My entire life has changed after baby.
Once I was a highly optimized solopreneur,
Now, a dishevelled moosh.
I spent years designing a highly optimized routine like an addiction and now I crave all my daily habits.
Instead of crisps and chocolate I crave some quiet time to sit and read, or a slow lone walk to order my thoughts.
But although my routine may have been chipped away, but it survives and adapts.
Micro-versions of my old habits have emerged in the chaos, and I’m using a cut-down version of my routine to make a 4 hour workday (mostly) stick.
Instead of a 30 min workout in the morning I do 5 mins of rowing at 3am when I’m on babywatch.
Instead of daily reading, I’ll listen to an audiobook whilst cleaning bottles.
When I don’t have time to write, I’ll do a braindump instead.
My new mini-routine is keeping me sane, I think without these small nods to normalcy i’d probably go mad.
The thing about routines though?
It’s easy to ditch them when things are good:
You don’t need the dentist while your teeth are good.
But brushing your teeth everyday means you’ll never need the dentist either.
When the unexpected happens, or when things get tough,
A well-built routine makes the difference between stress and chaos on one hand and keeping your shit together on the other.
You see those people that look like insanos,
the power couple who have 2 kids and still somehow find time to go to the gym?
That’s the payoff of maintaining good habits.
And it’s a self fulfilling loop:
- When I’m healthy, I have more energy.
- So it’s easier to resist eating crap,
- So I’m healthier,
- So I have more energy,
- So I get more things done,
- So I have more time to rest or exercise,
- So I have more energy
- And so on and so on…
Like anything great it takes time, and effort,
and I know I slip, and I won’t keep up the routine everyday.
But I also know when you set out to design your lifestyle,
A good routine takes a long time to take root.
Routine,
becomes habit,
becomes a lifestyle,
becomes part of your identity .
So start building up your dam, one day at a time.
