How important is a daily routine?

Or any routine for that matter . How important is it? Is a routine holding you back from an  exciting and adventurous life or is a routine necessary to stay healthy and focused? 

Small triggers can lead to big changes , that is if you notice them . For Raton it seemed to work best to have and stick to a daily and weekly routine . That way his overloaded mind could at least make him do one thing at a time , it gave him guidelines on how he would get things done and be on time . A routine  created somehow the feeling of home and having a purpose. It seemed it was necessary to stay balanced and the beauty was, everyone could create their own routine, whatever fits their lifestyle. It was always when Raton was traveling or in between projects , that he got off his path without a routine.  

Routine is so important for your mind and for your body . It helps to balance your way of thinking and you therefore are able to be more productive and happy. But you don't have to force and live by the hour. Being aware what you would like your day to look like is almost enough. Well, and following up of course. So what really is a routine? How do you define it? The dictionary says it is a prescribed, detailed course of action to be followed regularly, a standard procedure, a set of customary and often mechanically performed procedures or activities. Does that mean shopping could be categorized as routine well ?  Or would it be more drinking a cup of red tea every day at the same time ? Moisturizing your body with your favorite body lotion in the morning ? Out of a sudden Raton could think of many things that he would consider as routine , but then he felt he would need to narrow it down a bit.



On a regular base he was happy , sad and somewhere in between. He felt while sticking to a more healthy lifestyle that yes , his life would become more stable and solid and less frantic , but at the same time Raton realized how stale and boring it could be to do every single day the same thing . 

Everything was running out of a sudden like a fine oiled machine for him . Get up at 7.30 in the morning , walk eyes half open to the coffee maker and quietly bickering to himself , how if he would have prepared the coffee maker the night before, he now would only need to push the button and how much more easy that would be right now. Talking to each spoon of coffee remained important to him , because that would determine how good the coffee would turn out that day . Then the walk to bathroom , then switching on the computer to check emails . The coffee was done by then , and now thinking became much more easier . For Raton it seemed no matter what, it would take at least one hour before he was completely there . He never could understand how some people just got up , showered, brushed their teeth and leave the house . Something would be missing he thought , and that was exactly the routine , Raton was trying to define .

 Puttering around for an hour in the morning, before really doing anything was it . That was what he loved to do and if he didn't have that , his day would be completely different .  Meditation in the morning made a big different for him as well even though he was better doing it with others in a class setting then by himself . Trying to meditate in the morning by himself most the time made him fall back asleep , and that was not a good way to start the day , waking up twice .

So bottom line, routines are different for everyone. Some run out the door in the morning right away , others fall back to sleep and so on.  Maybe we can describe and compare routines a bit with computer programming. For a computer a routine and subroutine are general and nearly synonymous terms for any sequence of code that is intended to be called and used repeatedly during the use of a program.  Similiar to how we are programmed to get through the day. Once we have developed a routine , days go by actually much more easy and faster.


Our main sequence of logic can branch off to a common routine when necessary. When finished, the routine branches back to the next sequential instruction following the instruction that branched to it.  So things we do that turn into a routine can be called  procedures as well ,  which is similar in meaning.

There are different types, levels and descriptions of routines , like routine activities which are completely mundane and almost boring , daily tasks we do all the time over and over again. Then there are routine decisions, which are  decisions we make on a regular basis and are obvious and require little or no consideration of an alternative. Routine administration are being used to run day to day organisations.

Learning about all these different angles of routines, Raton got actually so tired that after his delicious cup of morning coffee , he went back to bed for another one hour snooze . It showed him how important routines really are . They are   different procedures for each indiviuals , but make or brake how communities and groups are functioning. Without routines there would be chaos , he thought and fell back to sleep . Overall routines are a really positive thing, so are change of routines. Raton evaluated what he could change in his daily routine . Add more meditation , go to the gym , eat better , there were plenty of things that could make his life better . He and his friends would appreciate it.

by RATON (c) 


"The less routine the more life."
Amos Bronson Alcott