Routine

Routine. To many this is an absolutely god-awful word. It represents, boring, sameness, conformity, lazy, ordinary, stagnant, reactionary - to some. And for much of my life as well. But as I started dating my wife and now that we are married I have come to love having a bit of routine in my life. I still like to fly by the seat of my shorts in certain situations, but routine has offered me more free time to do the things I love, and eliminate things I find distasteful. I owe much of this to Emily.

I used to find myself lost, trying to figure out where I set my keys, where I left my wallet. The dishes would stack up, the living room would get messy, I didn't know if I needed to meet somebody, when school or work needed to be done. I was truly a mess. But I loved it - so I thought. Every day was a new adventure, I was always moving a hundred miles per hour, but now that I look back at it, I was moving a hundred miles per hour back and forth doing the same things, working in circles, really getting nowhere. I couldn't find the time to get the dishes done, my room cleaned, my car in to get checked, grocery shopping - all the things I didn't WANT to do, but NEEDED to do. I was trying to maximize all of the pleasurable things in my life, reading, watching movies, writing, dabbling in art, hanging out with friends etc., avoiding those necessities of life. At the end of the day I was still looking for more time to find pleasure.

Then Emily came along who is the spokeswoman for routine - "Everything has its place," is a common phrase with her, and I began to change. From her keys, to her calendar, she moves through life in a very set manner. Everything gets taken care of right away, no procrastination, and I found that we often were being delayed or re-routed because I forgot something or forgot to do something. Now my change wasn't totally expected and this wasn't something I planned - I never said to myself I need more routine, though I have stated that I need to be more organized.

Why create a little routine? Time. We all want more, but we only get what we get. Without routine or a little organization we spend far too much time procrastinating about the things we don't want to do only to find ourselves, some Sunday afternoon wasting a full day cleaning, moving things around, etc. It frees up larger blocks of time to take care of the thing you want to do, read, write, surf the net.
I am not saying place your entire day on the calendar or live like a robot. I still love spontaneity, flying by the seat of my pants, being surprised, and now that the annoying things are taken care of right away I find more time for spontaneous activities. It is truly amazing how much time you save and free up by taking care of things as they come along, dishes, cleaning as you go, etc.

I am not perfect by any standard, I am not obsessive compulsive about it so I do find myself digging through coat pockets for keys, but now it is a once a month occurrence, not a daily activity. I can't stress how advantageous a little routine is, start small - finish big.