Patrick Kontschak
Patrick Kontschak is a developer, bacon addict, and self-confessed Mac nerd and Linux lover from Germany, currently living and working in Toronto, Canada.
What is your morning routine?
First of all, I’m so not a morning person. Most of my mornings would start at 1:00pm if that didn’t follow with a feeling of guilt and shame that I didn’t follow the social norm and apparently just wasted half a day, never mind that I might have worked until 4:00am the night before.
My morning routine consists of social media, breakfast, social media, hygiene, social media and last but not least, my Kindle.
How long have you stuck with this routine so far?
About three years now. I’ve had different morning routines which included cornflakes for breakfast and a shower in the morning.
At some point I started to prefer showering during the calm night/evening though.
What time do you go to sleep?
1:00am. It’s rare for me to go to sleep before 12:00am because I’m a night person. I guess my internal clock is always off by 3 hours, no matter what time zone I’m in.
Do you use an alarm to wake you up in the morning, and if so do you ever hit the snooze button?
I use Awaken on my Mac and Alarm Clock Pro on my iPod Touch and switch between them randomly. I rarely hit the snooze button.
Hitting the snooze button just means “You’ve ruined my sleep and pissed me off. Please piss me off a second time in five minutes while I try to sleep for a few more minutes.”
I just turn the alarm off to get it over with.
How soon after waking up do you have breakfast, and what do you typically have?
Half an hour after waking up.
When I moved to Canada a few years ago I got hooked on bacon and looked for a bacon-based breakfast. I found a simple recipe for English muffins. It’s nothing difficult nor fancy but I enjoy the process of making an English muffin. It took a few months to find the same ingredients in Germany though.
Do you have a morning workout routine?
I used to. It was very rewarding and I would recommend working out in the morning to everyone. Unfortunately I did this routine during a slightly darker time in my life and lost interest in it, though I’ve been thinking of doing it again for quite some time.
How soon do you check your phone in the morning, either for calls/messages or social media and news?
Almost immediately. One of the first movements I do is grabbing my MacBook. I’m an internet addict, but really I just can’t stand the red notification badges on my dock. I could turn them off, but that would mean I forget about my emails, Twitter and my RSS feeds.
Whenever I find an interesting article which takes a little more time to read I usually send it to my Kindle and postpone reading it until I’m on my way to work.
On days you’re not settled in your home, are you able to adapt your routine to fit in with a different environment?
Rarely. But I’m okay with that.
I don’t necessarily have to eat my English muffin or check the internet right away. As long as there’s some kind of breakfast and at the very least my Kindle I’m good to go. It’s going to be a lot tougher if this is for more than a couple of days though.
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