Routine – Neverness

I’ve never been one for routine. I’ll try anything once, twice if it was fun, but after three times I’m starting to think about the next thing.

Yes, Jack of all trades scoff the specialists, but did you know the term was originally one of praise, and the master of none part was tacked on later.

But this post is not about specialists and generalists – the world needs them both. It’s about my avoidance of routine. Even in the days I did have a fulltime job, I managed to avoid the usual routine, waltzing in in the late morning and taking my conspicuously absent chair.

I’ve always admired those who could stick to routine.

Most habits, I’ve unfortunately found, offer their benefits slowly, through regular practice, rather than in whirlwind extended sessions. If frequent all-nighters were much good, I’d probably speak ten languages by now, but it’s that day two part I find difficult. I know if I’d practised the long form 7 times a day instead of once a week I’d be floating like a butterfly rather than wobbling like a gorilla by now.

But I have no regrets. I have many interests, and have got to experience many things.

So it comes as a surprise that I find myself actually adhering to a routine for the last month.

The trigger was Dorje stopping aftercare. Now I get to fetch him from school every day at 12h15 – before that, I fetched him at different times on different days. My routine goes something like this:

wake up, usually around 10h00
go to the toilet
scrape my tongue
drink a glass of water
meditate
do some tai chi
do some other strange excercisey thing I don’t know the name for
do some rebounding
make a green juice
wash the juicer (and any other dishes)
drink the juice while checking emails
have a shower
brush my teeth
go and fetch Dorje from school
back, have something to eat, and settle in for the day’s work at about 13h00

The routine has lasted around a month now, at least five days out of seven. It’s quite novel, and still quite fragile. If I don’t have to fetch Dorje, even though that should give me more time, I find myself docking at the computer before everything else, and never getting around to the rest.

The trigger has been that between 10h30 and 12h15 is the perfect time to do not very much at all. Trying to do any real work in that time doesn’t work – I’m just getting going and have to break off. After 13h00, there are still 13 hours left in the day, a great, quiet stretch to get up to all kinds of things.

1 comment