Let's make some plans

Nov 11, 2007 at 12:18 PM
6 comments

I am really bad at routines. For this entire year, I have been trying to get into some kind of rhythm, including exercising, writing, cleaning, opening mail, doing laundry, clearing out my email... but I'm still not on top of it at all. Having rigid routines seems to get in the way of spontaneity and lounging around reading. It gets in the way of lying in bed for an hour or two in the morning. It's easier for me to get motivated if I have a future plan or goal attached to the tedious tasks, like:

get back down to my optimum weight. this means exercise, and cutting down on donuts & pastries. it means cooking for myself instead of eating out.
writing projects: I have a novel, a memoir, short stories, and essays in my queue. the only way to get these moving along is to write more or less every day. I'm very resistant to this one.
unclutteredness: a state I have always longed to achieve. it requires some simple daily routines. very resistant to this one too.
what do I want to do when I grow up? I'm not satisfied with the work I do now. to discover the work I do want to do requires research and self-examination. and possibly grad school.
relationships: I want to find time to develop and nurture the relationships I have as well as develop new ones. this means planning times for socializing, which I don't like to do. tricky, this.
daily yoga practice. this will have all kinds of benefits, but it's hard to get started - especially when I'm trying to fit in all of the above and have a job and want time to be lazy and/or spontaneous.

The first two could be whittled down to very specific goals with numbers and dates attached, but the rest are a bit amorphous. If I start really working at these, maybe I'll be close to where I want to be in a year. I just have to get up at 6AM and start...

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Future goals don't do a lot for me.... well unless they are immediate future goals, small stage type goals like: do the dishes before going to bed and set the coffee pot to turn on before we go to bed.

It's all about habits for me, I think I said that before. The ones I am struggling with, like your first one, seems like a double chore - stop a bad habit and develop a new one. I never seem to succeed. Gah. But for the rest, it's all about naming a time and doing it. That works for me, anyhow, especially if I work it around something I already have to do at a specific time - like getting home from work and doing... whatever.

I totally hear ya. Some routines I find numbing and others helpful. I guess it depends on what's important to you and/or what you're trying to achieve. For me, having some balance between structure and spontaneity, and the time for each, helps keep me moving ahead ... or it not ahead, at least not totally stuck in the mire of laziness.

I'm not sure if you read my Vox, but this post reads a lot like many of my own lately. Waterbaby is right: finding the balance between spontaneous creation and rigid structure is hard, especially when you also have a job. I've found that after something is scheduled for awhile, it becomes a habit and that allows for more creativity. The idea that you have to do something can make it sort of soul-killing. Stick to it though and you'll be rewarded.

These are all beautiful thoughts. I admire your narrowing down things so well. I hope you accomplish them. I like the term "optimum weight", you seem very comfortable with the concept of weight, I admire your respect for relationships and looking for the time to build and nurture one, I appreciate your interest in Yoga and in waking up early - these two are synonymous!!!, self-examination is perhaps graduate school, perhaps you can do it in a way more suitable to your well wishers, you certainly have an uncluttered mind, I'm not sure how uncluttered your space should really be, and this blog is a great journal etc...you're already there...

[this is good]

Great Post!! I had many similar goals this year. Some I accomplished, some like the optimum weight thing is still a constant battle. Good Luck, hey for some simple routines try - www. flybaby.com - I love her.. totally free and used her system to create one more suited for me.

Ah, yes. I want to embrace more routines in my life but I seem to be resistant to some of them. Oddly enough, opening mail seems to be the most difficult task to do regularly -- even though it probably requires the least effort. Simple things like that and making sure the kitchen sink is empty and clean before I go to sleep would probably ease my mind... which is really the point. I really admire your yoga routine -- I keep saying I need to get into that so I should just do it.

Let's make some plans

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