id="7e73">I always thought a shower in the morning “woke me up.” My daughter swears by nighttime showers. I finally decided to give her way a try, not for my mental health, but out of vanity.</p><p id="08ed">When I wake up in the morning, my hair looks great. Classic bed head. Styling products exist that tell you they’ll give you bed head. Here I was ruining perfect bed head with a morning shower. That was the motivation to switch to an evening shower. But it also makes it easier for me to get going first thing in the morning.</p><p id="dd20">The time I used to spend in the shower in the morning was really just an extension of being in bed. You stand there. You close your eyes. Maybe you doze off for a second. You’re stalling. It feels so good. It’s the next best thing to being in bed. So you prolong the shower until you start feeling guilty about wasting water. It’s a form of procrastination I rationalized as relaxation or “I have my best thoughts in the shower.” In reality, it set the tone for a sluggish morning.</p><h1 id="53eb">Eat Protein for Breakfast</h1><p id="f06b">I never used to eat breakfast. Now I eat <a href="https://readmedium.com/eating-the-same-meals-every-day-can-make-you-rich-7a8f57a17174">the same meal each morning </a>— eggs, chicken or turkey, maybe some black beans, cheese, and avocado. Packed with protein. Tim Ferriss swears by it. He says if you’re not going to follow his diet to a tee, at least do what he says in the morning and you’ll see results. He’s right.</p><p id="f5d6">My breakfast ingredients keep me full deeper into the day and prevent brain fog. I noticed when I didn’t eat breakfast or made an alteration (too many carbs or even Greek yogurt), I started feeling mentally funky in the afternoon.</p><h1 id="8a98">Don’t Watch Television in the Morn

Options

ing</h1><p id="48d5">I used to watch 15 minutes of YouTube, mostly news clips, while eating breakfast. Not only is this a time suck, it’s depressing. Nine times out of ten, when I’d turn off the television, I would try to forget what I just saw and heard. It set my day off on a somber tone.</p><p id="4132">I can read about the damage Trump continues to do to our nation in spurts throughout the day and catch up on whatever happened in full for an hour or so at night. But doing it first thing in the morning throws a kink in my process.</p><h1 id="ced6">Exercise the Day Before</h1><p id="8634">Some people swear by exercise first thing in the morning. Given the number of people who use exercise to start the day, who am I to argue? That said, if I’m all about kick starting the day, exercise makes that impossible.</p><p id="dd1e">Aside from a handful of push-ups first thing in the morning while breakfast cooks, exercise adds an inordinate amount of time to my morning. It probably means I’ll have to take a shower. Add in breakfast and I’m not getting on with my day for 2–3 hours after I wake up. More than any other factor, delaying the work day in the morning brought on sluggishness in the afternoon.</p><p id="07ce">However, I absolutely have to exercise. Often, in the afternoon, I’m hesitant to take a long walk, especially if there’s work to be done (but there’s always work to be done!). Then I noticed a pattern. When I didn’t take the walk (and do push-ups before my nighttime shower), I would hit the afternoon wall of varying levels of hopelessness and lethargy. Taking the time to exercise makes me more productive. I often come up with ideas on walks. And the mix of walking and push-ups has helped get me into the best shape of my life. There’s nothing better than looking and feeling good to help yourself remain upbeat.</p><p id="2b88">Everybody has an answer to the broad questions of how to be happy and productive. A heaping handful of people think they hold the keys to success on Medium and other creative, freelance endeavors. Maybe they do. I have discovered it’s incredibly individual. I read a lot of what other people write in these areas. There’s no one size fits all. However, I do pull from much of what I read. I hope you can do the same with this article and my experience.</p><p id="99d2">If you are routine-oriented like me, I suggest looking into the bones of your routine. Waking up early, eating breakfast, exercising — these are all broad, oft-cited remedies. For some of us, just doing them isn’t enough. It’s akin to going through the motions. We must focus on exactly how we do these things, down to the last detail. Even if it skews us a bit to the odd side.</p></article></body>

How to Avoid Depression That Hits in the Afternoon

It’s not enough to have a routine, be a freak about it

The other morning I woke up to the following emails:

An excellent Medium publication posted my article overnight.
Medium curators recommended two of my articles to readers.
Another platform published one of my articles.
The same platform offered me an opportunity to write for a subscriber-only audience for good money.
Encouraging words from one of Medium’s top writers.

Each night before I go to bed, I tell myself I’m going to wake up to this type of good news. When it happens, it ignites a positive trajectory for the day. But, on most days during the first half of the year, I could feel myself falling into a mild depression by early afternoon. After thinking I was amazing just that morning, I’d feel like the least talented person in the world by mid-afternoon.

Over the last several months, I conducted an experiment. When afternoon depression set in, I backtracked to determine how what I did before noon or even the day before might have contributed to the midday melancholy. I came to an overarching conclusion, along with specific patterns of behavior, that helped me break the recurring funk. I hope you can pull from my experience to avoid getting down and maintain your momentum throughout the day.

Have a Routine

For me, the routine must be rigid. It’s not that I can never break the routine. It’s just that on days when I’m working, I have to start the day in a particular order to guarantee steady productivity and remain content into the afternoon. I blow entire days off all the time to take long walks or go on a road trip (both mentally and physically necessary), but, on a work day, I require order.

Initially, I blamed my afternoon depression on the pandemic. But that made no sense. Stay-at-home orders and the subsequent new normal blew my day wide open. It made it ripe for a routine. And I did answer the call. Prior to the pandemic, I had no routine. More often than not, I was staying out super late and getting up relatively early.

What I didn’t realize until recently is that it’s not simply about having a routine, it’s about the seemingly minute details. It’s about being an absolute freak about my routine.

Wake Up Early

My last two relationships probably failed, in part, because my partners liked to lay in bed. When they got out of bed, they liked to lounge around the house. I can’t do either of these things.

No matter what time I go to bed, I naturally wake up between 6:15 and 6:45. At that point, I have a choice — spring out of bed and get on with the day or fall back to sleep. On days when I did the latter earlier this year, I noted feeling depressed in the afternoon no matter how much positive affirmation waited in my email. So I literally spring out of bed. I have a loft bed, so I have to spring up, then climb down (?) a ladder. But there’s no lapse between waking and being active. If could literally be up and out the door I would do that.

Shower the Night Before

I always thought a shower in the morning “woke me up.” My daughter swears by nighttime showers. I finally decided to give her way a try, not for my mental health, but out of vanity.

When I wake up in the morning, my hair looks great. Classic bed head. Styling products exist that tell you they’ll give you bed head. Here I was ruining perfect bed head with a morning shower. That was the motivation to switch to an evening shower. But it also makes it easier for me to get going first thing in the morning.

The time I used to spend in the shower in the morning was really just an extension of being in bed. You stand there. You close your eyes. Maybe you doze off for a second. You’re stalling. It feels so good. It’s the next best thing to being in bed. So you prolong the shower until you start feeling guilty about wasting water. It’s a form of procrastination I rationalized as relaxation or “I have my best thoughts in the shower.” In reality, it set the tone for a sluggish morning.

Eat Protein for Breakfast

I never used to eat breakfast. Now I eat the same meal each morning — eggs, chicken or turkey, maybe some black beans, cheese, and avocado. Packed with protein. Tim Ferriss swears by it. He says if you’re not going to follow his diet to a tee, at least do what he says in the morning and you’ll see results. He’s right.

My breakfast ingredients keep me full deeper into the day and prevent brain fog. I noticed when I didn’t eat breakfast or made an alteration (too many carbs or even Greek yogurt), I started feeling mentally funky in the afternoon.

Don’t Watch Television in the Morning

I used to watch 15 minutes of YouTube, mostly news clips, while eating breakfast. Not only is this a time suck, it’s depressing. Nine times out of ten, when I’d turn off the television, I would try to forget what I just saw and heard. It set my day off on a somber tone.

I can read about the damage Trump continues to do to our nation in spurts throughout the day and catch up on whatever happened in full for an hour or so at night. But doing it first thing in the morning throws a kink in my process.

Exercise the Day Before

Some people swear by exercise first thing in the morning. Given the number of people who use exercise to start the day, who am I to argue? That said, if I’m all about kick starting the day, exercise makes that impossible.

Aside from a handful of push-ups first thing in the morning while breakfast cooks, exercise adds an inordinate amount of time to my morning. It probably means I’ll have to take a shower. Add in breakfast and I’m not getting on with my day for 2–3 hours after I wake up. More than any other factor, delaying the work day in the morning brought on sluggishness in the afternoon.

However, I absolutely have to exercise. Often, in the afternoon, I’m hesitant to take a long walk, especially if there’s work to be done (but there’s always work to be done!). Then I noticed a pattern. When I didn’t take the walk (and do push-ups before my nighttime shower), I would hit the afternoon wall of varying levels of hopelessness and lethargy. Taking the time to exercise makes me more productive. I often come up with ideas on walks. And the mix of walking and push-ups has helped get me into the best shape of my life. There’s nothing better than looking and feeling good to help yourself remain upbeat.

Everybody has an answer to the broad questions of how to be happy and productive. A heaping handful of people think they hold the keys to success on Medium and other creative, freelance endeavors. Maybe they do. I have discovered it’s incredibly individual. I read a lot of what other people write in these areas. There’s no one size fits all. However, I do pull from much of what I read. I hope you can do the same with this article and my experience.

If you are routine-oriented like me, I suggest looking into the bones of your routine. Waking up early, eating breakfast, exercising — these are all broad, oft-cited remedies. For some of us, just doing them isn’t enough. It’s akin to going through the motions. We must focus on exactly how we do these things, down to the last detail. Even if it skews us a bit to the odd side.