The brain fog is real.

You know that feeling, when you have a cold or the flue, and aside from the incessant sniffling (or just total lack of air), you are aware that you are a magnitude less clever than your regular self? I call that brain fog.

Fog messes with clarity, with your ability to look ahead and take decisions. Thankfully regular fog generally doesn't hang around for long.

Except this fog is chronic. It's sticky. And it is messing with me. Often these days, I am aware that I can't entirely think straight, have (extra) troubles waking up and kicking the grey matter into gear and can't really concentrate on tasks, sometimes even forgetting the most trivial things. It is testing and inhibits my general performance and frankly can be infuriating.

Yes, I'm drinking a lot of water - aside from coffee to kickstart my brain in the morning (not too early though, I try to give the grey matter some time to wake up on its own). I go on morning walks every day when I work from home, and I take my bicycle when going to the office and when I go on a run when I feel like it, so I think I'm getting plenty of fresh air and exercise. So I am a bit at a loss for the cause.

I don't know whether I'm just structurally fatigued, or that the concentration problems have an external factor, but I did observe the same or at least similar situations with colleagues and other people around me. That made me think, and apart from the long bouts of dark days we have had this winter, spring and - er - 'summer', I can't help but think it might be related to good ol' Corona. Maybe it is some long-term symptom, something that lingers in our body or brain. Maybe it is totally unrelated and we are all just suffering from the winter blues because it is so unusually bleak outside.

Anyway, I hope I will have more days ahead in which I realise the gears are spinning full tilt and I can get shit done. Until then, I dream of taking naps during work, and keep going too bed slightly late.