Not a Routine Person

Not a Routine Person….

They (who ever they are) say that it takes 21 days of repeating an activity to make it a habit…NOT!  

I have spent the first few weeks this year on trying to establish a daily routine for myself.   I have it all printed and in sheet protectors in a very organized fashion in my dayrunner.  Very careful, hour by hour I have planned out my workday schedule and I have tried, truly I have, to follow the schedule hour by hour each day.  It isn’t working!  

I have realized that I am not a routine schedule personality, nor am I lazy, even though I do enjoy working sometimes in my jammies.  I am a productive person but not one who works on a regular routine.  I need flexibility and change in my daily life to stay motivated and interested.  Routines are boring!  I’ve thrown out set in stone hour by hour daily routine.  (This is prolly why I married my DH – he is not a time-oriented person either.)

I love my dayrunner and put absolutely everything in it – from notes on creative ideas, my address book, birthdays, and my calendar.  I even have my weekly TUIT list (TUIT = around to it) and monthly TUIT list in there.  But to have that hour by hour schedule staring at me just knots my stomach up into a big ball!  

I purchased a legal pad and have started outlining my basic TUIT list on it for each day.  I put about 5 or 6 jobs on each day.  As I cross each one off with my bright blue highlighter, I get a sense of satisfaction that my list is being done.  At the end of the week, whatever didn’t get a bright blue line thru it goes back on the next week’s list.  I don’t have to worry about what time I’m doing a job, I just do the job for however long it takes until I’m finished.  Then I get to stand back and smile about a completed job!  

Both my husband and I work from home so our days are not the typical workday to begin with.  We get up, drink our coffee, eat our breakfast, and begin our day.  Our days don’t stop at 5 pm either, some of them continue on into the night but we like our lifestyle and it works for us!  

While Flylady seems to work for some, I find that her less than gently reminders throughout the day make me nervous!  I have taken what works for me from flylady and have had much fun flinging the rest!   I don’t wear shoes in the house.  I keep a pair of rubber gardening clogs by my backdoor so I can slip them on when I take the dogs out or if I need to go to the aviary.  So no, flylady, I don’t dress down to the shoes and my sink isn’t always shining but my house is tidy and my creative juices are flowing again!  I would much rather have a couple of dishes in my sink than have my creative pipes all stopped up because I’m trying to work on someone else’s schedule!