On Slow Mornings

The first hour of the day sets the tempo for the other fifteen. Most advice about mornings is about optimizing them — cold plunges, five-step routines, journaling templates. Almost none of it is about leaving the hour alone.

A slow morning isn't a productivity hack. It's the opposite of one. It's coffee that gets cold because you were staring out a window instead of drinking it. It's the newspaper instead of the inbox. It's permission to let your mind wander before the day demands that it aim at something.

I've come to think the slowness is the point. Everything else in the day will ask you to move fast. The morning doesn't have to.