Creature of Habit
J. Kevin Tumlinson

I'm a creature of habit. Every morning I get up, stumble to the coffee maker (sweet giver of life), brew my particular brand of rot-gut and then shuffle into my home office where I start working. I write a few pages of this, jot down notes on that, sketch something, work on a web page. The particulars change but the routine stays the same. If you change the routine, I'm out of sorts for the rest of the day.

What is it about routine that makes it so necessary? We complain about it when we've been “in a rut” for too long, and yet after vacations or getaways or mid-life crises we hop right back onboard the Routine Express.

I can't speak for everyone (try as I might), but I know that I need my habits. Most of them, anyway. I need a schedule that I can rely on, mostly to help me just get going each day. When I wake up on a cold morning, with nothing major in the works for the day, the only thing that gets me out of bed sometimes is my routine. That and my driving need for coffee.

But just because I need my work habits doesn't mean I have to keep them forever. A few years ago, it was my habit to wake up at 4 a.m. every morning and write for two hours before going to work. It was an admirable work habit, if I do say so myself. Every morning, the horrid, dreaded sound of my alarm screamed into my brain, got my eyes open and got me up and running at four after midnight . I produced some of the best work of my life during that time. At first, it was tough, and I groaned and had to force myself out of bed. But after 30 days or so it became a habit, and suddenly my eyes popped open before the alarm even went off.

I did that for the better part of a year. Was it because I could only function during that time of the day? No. It was because I had classes and a job that had me on the go from around 7a.m. to sometimes 10 or 11 p.m. If I wanted to write, it was either a late shift or an early one.

These days, though, I'm in a very deep and much desired coma at 4 a.m. I admit, I'm still an early riser, but it's more in the nature of six or seven. Since my schedule has changed, my habits have changed with it.

Sometimes we get into a rut. Our routine becomes a tether, keeping us bound to the same thing every single day. It started out as something useful, something to help us get along, muddle through, keep working towards the prize. Then it morphed into something hideous and heavy and it holds us down. But it doesn't have to be that way. Taking a small break from your routine is enough, sometimes, to recharge the ol' batteries. Or maybe it would be better to re-evaluate your life every now and then, see if the old routine is still necessary?

If you're feeling the “blahs,” and you think your life is going nowhere in a big hurry, maybe you should evaluate your own routines. Of course it will be tough to adjust to a new routine, it always is. It's almost painful to start a new work habit. It feels like you're tearing yourself apart. But hey, maybe that's a good thing. Sometimes, tearing something down is the best way to rebuild it. And if adjusting your daily regimen helps you to re-energize yourself and ditch the “blahs,” then a little discomfort at the beginning is more than worth it.