A friend of mine commented, “I just couldn’t get into a routine this week. It was frustrating since nothing went as planned.” I was comforted to see that someone else felt the same way that I did in dealing with the latest weather disruptions. I’m not the only one that is a creature of habit. I had my daily routine while I was still working that involved the same route, parking in the same spot, taking the stairs, and getting there early for a Starbuck’s pick-up. In retirement, I’ve also developed a routine, even though I’m no longer regulated by the clock. The one thing in common with both routines is the 3-mile run that I do first thing each morning. I credit this habit as the biggest factor in making a smooth transition into retirement. I still get up at the same time and get the toughest challenge of the day out of the way without thinking too much about it.

Weekends were always the toughest, because of the drastic change in routine. In retirement, weekends exist only because my wife is still working. Otherwise, it would just be another day, like holidays and vacations that are celebrated as days off of work. These are now my wife’s weekends characterized by sleeping in later, incorporating the dogs into my run, and doing other things together. There often isn’t time for writing and watching TV that tends to fill a routine work day for me. We often go to a movie on her Saturday nights, and breakfast on her Sunday morning, before settling back into our quite different weekday routines. 

Tonight, we’ll spend nearly nine hours on planes, traveling coast-to-coast and then back to Indianapolis. Travel is never routine, filled with unexpected change, multiple time changes, unfamiliar surroundings, and new experiences. Some people may associate routine with boredom, so travel is always a radical way to change things up. However, in the process, you sacrifice the comforts of home and the routines associated with being there. This is why I’ve tried to adopt the 80/20 rule in our life plan, spending 80% of our time in a comfortable routine and 20% on the road to discovery. (See Posts #320 and #323).