uncharted territory: personal systems/habits/routines in moments of change
30 Dec 2018a few days ago, i noticed a trend in my recent productivity work. and the trend corresponds to something missing in the current “productivity”/personal systems dialogue.
the missing element? change!
most productivity and habit/routine-based writing/work, talks a ton about how to build new habits. fewer people, but still some, talk about how to break bad habits and replace them with good ones. i realize i have yet to read or hear anyone talk about how to know when habits aren’t working anymore, what to do to let them go, and how to know how to shift habit sets.
one thing that has come up in my own habit/routine systems (and also for several folks i’m working with right now) is shocks to the system. i’ll use “i” statements here, but know that this applies comes from people i work with, too. sometimes, i take vacation and totally shift my day schedule. other times, i travel for work and my daily flow is shifted or completed disrupted. in both situations, i will have low to high control over how my day flows. that impacts how i am or am not able to keep up my home routines.
so that creates one question: how do i (or should i) think about my routines and habits while away from home?
and then the next question comes from returning home. sometimes, after vacation, especially a longer one, something will have shifted for me on the trip that makes my old habits less useful. i may have acquired a new approach to my days/weeks/months and that might make a new/different list of things make more sense. what to do then?
obviously, this is just the beginning of this discussion, but as we know, since change is constant, in times when things are shifting, it’s probably important to know how to handle ones habits, routines, and personal systems.
right?
update (14 feb 2023): i charted some of this territory!
words / writing / post-processing
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