Last month I shared “Throwing Out The Routine” where I basically committed to having no routine and focusing on each day at hand. I will be the first to admit I was scared that having absolutely no routine would have thrown my life into complete disarray and that not planning for the next day meant everything would have been chaotic. Surprisingly, it went smoothly. Not having a routine allowed me the flexibility of doing what I wanted, when I wanted. It also allowed me to see and understand why I felt so burned out even when I created routines for myself.
MY KEY TAKE AWAYS
The first and probably the most important thing I learned is that I was trying to be everything at once. I wanted to have time for myself, time to cook, time to clean, time to learn new things, time to exercise, time to prepare for the next day, and the list goes on. To achieve that, I tried slotting things out in 30 minute intervals. If I reached home at 6:00p.m. for example, I would immediately start assigning my first 30 minutes to some task or activity.
The second thing I came to quickly appreciate is I had a very difficult time compartmentalizing work from personal. For me, from the moment I am conscious that I have to get up to go to work, I immediately start planning my work day. I am thinking of what I need to do, prioritizing deadlines and so on all before 5:00 in the morning. Then on the way home, I am thinking of what needs to be done the next day. By the time I am actually home, I’ve already spent at least twelve hours doing and thinking of work and work-related activities.
The last thing to really hit home for me is my weekends are literally 48 hours and my week days are about 3 to 4 hours depending on the day. I tried two methods: leaving all the housework and errands for weekends and leaving all the housework and errands for weekdays. Don’t need to explain how that went. I wasn’t creating a proper balance between my time and my activities. Of everything I was doing, whether right or wrong, having an improper balance probably is one of the major causes of my burn out.
NEW ROUTINE IN MAY?
I’ve been tossing up whether to extend the no routine in May or try a new routine for the month of May. This week I opted to test out a few of the ideas I have about things that I can do to make my life easier. For example, doing one heavy household chore on Fridays but leaving the rest of time to decompress from my work week which includes no exercising and no studying. Another thing I am looking at is pushing for heavier and longer exercises on weekends while doing shorter and easier exercises during the week. So far nothing is set in stone but I will be tweaking and moving things around until I find something that I am comfortable with.
Let me know in the comments below: what routine, if any, do you think works best for you?
Musings of the Mind 