I cannot pin down why deciding what I'm going to wear is such a chore for me, but part of it is that I have to consider, at least a little bit, how other people are going to perceive me.

Once I am dressed and out in the world that hardly ever crosses my mind.

Swam my mile today. -t, I totally agree. The only solution for me is to put both sets of clothes aside the night before.

I woke up today without having done that and was 15 minutes late to the pool.

-t, if you limit the options would that help? If the gym clothes were all the same? Like a gym uniform.

Yeah, putting out clothes the night before makes so much sense, but I have not figured out how to make that work for me, yet.

It might, aurelia, but cute workout clothes are a joy to me. I have toyed with stacking my gym clothes so that I can just grab a thing from each pile and wear that without thinking about it, and that kind of works, but accounting for temperature and activity requirements is tricky. And then there's shoes and socks which are a whole kettle of fish on their own.

It would appear that the big obstacle between me and gym-before-work is needing to get dressed twice.

The biggest obstacle to my plan of hitting the treadmill in the morning is having to get dressed before coffee, feed the cats, breakfast, shower, and getting dressed for real. Note that the treadmill is right here in my office; I don't even have to dress for other peoples' eyes. But instead of just throwing on a robe, it's bra-panties-shorts-shirt-socks-shoes. It's weird, the little things that can throw you off a perfectly good-in-theory plan.

-t, I read The Power of Habit a few years ago and it totally helped me get into the gym before work routine. The gist is that the brain notices a cue-action-reward scenario. Instead of viewing the clothes out as onerous, I began to think of it as a cue. In other words, I put the clothes out in advance as a promise that I was going to swim in the morning. I was also certain to reward myself each time I did it so that the workout became the action in the cycle and there was another reward for the workout. Eventually I stopped needing the reward to go.

See, if I'm exercising in my living room I am fine doing that in my underwear or pajamas, although I might need a serious bra depending on what I'm doing and that can throw me off. I have tried to convince myself that I can drive to the gym in my pajamas and change into workout clothes there, but I haven't actually done it and I don't really think I will. It's a nice idea, though.

Interesting, Kat. My problem with putting the clothes out the night before is mostly that I don't have anywhere to put them. And when, the day before, do I do the deciding of what to wear tomorrow? If I could plan my whole week of clothes the way I do food it would probably do me a lot of good but I haven't figured out how to make that practical.

I don't have much variation in clothes. My skirts and pants are various neutral colors, and my tops are various bright colors. Almost no prints or patterns. So for summer it's some bright colored tank top and a neutral skirt or crop pants. In winter it's a rotation of blue jeans and sleeved shirts in the same colors. When I think about it, I can grab a tank top and put a complimentary shirt on top of it. Sometimes jewelry if I have the brain space for it. Shoes are unremarkable Crocs or sneakers. And somehow I get complements on how cute and comfortable I look.