Planning ahead, one day at a time.

Lately, I’ve started to question: why should I continue to work towards a routine? The reason I have come up with is that there are certain habits I need to maintain for my health and well-being, and a routine is a source of systemic support for that habit.

There are two counterpoints to this argument:

1.       A routine is not the only source of systemic support.

2.      Spontaneity and new experiences are equally important as habits for health and well-being.

I should note that I am fortunate enough to consider a non-routine lifestyle since my working hours are mostly flexible (emphasis on quality instead of quantity, limited meetings, 4-day workweek and unlimited PTO).

Additionally, especially when so much of our personal information is online, it is always better to behave unpredictably so that it is harder for advertisers and data miners to commodify your habits (or have stalkers track you easily).

So how do you live a non-routine life?

For me, the major shift was in mindset and realize that, even with the best laid plans, I must take things one day at a time.

Of course, this does not mean there is no need to plan. In fact, it requires a more thorough understanding of desired outcomes and what is needed so that contingencies can be put into place to mitigate any unexpected risks.  

You may notice, this is starting to connect with my posts earlier this year about Time Management in the sense that a non-routine life requires:

·        A deep understanding of personal values and recognition that abilities, situations, and opportunities will change throughout our lives. (Part 1)

·        Recognizing that opportunities to connect with loved ones are the utmost priority. (Part 2)

·        Embracing that a non-zero accomplishment is sometimes enough, and that anti-procrastination is your friend. (Part 3)

Once you’ve wrapped your mind around the cerebral part of this, then you can start building tangible, systemic support for habits you want to maintain consistently.

For me, the most effective methods I’ve devised come from gamification.

It can be as simple as using apps that provide daily goals with a check mark or a badge as a reward such as the Garmin app challenges or the Duolingo streak (which I am ending on January 1st with a 1000 days!). There is something about aspiring to completionism that is highly motivating – but it should be noted that these apps have little room for grace when life happens. I have been thinking about ways to effectively program “humanity” into an app and have been experimenting with a few that have started down that path (e.g. Run with Hal, TrainingPeaks, MōTTIV) but this is certainly a complicated problem.

In the meantime, I have started to manually chart out habit trackers or make more in-depth to-do lists in my notebook to see if that can achieve what I need. It’s almost there, but I’m not done tweaking it to a place to make it a shareable system – so stay tuned.

I will end the blog on this note: life doesn’t really matter. We all have a limited existence that will be forgotten eventually. Everything only has the importance we attribute to it and an effect that we allow. It won’t kill us to be kind, generous and grateful – or embrace any values that end up feeling good – so let’s just go with that and not sweat the small stuff.

Are you trying to have a non-routine life? I’d love to hear how you make it work. Contact me or reply below!