Re-establishing routines

~ suzjones

It’s that time of year where we need to get back into the ‘swing’ of things once more.
You know what I mean.
It’s now reached that second week in January where we go back to living ordinary lives again now that the hysteria and hype of Christmas and New Year has passed for another 12 months.
It seems to also be that time of year when we look at life and decide how we are going to tackle living day to day over the coming twelve months.
Well at least that’s what I’ve been doing anyway. (Although yesterday was one of those ‘out the window with routines’ kind of day because I had my First Born, the Fairy Princess, the Pixie Princess, my daughter-of-the-heart and her daughter and my First Born’s FIL join us at various times of the day as we celebrated the birthday of my Pixie Princess who is now 6).
Routines and housework go right out the window when you have little girls with balloons, streamers and birthday presents.
And so here I sit today considering the importance of getting some of that routine back and just how difficult it can be.
The morning is half over.
The Garden Gnome left for work (he has a temporary position for a couple of weeks) about 5.30am and the Teen climbed into bed with me. Rather than getting up and greeting the day (as I know I should have), I closed my eyes in order to catch another few minutes of sleep. I then drifted into one of those dreams where you are trying to wake up because you know you must but you can’t get your eyes open and you start to panic, before eventually forcing said eyes open an hour and a half later. The extra shut-eye didn’t do me any good at all.
Due to the Teen still being in my bed, it has completely thrown my morning routine (when the GG is not here) involving getting up, getting dressed and then making the bed into complete and utter chaos.
So I wandered out to the kitchen, scratched the Diva behind her ears, made a cup of herbal tea, munched my way through some leftover Christmas shortbread and cake, switched on the computer, played some games, read some blogs and I’m now left wondering what happened to my routine and plans for the day of accomplishing so much. Those same plans that I made last night as I waited for sleep to claim me.

That’s it!
I’m going to find myself a daily planner where I can put my day into some sense of routine and order. (Well at least that’s the plan).
I need to slot in time to finish my vision board, complete my goal revision for the year, study, meditate, exercise (my physio is going to kill me next week) and do housework.
There is no going back.

Onward and upward!
The day awaits.

Although I am asking the question, “Is anyone else struggling to find routine in their days once again”?

49 thoughts on “Re-establishing routines”

  4. oh, absolutely. I was free of any commitments today and it was my intention to catch up on e-mail. Last night, when I went to bed I had 1,100 e-mails and was sure I’d make short work of them today. It is now 7:30 pm and I have 1,300 e-mails in my inbox, and I’m really not sure what happened. Can you help? ha!

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    1. Wow! 1300 emails. My emails currently sit at a bit over 200 and go back to Saturday. It’s a slow process getting through them all although I do have a system (sort of). lol

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  5. My schedule with work had kept me from losing the routine, sadly.
    BUT all my patients are telling me that they are glad to be getting back into the routine, even if it’s not easy to do.
    By the way … your blog looks nice!

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    1. I think if you didn’t lose your routine then you don’t have an issue at this time of year. Right now in Australia it is also school holidays so that throws things out of whack a little as well.

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    1. I downloaded a daily planner and wrote stuff down for yesterday. I got several things ticked off so that was a good thing. I’ve discovered that I need to be more detailed in what I need to accomplish though.

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          1. No agencies that I know of but I’ll keep looking for someone private who’s hopefully close by.I only need a couple of hours a week as I haven’t completely given up working. I just can’t stand and I*on or bend for some things.
            xxx Huge Hugs xxx

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  10. I love January and February in spite of the weather that’s so cold some schools have cancelled. It’s just as you said, a chance to get life back in order after the celebratory pressure of the last two months of the year.

    Of course I’ll enjoy joining the group activity of complaining about the cold, repeatedly tell myself how fortunate I am to be inside a nice warm home, and look forward to spring.

    Thanks for your thoughtful post.

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    1. I think we do the same thing with summer Mona. lol I like to whine about how hot it is and how it is just like a sauna and thank my lucky stars we have fans and air con and look forward to Autumn. lol

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  12. My days are so random I smile at the mere thought of routine. I try and try to organize or plan out my day, and inevitably life happens. I am getting closer to finding some semblance of structure, but days (like yesterday) just about make me want to quit. So yes, I think I do share your desire for some sense of normalcy.

    I too like the new theme. I had been reading in the wordpress reader and so I am not sure when the new theme arrived, but I think it is really very nice.

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  13. I decided to use a calendar for my vision board. Thinking past a month’s worth of goals and dreams just doesn’t seem to fly with me, so I’m going for months. 😛

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      1. I just put it up on my wall. I’m using the Google calendar calling it Writing Hours. I can’t miss it. It is just above my PC screen. 😉

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  14. I like the new layout 🙂
    Yes, I’m struggling as well. The furnace died again, and now we’re having delays and snow days. Maybe next week will be more “back to normal” for us.
    I used to live by a calendar, the desk kind, with big boxes that were all too filled up. I don’t do that anymore. If there’s one thing on my calendar, then I’ll schedule everything else on not that day. (Which is much easier with only two kids left at home!)

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    1. Oh dear. I don’t know how you must be coping with no furnace in the middle of winter. As I type this, I have a daily planner and another planner sitting on my desk that I am writing down the many things that need to be done either today or in the coming weeks so that I can plan around them. I really need to be more clear and concise about exactly what I need to do e.g. ‘study’ doesn’t cut it when I need to put ‘dot point book critique’ or something like that.

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      1. Well we bought some space heaters, and they tided us over until the parts place opened on Monday 🙂 It wasn’t nice, but it did make the living better.

        I just caution you against filling in the days too much. For me, those busy calendars only evoke anxiety, although I really thought it helped…Do be specific, and be sure to schedule downtime, Sue!

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  17. As I had to go back to work the day after both Boxing Day and New Year’s Day my routine hardly broke at all. Last year, when I was unemployed though, it took ages to get back in the swing.

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  18. Know the feeling Sue, I can see my whole routine is changing and doesnt look like any routine I had last year, maybe ageing has something to do with it, and the fact that my perception of life bears no resemblance to last year. Somehow a routine will establish itself.
    Regards
    Ian

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