or: How changing one thing has made a difference to my morning

Same as I do most mornings, I had breakfast and made myself a coffee.

I enjoy the coffee making process – fresh coffee (sometimes I’ll buy the unground beans so I can grind them myself too), my plunger, the kettle and one of my favourite cups. The whole preparation for it – the wait of the kettle, the smell of the coffee as the hot water hits it, the wait again while it brews in the plunger. I actually enjoy the waiting because that’s a good time to do other things including wiping down the kitchen bench. 

The slowness of it is part of the experience. A bit like cutting tomatoes. No need to rush.

This morning was a little different because I had to do something that I don’t have to do very often. I needed to open a new bag of coffee since I finished one yesterday.

I store my coffee in a coffee tin which I was given while I still lived in Australia by some good friends of mine. It means that every time I have a coffee, I think of them. They are both architects and their eldest child started high school last years. This coffee tin predates that child. 

Fortunately for me, I retained custody of the tin in the divorce and as a result, it has not only been in Australia and HK, it has also had a stint in Japan. It has traveled more than many people.

Over the years, whenever opening a new bag of coffee, it has always been a scissor cut to the top right of the bag (doesn’t matter which way the bag is facing, it’s always the right that is cut) and then left open enough for the coffee scoop to go in, take a scoop per person for the plunger (or for the stovetop espresso, just until the basket is full and gently pushed in) and one extra fo the pot. The scoop then goes back into the coffee tin, lid sealed and coffee stays fresh.

There are also coffee grounds (or beans) left on the bench. So while the kettle boils, I wipe the bench. This has happened over the  entire life of this coffee tin.  Today I made a change.

I cut the coffee bag the whole way across the top. Not just the little cut in the right corner.

Coffee making has instantly become neater.

I can’t believe in all this time I never thought to do that. It now has me thinking about all the other things I do regularly without question which doesn’t go quite as neatly or smoothly as what it could. These could be habits I’ve picked up from others for no real reason as well as the habits I’ve picked up by myself that could be more efficient.

There may be other changes on the horizon.

I’m just not sure what they are yet!.

Maybe I’ll figure it out over a cup of coffee.

 

* Thanks to The Killers for the title to this post.