In this post, I made a note that I felt I’d spent a lot of time in 2018 rebuilding my own routines. As I thought over the specifics of that quote, I realized that rebuilding wasn’t the best word for it and that I should explain my meaning in a little more detail.
First, I used rebuilding to describe the small changes to my daily routine that were necessitated by other much larger adjustments. A good example is how I started proofreading these TOA posts at home rather than at the library. I made this adjustment not because I thought proofreading would work better at home but because I started working full-time and needed my limited library time for other tasks.
I also used rebuilding to describe the intentional lifestyle changes that manifested as new routines in 2018. My decreased coffee consumption is one such change – for a variety of different reasons, I decided this past fall that I wanted to drink less coffee and reduced the two to three cups per morning I used to drink to around one (sometimes big) cup. In addition to the obvious result of drinking less coffee, I found the change also meant new patterns in terms of how I planned my day and, in particular, how I spent my first hours after waking.
Finally, I applied the rebuilding label to the occasional measures I took whenever I thought I needed to get my routine back on track. One way I’ve done this is by eating breakfast right away whenever I feel that my sleep cycle has been thrown off. The science isn’t fully established here, reader, but for me I’ve found that a 6 AM breakfast or two is a good way to train myself to wake up at 6 AM on ensuing mornings. I usually eat these early breakfasts until I feel my body is back to the pattern of waking naturally at this hour. Once I feel good about my sleep cycle, I return to eating my first meal sometime in the early afternoon.
The reason I look at these changes as examples of rebuilding is how the new routines (or variations within routines) built the foundation for me to do much more important things with my time without being true examples of new routines. I’ve always drank coffee, for example, and I ate breakfast for two and a half decades. The small changes to my routine also aren’t entirely necessary as stand-alone ideas (there isn’t any reason to wake up at 6 AM or to wait until late morning to drink my first – and only – cup of coffee). However, I feel those specific actions are required if I want to maximize my own abilities and find ways to attack each day as my best self.
