It’s easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day, doing the same things over and over again is easy, really easy.
Over the last year and a half, I feel like I’ve really fallen into what’s easy. That is, I’ve allowed myself to fall into patterns that aren’t great, that don’t add much, if anything, to my day-to-day. And I’ve noticed that it’s a problem—it’s definitely impacted my mental health.
I don’t have any answers but I do have some ideas.
My day to day consists of the following:
- Wake-up around 7ish am
- Lay in bed for 30ish minutes—probably looking at phone
- 8ish am get out of bed, shower and do the grooming and putting on of pants (maybe).
- 9ish am get in car and drive to office
- Work and take calls until noon-ish and eat.
- Finish up day around 5ish pm.
- Go for a run at 6p (on Monday and Wednesday) — or go see trainer at 4:30p (on Tuesday and Friday)
- Go home throw together a hasty meal, more of a snack than a meal.
- Watch TV for an hour or so.
- Look at phone or some other screen (laptop)
- Go to bed around midnight…
The above routine is fairly consistent but doesn’t account for random meetups with friends or other commitments that pop-up.
I’m kinda bored with things. Work is the same grind over and over. Running isn’t providing the release or relaxation it normally does but it’s important that I stay active, I notice a difference in how I feel when I’m inactive.
Shit, even the internet is boring me; it’s not that it’s not interesting but I feel like I visit the same sites over and over again. I’ve taken to browsing the deep/dark web, to find things of interest, that are different. I regret looking up some of the things I’ve looked up… But that’s neither here nor there, it’s just part of the problem.
What do I do? I’ve thought about it and I’ve made a couple of small changes. One of which is to stop looking at my phone so much. The past week I’ve avoided picking up my phone before 8 am. I’ve taken to reading thirty-minutes in the morning and trying to do a couple of things differently.
I’m currently reading Atomic Habits, by James Clear—awesome read thus far and the impetus for this blog post.
Changes I’m working on for my day-to-day:
- Don’t look at the phone before 8 am
- Try to wake up consistently at 6:30 am
- Read thirty-minutes in the morning
- Prepare a proper sit-down breakfast
- Call one friend or family member each day
Other things I’m eye-balling to add to my routine:
- Setting a couple of goals and lining up tasks to achieve those goals.
- Identifying something interesting to try that’s different. I started attending improve in late 2017 but I’ve been inconsistent with it (it conflicts with running)
- Looking at stand-up comedy
- Writing more or writing a few times a week (if not daily)
- Picking a couple of places I want to visit each year.
Nothing changes if you don’t try to make a change. Changes need not be drastic and they need not always succeed, what’s important is to actually try a thing.
