Member-only story

We Underestimate Routines

But they’re the most important tool for a chaotic mind.

Taru Anniina Liikanen
4 min readApr 18, 2022
Photo by Maks Styazhkin on Unsplash

I had to return to the office in these past couple of months, gradually going from two days to my current four days per week, and a full 40-hour week starting in May. While many large companies have switched completely to working from home, in my line of work the decision has been to send us all back to the office.

There’s really no reason for it, and I strongly dislike it. Not only because of the three hours a day I’m losing on my commutes and because my once kind of interesting job turned around due to a change in management, but also because the life I had built for myself since March 2020 has now completely changed.

My routine of “get up, eat, work, go to the gym, eat, work, yoga, sleep” suddenly turned upside down, and learning how to build a new one takes time and effort. Without a routine, I don’t function. I get anxious, sometimes depressed for months.

Routine has a bad reputation. It sounds boring. But for some of us, it’s the only way we can work.

I’ve Got Some Issues, I Know

Some people thrive when they have chaos all around them. I’m the opposite.

It might be that 15 years ago I dragged myself out of my comfort zone and to…

--

--

Taru Anniina Liikanen
Taru Anniina Liikanen

Written by Taru Anniina Liikanen

Stand-up comedian and recovering political ghostwriter. Finnish by birth, porteña at heart. Bad jokes frequent.

No responses yet