We Underestimate Routines
But they’re the most important tool for a chaotic mind.
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 another country, and routines bring a sense of something homey and safe into my life. It could also be because I have some concentration issues.
My mind is always in chaos, and it doesn’t work in a linear manner. When I write these stories, I keep jumping from one idea and paragraph to three others, constantly, going to the beginning of the story to write half of one sentence and to the end to finish another. Somewhere in there, a structure forms. Not always. Sorry about that. :)
Very often I leave sentences without finishing. I don’t notice them when I’m proofreading, either, because it’s challenging for me to keep focusing on the story as I edit, and I again jump from one place to another.
Now, I know I may have ADHD. Teachers told my mom she should get me checked when I was a kid, too, but she didn’t want to get me medicated. I haven’t searched for a diagnosis later in life, either, even though sometimes I…
