Things I love about NYC: Early Mornings

1/ Le Pain Quotidien – 7^th Avenue between 17^th & 18^th street 2/ Think Coffee – 7^th Avenue right off 14^th street 3/ Hudson Cafe – 628 Hudson Street

One thing I still have to get used to in New York, is that the work day starts rather late. I?m one of the first people in the office, if I walk in at 9.30 am. People usually come in around 10 am, but then they also stay late (at least my understanding of late). The last few weeks I?ve been loving starting the day early. Getting into my good habit of having a long relaxing morning. It usually works best for me, if my boyfriend is getting up with me and I can actually drive Downtown with him, but that?s not the important thing here. The important thing is all the nice and relaxing me-hours I?m winning.

Recently I learned that the Vogue-queen, Anna Wintour, actually gets up at 5 am every morning to play tennis, and claims that she gets energy from this. So the climber that I am, I started giving this a try. Not the tennis, but the getting up early. One wants to succeed in this world (I want to swing open those doors to the Vogue office in my Manolo Blahnik heels and Altazurra dress). And I can truly say that it does give me energy for the day. Inspiration to perform. I should probably also start working out in these wonderful extra hours, but baby steps.

I actually find, that I’m much more creative and productive in the early hours, not to talk about the amount of inspiration I feel since I started doing it. I have time to sit down and enjoy my breakfast at one of all the wonderful breakfast spots on Manhattan (kind of expensive habit in the long run, but oh well…), I have time to write, read, people watch. I just have time. Which I’ve really lacked the last six months, and if there’s one thing that’s energy draining, it’s not feeling you have a minute to yourself.

I’m well aware that I didn’t just reinvent the wheel, and it doesn’t really only have to do with getting up a few hours earlier. But sometimes it’s very easy to forget your needs. To actually take that time to yourself. To look for inspiration, and be open to inspiration. I’m pretty certain, that that’s also a better attitude to bring to work. Instead of living your life on repeat. And who knows, maybe Anna will hire me one day. I wonder which tennis club she goes to?!