an ideal vs an actual day in the life
This month’s theme for Illuminate is based around “An examination of life.” This topic plays with the idea of how our lives are different in this “pandemic life,” but each of us still have different days. This got me thinking, do I have a “pandemic” routine? Do I enjoy it? What’s my ideal routine? And finally — this prompt is due tomorrow, what the heck am I going to publish?
THE “IDEAL” VS “ACTUAL”
If you’d flip through any of my planners you would come across a few “ideal routine” pages. From creating a morning routine, night routine, checking in with where my routines are now, I’ve tried planning out my days down to the hours. It’s so fascinating to re-read these and see how my mind has changed. Waking up at 6am to work out? HA. That does not seem ideal to me right now. In that moment though, I wanted it. I envisioned that for my ideal day, and some days, I followed through with it. Do I follow through with a lot of the routines I write? No.
That makes me wonder — if I’m writing down my ideal day, a day that I mapped out down to the hour, being as realistic as possible, and that I believe will bring me happiness…
WHY AM I SO HESITANT TO FOLLOW IT?
As I sat down to think about my “pandemic routine,” I first thought about life at the beginning of all of this. The first few weeks of this is temporary. I had a pretty good routine going — I’d wake up and play Animal Crossing, make coffee, get to work at the kitchen table…after work I’d clean off the table, eat, and would typically play more Animal Crossing, or watch tv. There would be some Zoom calls thrown into there — from April - June it felt like I had a Zoom call or Live workout class to attend every other day. My weekends during the beginning months were filled with, you guessed it…Animal Crossing. As time passed and we had to accept our new normal — is anyone else sick of that phrase??— I thought about my routine less and less, slowing falling to more of a “what do I need to do today” than a “how am I going to fill my day?” Looking back, April - June feels like a blur.
Something changed though as I started training in June to run my half-marathon in September. My routine turned into sleep in until 8, roll out of bed to my desk, drink coffee, work, go for a run, lay on the couch/bed watch tv, or scroll on my phone. The weekends would include a long run meaning a few hours would be running, showering, or eating and lots of sleeping. At least I was getting outside?
As my race weekend passed, I went back into a blur, yet, it was different. This time, Animal Crossing was just something I logged into to do some daily tasks — like my island, what I was doing was “good enough” and I didn’t have to energy to give any more than the minimum. My routine now was sleeping in until minutes before a meeting, work work work work, going and laying in bed. One day a week includes grocery shopping. Some days include going to the mailbox to get my newest online purchase. My weekends consist of cleaning something, sleeping, and watching lots of tv. It wasn’t until writing and saying it “out loud” right now that I’m realizing how much I’ve fallen into a blur that even typing it is boring me.
SO, I’M BACK TO WRITING OUT AN IDEAL ROUTINE.
I’ve been here many times before, as we’ve already talked about. This time though, I want it to stick. Yes, I’ve said that many a times before too. Not wanting to fall into a similar pattern of starting off with a blank sheet of paper, I instead take a look back at some old routines I made. Is there any overlap? Is there a theme? Has ANYTHING stuck? Coffee in the morning has always made it into my actual routines. That’s…about it though. I do notice common things popping up on multiple spreads though so I decided to dive deeper into them and I’m able to come up with categories for what all of these things fall into — mind, body, connection (heart), uplift (spirit).
So, I write those categories down:
Mind: cooking/baking, journaling prompts, writing, skill-building, learning something new, reading, coloring, planning, organizing, and going to therapy.
Body: running, body workouts, dance, yoga, cycling, CHAARG, Sweatnet, stretching + deep breathing.
Connection (heart): video chats + Facetimes, getting coffee or drinks, cuddling, group classes or talks, content ideas + posting and Pinterest scrolling.
Uplift (soul): getting ready for the day, gratitude log, going outside, affirmations, dance break, playlist for my mood, self-care, napping.
Mind and body are self-explanatory — doing something like exercising or reading. The other two I had to spend a little bit more time on. I chose to think of “heart” as doing something that gives me feeling — happy/sad/angry/anything — so things like connecting with friends and family, creating, or learning. For “soul,” I think about things that I can do to feel better after — listening to music for my mood, doing self-care, maybe napping.
I realize now why my previous routine making has never been able to stick…I’ve been trying to cram as many activities as I could into a day. Sure, I COULD fit these things in, but, just as you don’t work out the same muscle group daily, I’d be burning myself out by focusing on them all each day.
SO HERE’S MY NEW PLAN — EACH DAY, FOCUS ON ONE OF THE CATEGORIES.
Sure, I'll probably do more than just things in one category a day as things overlap — for instance, I’ll bake something, go to therapy, and video chat. The key here is to not focus on the “what’s” to check off or how many categories I can fill my day up with, but instead making an intention to complete just one thing each day.
In a few months, I hope to look back on this post and to have grown from it, maybe adding to my list of things in each category. At the very least I know one thing’s for certain, I can always count on drinking coffee in the morning.
This blog idea was thanks to Illuminate, a writing community by The Kindred Voice. Here’s what the others in my group created from this month’s theme:
A Day in My Life by Laci Olivia
What Makes a Life? by Amy Rich
A Real (and Imagined) Examination of Life by Sarah Hartley
The Things We Carry by Jenn Norrell
An Engineer Writes Fiction by Christi Hurelle
An Examination of Life by Danni Brigante
life itself. by Eunice Brownlee