I love routines.
To be clear: we’re talking about the ‘get up and make coffee’ routines, not the ‘sliiiide to the left, sliiiide to the right‘ dance routines… though those are great, too.
Routines feel comfortable, and they enable me to do what I want to do… most of the time.
This morning I wake up and start out with the bad version of my routine: collect phone, jump back into bed, start scrolling through BBC News, WhatsApp, and Instagram. This happens on four or five days a week.
I return to my senses and hop out of bed, do 12 push ups (a variation on the five I usually do, to wake up), before wandering to the kitchen to boil water.
With the kettle on the stove, I put away the dishes that have drip-dried overnight.
The kettle boils. Hot water is an enabler for the next two items:
- coffee (precisely 60 grams of coffee and 325 grams of water, filtered into a pre-heated cup)
- porridge (oats, milk powder, cinnamon, honey, banana)
I return to my room and open my laptop.
I click through to “Pete Harrison Workflow” and quickly realise that this is not where I want to be.
I want to be blogging.
But autopilot steered me straight towards work. By 0527hrs.
I navigate away from “Pete Harrison Workflow” and into “Blog,” then start writing.
I’m reminded that routines are valuable, but that autopilot can lead us in the wrong direction. Especially if we’re looking to change our routines.
Mindfulness could be defined as being conscious of what we’re thinking, feeling, and doing, and gauging the impact as we go.
This morning, autopilot overcame mindfulness. Mostly, things went to plan, but shifting the balance just a little towards being more conscious of my actions could have been helpful.
Do you have a regular routine? If not, are you trying to establish one?
How often do you feel that autopilot overtakes your conscious decision-making? What’s the impact?