What is project:routine and why..?

I've never had a routine in my life. OK, I've been on a few seminars and camps where there was a schedule or agenda to follow, but that can be considered as a taste of routine.
However, I consider myself being the kind of a person that functions better in spontaneity. You know, I make things happen. Never mind if I did it all by burning the midnight oil or by putting an hour a day for months in it.


So, I've been following this website about motivation and creativity and very often what they are advising people in order to stay creative is to catch the routine (here's one of them). Routine requires discipline. Discipline is good for our peace of mind, for our achievement, self esteem, which all lead to happiness. When having routine, you are in control of your time and by following it, you are on a certain path towards achieving your goals because, actually, you divided your goal on daily tasks, small steps. Yea, it all sounds good, but I'm doing fine even without the routine, thank you very much! You know, that's just not for me, I'm not that type! I'm a spontaneous, go-with-the-flow type, perfectly oriented in creative chaos of my own.
But, what bothers me the most is - can I do it? No matter my nature (which may as well be nurture!..), can I handle the discipline? Can I try and see what happens?


I saw this video yesterday, it's a TED talk where a guy is explaining how we can actually do anything in 30 days. And I thought - yea! That's what I'm gonna do! I never had routine in my life whatsoever. And I do have a few goals: I've got two jobs, an exam to pass, a need to have physical activity every day, interests in many subject as well as interest in having social life. So, let’s see what happens with my life if I change the way I spend my time on it. In next 30 days I'm going to commit myself to the same things at the same time every day.
And that's basically what this project is about.

project:routine

Duration: 15th November - 15th December 


Schedule:
07:00 wakey! wakey!, it's time for.. 
07:30 - 12:00 job 1 
13:00 - 15:00 job 2 
15:00 - 16:00 guitar playing 
16:00 - 18:00 browsing the Internet for further studies or a job
18:00 - 20:00 studying for the exam (on Mondays and Thursdays I'll go study at uni)
20:00 - 21:00 social networks
21:00 - 22:00 jogging (or riding indoor bicycle)
22:00 - 23:00 blog update


Now, there certainly are things I wanna have time for which are not in the schedule, like:


* watching movies
* reading books
* taking photos
* seeing friends
* concerts
* conferences, exhibitions, workshops
* walking in nature
but weekends are out off the schedule and this type of stuff I can do on weekends, or at the expense of my beauty sleep!
I probably will be invited by friends to hang out, there will be concerts to attend even during the week... And, at this point I decided that exceptions can't be made. Just like when you have certain duty which simply can't be postponed.
Renunciation appeals as the hardest part of this project. I started with the intention only to put things that I however want and have to do in order. The schedule is made out of things that I want to commit my time to. But the bitter de facto occurs: the day is too short. For some things there just isn't enough time. First things first. (My dear family and friends, this of course doesn't mean I won't be there for you if you need me! As I said, first things first! I was thinking more of leisure..) Luckily, I do have weekends to do all the rest of the things.
Spontaneity gets a little lost in having things over-arranged, but I guess you can't have spontaneous routine, can you! And finally, it is a 30-day project, which means I have to hold on only for a limited period of time.
Besides, having weekends without a schedule is challenging itself. After being completely without worries and responsibilities for two days (although, I have doubts in the latter), at every start of the new week (which is Monday) I have to get back on track, to establish routine again. Just like you often have to in real life, right?


Here are some other circumstances:

• The exam I have to pass is on 3rd December, which means that it is the middle of the project. This is important, firstly because usually pre-exam period is the time when I'm committed only to studying. That is, of course, because I never start studying on time, which means I have to switch to third gear that few days before the exam as my only chance to make it to prepare the material. In this scenario, and for the fist time in my life, it will have to be different. I will start studying earlier and I will study every day for 18 days before the exam but, in those few days right before the exam, the schedule will have to stay the same. Put in other words, even on Friday, 2nd December, I'll have only 2 hours to study and no more! Secondly, even after I do the exam, the schedule stays the same, which means that after I've just done one exam I'll start studying for the next one immediately, which also never happened before.

• There is a course about blogging that I will attend from 18th to 20th November. It includes weekend, which is fine, but a workday as well. I am aware that it is a deviation from the schedule, but I will however undergo it. Why? Well, that's what we normally have in life, don't we, things happening not according to our plan. The important bit is to "do watcha gotta do" but still be able to keep track of things! In my case, this means being away for 3 days, doing something totally out of the context, and then coming back and carrying on with all the responsibilities normal everyday life has. Especially with going away, every time you're going back your mind is in a different place.

• I start "job 1" on first next Monday. Which means that in first four days (including today) I have 4 and a half hours more daily. I will be using them to more of the stuff that are in the schedule, but also to finish some things which have to be done and were not yet done, because the whole idea about this came more as an epiphany than it is long planned. So it is possible that, in next three days I finish some of the afternoon activities in the morning, so I could have few hours in the afternoon to finish some other stuff. It is very important to do things every day at the same time, so I will be avoiding any changes in the schedule in the future the best I possibly can.

What I'd also like to stress is my diet. I'll have all three meals every day at the same time, which is:
07:00 - 07:30 breakfast
12:00 - 13:00 lunch
18:00 - 19:00 dinner
Also, on Mondays I eat only starchy foods, on Tuesdays only carbohydrates, on Wednesdays only proteins, on Thursdays only starchy foods, on Fridays only carbohydrates, on Saturdays only fruits and vegetables and on Sundays only proteins.
(By the way, this diet I've been practicing for some time now, so it's not newly established.)
So, I wanna see if there will be any changes in my physical condition after applying all this habits (have in mind an that 1 hour of exercise I have every night, too).


There will never be any updates after 11 p.m. That is because at 11 p.m. I'm supposed to be sleeping. I have generally had very irresponsible attitude about sleep and there had always been things I'd rather do than sleep. In this scenario, though, I'm not even going to put any pressure on that issue. If, after the whole day as it is, I have energy to still be up and about and get up every morning at 7 a.m, I'm just gonna let it. And the reason why I'm being like this is because lately I've been really pissed off - pardon my French - with my organism for not ever having the need to sleep, which made my mind extremely overloaded, and that's unpleasant!


So, this blog will be a diary for my little personal project and I will share my daily observations and experiences and, last but not the least, I will use it to record the progress.


Result:
Now, there is no expected result. I only expect to learn from this, about myself and general human habits and behavior.
I don't expect myself to change and become different from how I've been before in the way I do things.
I won't consider it a failure if, after the 30 days, I get back to all the old habits. Every psychological complex has it's own patterns of behaving and feeling comfortable. So, if I don't find this routine suitable for myself, I won't force it. But I, however, won't be the same after this 30 days, and knowledge and experience is what counts!


The only thing I would consider a failure is giving up before time.