workaday Tuesday

How my anxiety management techniques convinced my coworkers I have healthy habits: an accidental essay by me.

On an easy day, my morning commute takes 32 minutes. And from a workplace perspective, if I was a few minutes late, it would not be a big deal.

But it would be a big deal to me, because time stress is pretty much right up there in my top five things that freak me out. So I have Strategies (TM):

*My “planned leave the apartment” time on work days is a full hour before I’m supposed to clock in at work. If I realize at the last second I never brushed my teeth, or need to hug the cat again, or whatever it may be, I generally figure about a ten minute buffer. If I get out to the car early, I might take a meander around the parking lot. Or not, it’s cool.

*My commute is mostly major highway driving, so a single accident can easily add ten minutes. It makes me nervous, so knowing I have an extra ten minutes to burn keeps me from freaking out. Sometimes it means I stop for gas on the way to work without having to adjust my leave-the-house time. A victory!

*Usually I still wind up getting to work about twenty minutes early. And I’m hourly, so while I can (knock on wood) get away with clocking in ten minutes early, twenty would raise some eyebrows unless I was leaving early at the end of the day. So I take a ten minute walk. (Or sit in the car and do a sing-along, if it’s raining.)

And now my coworkers think I love fitness. Oops?

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.