FINDING A ROUTINE THAT WORKS

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I’ve spent all my life with the luxury of my home being close to everything I need. Even when I worked in a city area for a brief period of time, my total commute traveling wise was roughly two hours.

Since I moved away from where I used to live, there are some challenges in striking the perfect work/home balance. The average commute to and from work can range anywhere between two and a half hours on a good day to four hours on a not so good day. This means a significant chunk of my day is spent in work and work related activities. In the midst of this, I still have to find time to create content, do my share of the household chores, find time to exercise, find time to spend with Kevin, find time to work on my goals and so it goes.

I’ve planned out my weekdays and weekends but I’ve had difficulty making the routine stick. After a few months of more misses than hits I realized I needed to be fluid with my routine and I don’t need to get everything done in one day.

I’ve opted for leaving for work earlier to maximize my waking hours as best as possible. This means that I can spend some of my time during work doing things I would have normally done at home like listening to Ted Talks, reading blogs, and prepping contents. It also means the commute to work is reduced significantly.

Household-wise, I used to leave all my cleaning and errands for the weekends. Don’t think I need to say that that course of action was not a sustainable one. I was scrolling on Tik Tok and saw a mother suggested splitting up household chores across the week, separating tasks as daily tasks, weekly tasks, monthly tasks and so on. That piece of advice was a gem for me. By splitting up the tasks across the week, it makes managing the household easier on both Kevin and myself and the weekends are less tiring.

Now there are days when I come home and do absolutely nothing. On days like that, I usually decide to be a couch potato and watch some sitcom to destress and unwind and it feels great. I realized that I do not need to be ‘on the go’ 24/7. Every waking second of my time does not need to be productive. I do not need to be engaged in something all the time – it is okay to sit and do absolutely nothing.

That inspired my one day a month where I do absolutely nothing – no housework, no cooking and if I do cook it’ll be something quick and easy. Those days are like my reset days and I think it’ll become a permanent feature of my lifestyle.

Finding a routine that works is very difficult especially when you have major life changes. It’s perfectly normal if your initial plan does not work or needs to be tweaked to accommodate you. Make sure your routine is sustainable, makes you happy and does not have you feeling burned out and stressed.

THE END

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Previous blog post was entitled “Why Wait On Monday?“