Do you need transition time?

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Between one activity and the next, after smoking a cigarette and before going inside? Before getting your ass off the couch? I've found, increasingly, that I need to allow myself about two minutes between the end of one activity and the start of the next one.

Certain activities need more time. After showering I need like 10 minutes of brainless TT, and when I've been reading intently I require twice that to readjust to the world-at-hand. You?

― x j e r e m y (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 12:53 (twenty-one years ago)

My transition time between waking up and functioning is anywhere between one minute to ten hours.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 13:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh god, yes, I need transition time. The most important one is the transition between work/commute and home/social life. Like, the first half hour I walk in the door, I'm disoriented and can't talk to no one.

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 13:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I've noticed that my transition times have gotten longer as I've grown older.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 13:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Unfortunately for my liver, the transition time Kate refers to above is usually spent in the pub.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 13:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Ohmigod, I especially need a transition time *between* work and the pub!

I get completely dazed if I walk into a pub right after work, and I can't function.

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 13:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Ah, see, I go work-commute-supermarket-pub-home. That gives me 20 minutes in a car, then 10 minutes in the supermarket, before I get to the pub. It's even better on Thursdays, when there's comic shop before supermarket.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 13:36 (twenty-one years ago)

hmm. I dont think i need transition time, although maybe my life/attitude/outlook/mood would be more calm and peaceful if i started implementing transition time???

― AaronK (AaronK), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 13:59 (twenty-one years ago)

although i love sleep more than anything else, i have to get up 2 hours before i go to work so that i can putter around the house and waste time and watch the weather and stare vacantly at stuff before i leave. otherwise, i'm even more of a prickly mess than usual.

― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 14:03 (twenty-one years ago)

i just can't do that. I have an almost obsessive urge to minimize putzing around time in the morning. I see it as maximizing sleep time. Although the idea of staring vacantly out the window is soo so appealing.

― AaronK (AaronK), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 14:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I was talking to colleagues about this just this afternoon. I have a real problem when somebody comes up to my desk and wants me to answer questions about something I'm not working on at that moment. I have to stop and think, usually can't remember, start to panic slightly that I'm looking thick/unprofessional, rifle through some papers, realise that this is making me look even more thick/unprofessional and finally come out with a 'can I call you later with the information?' If only I could learn to bring this sentence to the front of the list, everyone would think I was highly intelligent and extremely professional.

― Madchen (Madchen), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 14:23 (twenty-one years ago)

What I mean to say is that if these people phoned to ask if they could come and see me in half an hour, that would give me the transition time I need to finish up what I'm doing and start preparing for the next thing I need to think about.

― Madchen (Madchen), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 14:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm with Lauren. I need putzing time. And I need wind-down time before I can get into bed. As exhausted as I am, I can't go from working directly into bed. I need to slow my brain down first.

― Je4nne ƒury (Jeanne Fury), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 14:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually, I kind of agree on the putzing time. Especially if you have to take public transportation to work. When I walked to work, I could use my morning walk as my wake-up time. But now, I'm actually getting up half an hour early to have a peaceful breakfast in the kitchen before facing the world.

My god, I'm a beast in the morning if I haven't had time to transition.

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 14:35 (twenty-one years ago)

It's integral to my being

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 14:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I use 'transition time' as an excuse for not getting on with whatever I should be doing next. Before I know it, transition time has lasted all evening and it's time for bed.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 15:44 (twenty-one years ago)

is there a correlation between needing a lot of transition time and being unpunctual? because i find myself being late more than i'd like, mainly due to the fact that when i say, "i'm leaving right now," i actually mean, "i'm going to watch 5 more minutes of the simple life, change my shirt, look for my keys, put on some eyeliner, and make a phone call. then i can think about going out."

― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 15:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm a very punctual person, but I'm a huge transition time advocate too. So, here's one vote for no.

― x j e r e m y (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 15:48 (twenty-one years ago)

No, I think it's different. I'm very punctual for social engagements (when I'm just meeting one person, at least), and I'm only late for work because I get up 45 mins before I have to be there.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 15:52 (twenty-one years ago)

i find myself being late more than i'd like, mainly due to the fact that when i say, "i'm leaving right now," i actually mean, "i'm going to watch 5 more minutes of the simple life, change my shirt, look for my keys, put on some eyeliner, and make a phone call. then i can think about going out."

If my wife were like that, I would consider killing her right up to the point where I killed myself instead. She needs a lot more transition time than I do, but she doesn't lie about it. Hm, that sounds harsh, oh well.

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 17:31 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm not sure it translates to transition time, but i'm pretty damned inertial. if i'm sleeping, or drinking, or being awake, or almost anything, i have a strong tendency to continue doing it.

except work, i mean.

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 17:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I am now back from my 'transition time'. i.e. pub.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 17:38 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm not saying that with the intention to deceive, rock.

― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 17:38 (twenty-one years ago)

my whole life sometimes feels like transition time. : /

― cºzen (Cozen), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 18:00 (twenty-one years ago)

"All of this is transitory." - Lao Tze

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 18:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Okay actually I think it was somebody else who said it.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 18:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Lauren -- understood. My post came across as a lot harsher than I wanted.

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 18:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I didn't mean it like lao tze but more in the sense alba was getting at up thread where transition time seems to spin out into and eat up the rest of my 'doing stuff' time.

― cºzen (Cozen), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 18:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I need thirty minute transition periods between fifteen minute bouts of studying / writing too. it's why I'm so prolific, huh.

― cºzen (Cozen), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 18:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I know, I hadn't even read the thread before I posted that...it was just kinda a weird inadvertent juxtaposition.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 18:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm with lauren on the slacking in the morning problem; I get up at seven and don't leave until nine, and that includes shower and dressing time. shortly I'm going to be expected to get to work at 8:30, which I guess means I'm going to have to get up at 5 in the morning.

this does get worse the older I get. I think it's because my life keeps getting busier, and I'm finding a hard time slotting in anything relaxing. I spent whole months in transition time when I was in college.

― kyle (akmonday), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 18:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Getting up in the morning is very difficult. As for other activies, I kind of plan ahead. I look at the clock and say, "Okay, at 3:25 I will go make myself lunch." Then usually I look back at the clock and say, "Okay, at 3:30 I will go make myself lunch."

Eventually I actually do it.

― Ian c=====8 (orion), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 18:17 (twenty-one years ago)

transition time seems to spin out into and eat up the rest of my 'doing stuff' time.

this happened to me last night. i had five or six (minor) things i wanted to do, but i need to "unwind" first by finishing watching a dvd i'd started the previous night. at some point a friend called and before i knew it, it was too late to start doing anything. i filed my nails and went to bed. the end.

― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 19:32 (twenty-one years ago)

transitioning be damned. i think i need to face up to the fact that i'm lazy, slow, and chronically tardy.

― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 19:33 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah me too.

― cºzen (Cozen), Wednesday, 28 July 2004 19:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I have a half hour of pottering before I get ready for work each morning and I've found that I move a lot faster - in and out of the bathroom in 10 minutes, pow! - than if I just get up at 7 and get straight under the shower. I think taking tea breaks at work makes you more productive as well (really!)

― Madchen (Madchen), Thursday, 29 July 2004 11:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I've managed to cut down on my morning transition time (alarm goes off at 7, I leave 8:15) over the last year or so because of poxy commuting time cutting into my sleep, but I still really need that hour or so of waking up, showering and breakfasting, or I'd (literally) walk under traffic the moment I left my house - I have to cross a v busy road to get to the bus stop.

Evening transition time is lengthening though - I read a bit of a book in-between doing other things, and if I get gripped it's 11 p.m. before I know it and writing that letter never gets done.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Thursday, 29 July 2004 12:07 (twenty-one years ago)

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