[Perry] Breaks in Routine

It’s something that tends to happen when you set your mind on completing something.

Maybe it’s a weekly running regiment or an exercise schedule. Maybe it’s a diet that you’re on to promote healthy living. Maybe it’s a writing habit, or a drinking habit, or a tv binge watching habit.

You come up with a routine or a schedule. And you decide that on so and so days, for X amount of time, you will do this thing.

And when you start? Filled with zest and fire, you maintain, you know? You keep it up, and you don’t waver. You pat yourself on the back because of your perseverance, and your willpower.

Rightly so. After all, there’s always more consuming to be done in this world than anyone really has time for. It’s so much easier to take in someone else’s gloriously written words, or their beautiful art, than it is to make your own.

But as time passes? The fire begins to flag. Maybe you start allowing yourself a ‘cheat day’ on your diet, just to add some variety. Maybe it’s suddenly raining one day and you tell yourself that you can skip this afternoon’s jog. Maybe you put off your day’s writing because you JUST got to the amazing climax to a book and you can’t put it down.

And it’s alright, right? You’ve been doing well so far. You’ve maintained this rigid schedule up until this point. Surely, you can afford ONE day off from your routine.

Surely.

But that first crack? Widens to a chasm.

You start with that one day. The first day. And then, you find it easier to make excuses for yourself. Maybe you can skip on your running for today because you were out in the park, running around with a frisbee and some friends the afternoon before, when you didn’t have a run scheduled. Surely that counts, right?

Maybe you can skip out on your writing for this week because you totally went 500-600 words past your regular weekly writing quota last week.

Maybe you can totally nom that slice of pecan pie because you got some unexpected exercise this morning and surely, SURELY, the calories will cancel out, right?

Next thing you know, the breaks in your routine? BECOMES your routine.

One day you’ll wake up and realize that you haven’t worked up a solid sweat in well over two weeks.

One day, you’ll wake up and realize that EVERY day this past week has been a cheat day from your diet.

One day, you’ll wake up and realize that it’s been over a month since you last completed a chapter to your novel.

Sure, there are exceptions. You went out to your best friend’s birthday party? There’s no way you’re not going to raise at least ONE glass of beer with the guy, right?

Maybe it’s been just really shitty weather for running for a month straight.

Maybe you just haven’t been in the mood for writing lately and you’d rather wait till you were fired up to ensure that what you DID get down on paper doesn’t read like garbage. That’s a valid excuse, right?

Next thing you know? Two or three months have passed since your schedule has lapsed. Hells, maybe longer than that.

And you know what you do? You decide it’s time for a change and you apply yourself once more. You give yourself a schedule again.

Then the cycle repeats.

If any of this sounds familiar to you, please, join the club. I’ve got t-shirts.

I’ve always had a problem with breaking my routines. Because once I break it? I usually find MORE reasons to break it. And next thing you know, I’m back at square one.

What I’ve found works best for me (though to be honest, my best is very much not good enough), is that whatever breaks or interruption I allow into my routine, I MUST make up for them before the week is done.

The one week timer gives me enough flexibility that I can afford to skimp out here and there when the vagaries of life necessitate a break…but it’s not long enough a time that I can let my routine lapse completely.

This is the methodology that I’ve been using for my running exercises since I’ve started and it’s worked out pretty well these past few months.

And I know that a paltry thirty minutes of exercise three times a week hardly seems like much to most folks…but damnitall, it was crazy hard for me to force myself to get out there when I started and I’m proud of the fact that I’m still maintaining that rhythm.

Lord knows what I’ll do when the winter weather hits, but I’ll deal with that when I get there.

I’m also hoping to apply this to my woefully lapsed writing habit and I’ll see how that one turns out.

What about yourselves? How do you deal with the occasional breaks to your routine?

And more importantly, how do you keep those breaks from BECOMING your routine?

 

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