Don't be run by the body

Three hours into the shift the body starts lobbying. A driver wants the drive-through; a nurse wants the candy at the station; a roofer wants to call it early because his shoulders ache; anyone on a screen all day wants the snack that isn't hunger. None of these wants are evil. The trouble starts when they do the deciding — when the afternoon gets organized around the next small comfort and the actual work waits.

Epictetus, who knew bodily hardship as a slave before he ever taught, drew the line sharply: "It is a mark of want of genius, to spend much time in things relating to the body; as, to be long in our exercises, in eating, and drinking, and in the discharge of other animal functions. These should be done incidentally, and slightly; and our whole attention be engaged in the care of the understanding" (Enchiridion 41, Carter). Eat, rest, move — of course. Incidentally. On the way to the thing that matters, not in place of it.

Self-command begins here, low to the ground, because the body's votes arrive first and loudest. Govern those, and the larger appetites get easier.