It's amazing, as I have said previously, how good having a routine is in these days of the relative insanity of a pandemic lockdown. However, today my routine was a routine that wasn't.
I had made my list and, as usual, it had started well - but then realised that there were some things yesterday that I had forgotten and they needed to be on today's list: so I added them. Then I realised that the ones I'd added took up more time than I thought they would take, and so had to remove some of the things I was going to do during the day. This, then, ate into the time of other things and, before I knew what was happening, my routine had changed drastically.
Don't get me wrong, I still had things I was going to do - like reading and writing and doing my blog - but it also made me realise that, perhaps, I can, perhaps, sometimes make a more general routine that is maybe not so rigid in placing a time on every single second of the day. Perhaps the rigidity of the routine I had set myself was a burden and needed to change? So I began to think about this.
On the one hand, today has taught me that I can chop and change at a moment's notice, and that this is ok. So long as you have the things to replace the other things with, you can jiggle and change and slip things and times around without there being any real problems. On the other hand, I also had to make sure that I stuck to the routine, otherwise I would simply crawl back into the lazy, do nothing state I had been in for a majority of the lockdown. And that was something I didn't want to do.
Although changing things around was fine on this occasion, I didn't want to start doing this regularly. having that set pattern, a routine, was fundamental in making sure that I pulled myself out of bed, that I entered into the spirit of the day, that I didn't slack off or start to spend more time watching the television or playing the Playstation than I had allocated. It gave me finish times for the things that were the problem when I didn't have a routine. I do know that I will sometimes have to change the things I have written down in my list of daily activities, and that sometimes there will be a whole gamut of things that have to change, but for the majority of the time I have to remain vigilant about the things that I do and the times that I do them.
I am ok with extending or reducing reading times, writing times, exercise times, but I have to draw the lines on the things that can make time seem shorter than it is, like ten minutes actually being an hour (this is what happens to me when I play the playstation). I have to ensure that I am thinking each night about what I am going to try and achieve the following day, so that I have goals and a sense of direction. This may well not be something that a lot of people may want to do, but for me it is working well and it is keeping my mind and body active in these times when leaving the house and speaking to my friends and colleagues is almost out of the question. It is helping me both mentally and physically.
Therefore, I am going to stick to writing my routine at night, writing timings for everything I do during the day and trying to achieve those tasks daily without slacking or extending or diminishing the times I have given to each task. Things will obviously change from time to time, and I will have to play the changes that need to be made on a daily basis, but as a general rule I will stick to the things I have set down for myself at the times allocated for them.I am doing this for me.
I hope those of you that read this also have found some way to keep yourself in good shape, both mentally and physically, and that you are not slipping into a sense of stir craziness. Until tomorrow...
Stay safe, stay indoors, stay strong.
Thanks for reading.
Sean.
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