Last updated on December 12th, 2023 at 11:11 am
The long-awaited two-week leave finally arrived and I was prepared, armed with my newly scheduled routine, and surprisingly, it worked. For seven days (as planned), I stuck to my routine.
Full disclosure here: it was a 7 out of 10 personal rating, but that’s success to me.
Enough to say that it propelled me, I finally believed in being able to keep up with my routine. It also made me feel more grounded and organised. Almost every action was deliberate and that really served as a boost for my sense of fulfillment. Since then, I’ve been more open to my routine working, even after resuming work.
How did I make my routine work?
Finding a routine that works means that it has to be tailored to you, your lifestyle, and your needs. Anything outside of these and it most likely won’t work.
- I identified my goal
I didn’t want to feel like I wasted two weeks doing nothing substantial at the end of my leave. After all, I had a lot to catch up on with regard to my website and main hobby.
- A lot of trials and errors
To eventually find a routine that worked, I had a number of trials and errors. I am a morning person. My energy is pretty much the same all day and I don’t have a peak motivation period, but I love to wake up early, I enjoy the darkness and silence. To achieve this goal of waking early rather than sleeping in, it took me trying out different times of going to bed at night (prior to my leave). So, I set my alarm to go to bed at 9 pm. This way, I could be up at 6 am and many times before my alarm goes off I’m awake. Sleeping an hour after bedtime means that I struggle to wake up at 6 am.
- I set a system in place
At this point, I feel like a freak, but maybe I am. I set alarms and a whole timetable detailing my day from the moment that I wake to when I sleep. This is what setting a system can look like. One time that I was trying to be more punctual, I set my time (on my phone and wristwatch) to thirty minutes faster. I did this for over a year before finally switching.
Setting systems that work can sometimes feel intense, but that’s the reason they work. Another perk is that people around you easily notice and are forced to respect it.
I set my workout time to 5 pm intending to immediately take my shower right after at 5:45 pm and that’s another type of system. Everything had to flow to make it easier for me.
- I didn’t sweat the small stuff
I knew that if I didn’t stick to (an aspect of) my routine one day, there was another day to fix it so I maintained enough flexibility and allowed for slip-ups and unexpected intrusion (aka friends visiting, inability to drop an interesting book, you get it).
By merely following and being able to stick to a routine, it’s wild how accomplished I felt daily and at the end of my leave.
My routine, though adapted to fit my needs, consisted pretty much of all these steps. Going forward, my aim is to implement self-boundary and to always show up, especially with my daily movement.
Do you have a daily routine? What’s it like?
