Do You Eat or Email First?
You could eat this...or you could check your email!
The first thing I do when I get up in the morning is groggily hobble to my computer, press the space bar to wake it from its sleep stage, and check my email. However, I don't see it as choosing Internet over food; I usually don't eat breakfast. (Yeah, don't remind me that it's "the most important meal of the day"—I've heard it a million times.)
Yesterday's New York Times piece profiles people's struggles with technology taking up family time, in particular breakfast being sacrificed for email and other urgent Internet-required activities, such as checking Facebook or Twitter. These days more kids and parents start their mornings with phones and laptops instead of eggs and toast.
Since I don't live with family members I don't have an obligation to eat a communal meal with other people in the morning, but even if I did, I'd still be tied to my computer as soon as my brain exits dream mode. How about you: Do you eat or email first?
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
56 Comments:
Have already checked email (and serious eats a couple of times) by now (at 6:30) Have gotten used to eating breakfast at the computer and I'm not happy about it. Don't pay enough attention to the food, and what's the point of that? Thought that was an interesting article yesterday.
lemonfair at 6:33AM on 08/11/09
I plug in the coffee pot before I check my email. When it dings at me I turn off the computer and go to the kitchen to make breakfast. Never eat at the computer.
goodcooker at 6:44AM on 08/11/09
Email first, eat at work.
curiositykt at 6:58AM on 08/11/09
Email, but I take my breakfast to work. I rarely check email before work. I'm too busy puttering around and also making my breakfast smoothie that goes to work in a jar. I could be up and out within a half hour if I didn't putter. Instead it takes at least twice as long.
CanadianFoodieGirl at 7:05AM on 08/11/09
I log on before I eat. This is the way my morning goes:
Check e-mail
Skim NY Times-sometimes I do that before I log on.
Weigh myself
Write
Eat
Ed Levine at 7:07AM on 08/11/09
I check my email while I straighten my hair. I have meds that I can't take with food, so I take them in the morning and eat breakfast at work.
KarynMC at 7:25AM on 08/11/09
Eat and run. 10 years ago and up until 2 years ago, when I was one of a few people running a raiding guild in either EverQuest or World of Warcraft, as well as manage/admin the website/forums, the computer was never turned off. I would wake up to use the bathroom, check how people / website were doing, and then go back to sleep, several times a night. On weekends, I had 4-5 hours of sleep total Friday - Sunday.
I didn't really eat very often. :P
Cassaendra at 7:29AM on 08/11/09
My computer opens first after I wake up. I eat breakfast when I get to work (I've got food -- cereal, PBJ, milk, frozen hash browns, etc. -- there).
mscherryclafouti at 7:34AM on 08/11/09
1.) Wake up or turn on computer
2.) Make coffee
3.) Drink coffee while checking my email, etc.
jodangerously at 7:41AM on 08/11/09
It's ALWAYS the same order: coffee, internet, food.
Paul S at 7:55AM on 08/11/09
I always check email and my rss feeds before breakfast. Mostly because I don't like to eat as soon as I wake up. But at the moment I live alone so it's not cutting into my family time or anything.
jlweber at 8:05AM on 08/11/09
I don't know anyone who actually eats as soon as they wake up! Might as well check your email till you get hungry or whatever the case may be.
arm1970 at 8:08AM on 08/11/09
I wake up, make coffee, get dressed, watch a little news, head to work and then check my work e-mail. I don't have internet access at my apartment so e-mail isn't even an option at home.
earlybirdkate at 8:21AM on 08/11/09
I always wake up hungry, so eating breakfast is the 2nd thing I do every morning (after getting ready for work). I don't have a dedicated home computer, so pulling my laptop out of its case (where I pack it every night so I don't forget to take it to work), waiting for the DSL to kick in and opening the requisite software seems like too much effort before 7am to justify the few messages I actually receive.
studyzone at 8:24AM on 08/11/09
I am eating my breakfast while reading this.
Tombolo at 8:38AM on 08/11/09
I just told my friend last week that some people need coffee in the morning so they can function--I need the internet. I didn't realize I was part of some big trend. Anyways, I usually internet while drinking chai that my husband made and left for me. Then around 11 a.m. I have a bowl of cold cereal.
inothernews at 8:46AM on 08/11/09
I'm eating mine as I read this too.
driftingfocus at 8:46AM on 08/11/09
I check my personal email on my phone during my (public transportation) commute, then eat breakfast when I get to the office, while I check my work email.
annabanannas at 8:48AM on 08/11/09
Check my first round of email on my blackberry on the subway, grab coffee on the way to the office and continue reading email (and SE!) sipping it at the office. I don't really eat breakfast either (bad, I know) but I usually have a snack around 10ish.
meem21 at 8:53AM on 08/11/09
I'm not hungry when I first wake up. Actually, if I try to eat too soon after waking up, it makes me nauseous. So, yeah, I check the computer - email, RSS feeds, a couple of message boards - and once that's done, my stomach has usually joined the world of the living, so it's time to eat.
trillian42 at 9:01AM on 08/11/09
1)Run
2) Check e-mail, read news, etc
3) Shower
4)Eat breakfast in front of the computer
Sad, I know
bkbella at 9:02AM on 08/11/09
I prefer to eat right when I wake up, while watching the news (local). I would be very disappointed in myself if the first thing I did in the morning was get on the computer -- I try not to spend more time on the computer than off during the day.
leighana at 9:02AM on 08/11/09
Go to bathroom before eyes are fully open. Check weather.com. Check seriouseats.com to get hungry. Eat breakfast.
happyeats at 9:12AM on 08/11/09
Don't get hungry until later in the day - around ten or eleven, so running or computer first, depending on my work schedule.
marchpane at 9:20AM on 08/11/09
I start the coffee maker, then sit down at the computer til it's done. Then I drink my coffee while checking my mails and Google Reader (where all my food blogs are!) Sometimes I finish the coffee and get hungry before I'm done, so I often eat in front of the computer. There are crumbs in my keyboard. Gross, I know.
jillybean081 at 9:22AM on 08/11/09
I don't eat until work, but then again, I don't check my email until work either. My morning are spent running around getting ready and packing a lunch. I'll do get on the internet before I leave, but just to check the weather.
rbear at 9:26AM on 08/11/09
Get up about 5:30, feed dogs, make coffee, take coffee cup to computer to check email and favorite websites. Then exercise, then eat eat breakfast (around 7-7:30).
lucylucy at 9:31AM on 08/11/09
eat breakfast in front of computer...
cybercita at 9:34AM on 08/11/09
hit snooze, check email on the phone. i can't even wait to turn the computer on, that thing takes too long.
foodinmouth at 9:36AM on 08/11/09
Ideally:
Adam Kuban at 9:42AM on 08/11/09
I usually turn on the computer first, but I eat breakfast while I check email and the weather. Last week, though, I unplugged and used the computer ONCE while at the beach -- it was glorious.
terplinz at 10:00AM on 08/11/09
Unless I've had a huge dinner, I wake up ravenous. For me, it's 1. start cooking oatmeal 2. check email and Serious Eats 3. eat oatmeal.
Carey Jones at 10:02AM on 08/11/09
I make coffee, set the table for breakfast, and then wait for my husband to leave his computer to join me.
Suzzanne at 10:18AM on 08/11/09
For me and my boyfriend, we get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, make lunches for the day, go to work... and only then get on the internet. We don't usually have time to dawdle around on the computer in the morning.
dinosara at 10:32AM on 08/11/09
let's just say its 10:30 a.m. now and I'm still on the computer, haven't even walked into the kitchen yet. Finished email, Facebook, now checking my bookmarked blogs etc--and this caught my eye on SE! Sometimes I get so lost in it I forget to eat until lunch. Bad, I know :-( This is a hazard of being unemployed.
jinx35 at 10:38AM on 08/11/09
I don't check e-mail until I get to work. In the morning, I wake up, make my breakfast and lunch, eat breakfast, shower, and get dressed. Then I go to work and turn on my computer. Weekends are different -- I have no routine and just do whatever I feel like.
emgroff at 10:42AM on 08/11/09
Check email, and then eat. I usually am then checking blog stats, Twittering, and reading Google Reader while I eat.
chelley325 at 10:59AM on 08/11/09
Since my e-mail is at work, I get my coffee first, check my e-mail and eat my yogurt. If I had a computer at my house I would not be able to do anything except read Serious Eats and play games! Oh, on the weekends, since I don't have a computer at home, I get the coffee and eat.
I don't seem to miss the computer for some reason on the weekends.
queenbleu at 11:14AM on 08/11/09
I am one of those people who is unable to function in the morning until they have had breakfast, or at the very least, coffee. People know not to talk to me until I've eaten. I'm downright cranky.
I work 12 hr. shifts 3 days a week, and on those days I eat and shower and head to work. On my days off I eat breakfast in front of the computer. My BF and I rarely are eating breakfast at the same time, but when we do I try to make something a little more involved than oatmeal.
eeels at 11:15AM on 08/11/09
you see, no one is asking the really important question, which is:
what is that breakfast and how can i eat it immediatley?
ellephant at 11:32AM on 08/11/09
My husband and I have a small apt so both of our computers are in the living room/ kitchen. We don't have a dining room or any other table so we always eat at our desks. So it always ends up that we check the internet and make/ eat breakfast at the same time. Quite often the food is tasty enough to make me forget I was in the middle of reading a website but not on lazy just bagel with flavoured cream cheese mornings.
elisaday at 11:38AM on 08/11/09
@ellephant: Good question. :) I was staying at Arbor Bed & Breakfast and my friend/chef Corinne made shirred eggs for breakfast. Eeee! So good and simple. Alas, I've never tried to make it myself, but I should.
Robyn Lee at 11:41AM on 08/11/09
i work at home and get up just a few minutes before i'm supposed to be "at" work - 8 AM. So my routine is - wash face, turn on computer while brushing teeth, then check email to see if there is anything urgent before taking time to make and eat breakfast.
prncsjenny at 11:57AM on 08/11/09
Email
Facebook
Workout
Breakfast
Hobsy at 11:59AM on 08/11/09
i'm the kind of person that needs to eat every few hours or so. when i wake up in the morning, i am ravenous! i have to go immediately to the kitchen and get some food to feed my growling stomach. i can't even imagine my stomach letting me check my email before eating breakfast.
beetlover at 12:40PM on 08/11/09
Don't eat breakfast.... even when I do. I need something to read while I'm eating... so... RSS and email.
lysine at 2:55PM on 08/11/09
Ah,I never realized this before! Sadly, email. Breakfast is often such a rarity though anyway so I'm not sure if I count?
Chew on That at 3:02PM on 08/11/09
1. Turn on computer
2. Start electric tea kettle
3. Get breakfast (cereal)
4. Assemble tea
5. Check e-mail
jp_bakeupastorm at 3:29PM on 08/11/09
1. Get up
2. Shower
3. Get ready for work
4. Go to work
5. Turn on computer
6. Get coffee/breakfast
7. Eat breakfast while catching up on the computer
blogkitten at 4:13PM on 08/11/09
Coffee at computer, walk, breakfast, get ready for work.
itsworthalook at 6:04PM on 08/11/09
coffee + breakfast with newspaper and tv then another coffee while on computer.
asianempress at 11:32PM on 08/11/09
Eat first, obviously!! no coffee = not awake!
Vicky at 8:59AM on 08/12/09
1. roll over
2. stretch for iphone
3. skim email with one eye still shut
4. heave myself up
5. downstairs to kitchen
6. cook breakfast
7. check email properly
8. eat
note: if no cook breakfast, eat then check email
aneelee at 9:00AM on 08/12/09
Lord help me if the day ever comes when I feel the need to check email before I do anything else. I'd say that's like the first thing I do when I start my work day, but working comes after all important things like snoozing, stretching, urination, hydration, coffee brewing/drinking, breakfast eating, lunch making and packing, outfit picking out and putting on, makeup applying, teeth brushing and driving to work.
porkydickens at 1:45PM on 08/12/09
Am I the only person who eats WHILE checking my email??
piccola at 10:10PM on 08/12/09
this is how my day goes:
7am: Alarm goes off. Snooze.
7:10am: Alarm goes off. Snooze. (repeat)
8:30am: Finally drag myself out of bed.
8:35am: Shower, brush teeth, general toiletries stuff.
10:30am: Leave for uni.
12pm: Start full day of classes.
5pm: Oh shit it's the end of the day and I haven't eaten OR checked my email.
5:05pm: Check email, start hunt for vending machine/caffeteria on campus.
5:30pm: Drive home.
Of course, if it's a Friday or a weekend when i don't have uni, but so have work it's more like:
4am: Alarm goes off. Get out of bed.
4:05am: Shower, brush teeth etc.
4:45am: leave for work.
10:30am: oh shit I've finished work and I haven't eaten OR checked my email.
10:35am: Drive home.
10:45am: Check email, start hunt for food in cupboards....
Am I the only person who does this? Does this make me a bad SE-er???
GegeMac at 9:04AM on 08/16/09