We’ve been in Kini, a village on the west coast of Syros, for two weeks and our days have fallen into a pattern. Unfortunately, as our thoughts turn towards home and work, we are spending too much time on LinkedIn. In our opinion, more than five minutes is too much time on LinkedIn. So, how does a typical day begin?
LinkedIn version
0500 – Early wake up, cup of Greek mountain tea for antioxidants
0510 – Stretching and yoga session
0515 – Check in with overnight takes of social media influencers
0530 – Intensive language lesson
0545 – Meditation
0550 – Intensive language lesson
0605 – News burst
0620 – Culture boost (feed your mind!)
0700 – Caffeine shot
0705 – Stand up with team
0715 – Caffeine shot
0720 – Forward planning
0730 – Career development
0745 – News deep dive
0845 – Power walk to coast
0850 – Cold salt water swim
0925 – Power walk home
0915 – High protein breakfast
0945 – Social media deep dive & discussion (no limits to ideas!)
1030 – Power nap…
Real life version
Chloe’s up at 5am – the bed is small and sunrise means the birds are freaking out by this time. Realises she’s slept funny and spends five minutes in weird poses trying to iron out the kinks. Cup of mountain tea in hand (it really is good) she sits on the terrace and peruses BlueSky, which at this time of day mainly consists of Americans losing their minds.
Realising she has lots of time to kill, she opens Duolingo in her, so far, fruitless attempt to speak basic Greek. She can translate the sentence ‘I see a million multi-coloured butterflies’ but can’t ask the way to the post office. After about 15 minutes she realises she’s staring into space and gives it another go. She fears she’ll never reach Diamond League and eventually gives up and reads a book instead.
Allan finally surfaces around 7am, and it’s time for proper coffee so he can get his brain in order. While he is defenceless, this is Chloe’s chance to share the latest weird and scary stuff happening in the US – and show him cat videos.
A second cup of coffee and it’s time to plan the day. The hotter it gets, the less opportunity there is to actually go outside. This week it’s hitting 40 plus (feels like late 40s), so plans usually revolve around what time to go swimming, what to have for breakfast, and whether to go out for dinner. Sometimes one of us has to do some job-hunting.
An hour browsing the news sites and reading stuff out to each other, then we do the one-minute walk to the beach where we spend about 20 minutes floating in the blessedly cool and clear water. Home, shower, and a breakfast of fruit, yoghurt and hazelnuts, followed by another hour diving down various social media rabbit holes, only to occasionally come up for air with the phrase ‘did you know…?’
We are so exhausted by our high pressure lifestyle that a mini siesta before midday is not unheard of.
Conclusion
Both of the accounts above are technically true. LinkedIn is a horror hole of bullshitters.
Rights-free image courtesy of Austin Distel.