The Quiet Joy of Routines
A minority of people identify with loving routines. A life filled with consistent habits is their natural bliss. Others begrudgingly accept the usefulness of routines, while another minority actively resist routines because they feel constricted by them.
Whatever your starting point, here we'll explore the potential joy you can find in routines. Not all these points will resonate with everybody, but find what does with you.
Your routines and habits should feel like they serve you, not like you serve them. They should feel supportive, not just demanding.
People who have a negative relationship with routines and habits often associate them with pressure and obligation rather than convenience, support, and ease.
Allow yourself to feel supported and steadied by your routines. Some of this might come from changing your routines, but it can also come from better noticing the ways your routines nourish you.
The remaining points of the post will help you understand how to develop routines that serve you, not the other way around.
People who love efficiency are naturally attracted to crafting optimized routines. Even if you're not typically attracted to optimization, when we repeat the same series of actions, we can't help but see ways to improve our sequence.
There can be great joy in a routine that feels slick, that you gradually craft over time. For example, you might experiment with different times in your week to fill up your car with gas, observing when it's less........
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