In my everyday experience, physical and mental capacity feel unrelated. As long as there's enough water and sugar to go around, burning energy on one doesn't lessen what I can do with the other.
Sometimes it's even complimentary. When I hit my mental limits I get the urge to go outside, switch contexts and let my brain relax by doing something simple physically. Fantastic time for exercise, and as a bonus it often lines up with the sunset. Even after bashing my head on the hardest problems I've ever had, it's almost always followed with at least a bit of repetitive cleaning.
But when I hit my physical limits, it strips my mental capacity as well. A short walk is refreshing, but an hour of intense exercise or a few hours of out-and-about errands usually leaves me hazy for half an hour at least. More than that, and an entire afternoon is gone, no matter how I try to prop myself back up. There's been a few days where I obliterated myself physically (for a good cause) and still managed to fit in some mental work after which had to get done, but I was crawling through it.
Not a pleasant experience, and inefficient to boot.
Anyway, this is a long way of saying it would be a mistake for me to exercise in the mornings. A bit of fresh air and movement to wake up, but nothing which requires real effort. If this sounds familiar, you probably shouldn't too.
I know people who are the opposite, who can't think straight before a morning run or go to bed immediately after. Know yourself, pick what works for you.
- Rew
Nightly Notes
Nothing in my life requires I exhaust myself physically, so I forget the limit exists most days. When it hits, it's with a vengeance.
Anyway.
I'm writing slow. Not abysmally, but slower than seems reasonably sustainable. I think I should play with how I structure writing time, maybe set aside dedicated outlining time so I can write a post straight through instead of constantly reorganizing, or maybe focusing on turning off my internal filter. Still mulling it over.
I think I should experiment more, if nothing else. There's no harm in it.
- Rew