The pitfalls of not sticking to your routine

​So full disclosure, while I'm not "officially" diagnosed, I have the symptoms of and am being treated for ADHD; I also have an anxiety disorder and a brain injury. Needless to say, I NEED a routine in order to keep on top of everything. And after years and years of practice, I'm really good at creating routines. Trouble is, I'm also really good at not sticking to them if something really exciting derails me.

Last week my partner and I took a mini vacation down to Moose Jaw to enjoy a little R & R; but right before we left, my desk for the office arrived! So I was very excited for us to put it together and start our huge workspace switch (post on this coming in the future!). So when we got home, that is exactly what we did; and for the rest of the weekend I had so much fun ORGANIZING!! I love organizing - almost as much as I love composing. There is something very therapeutic about putting things in order (hence my previous job at the library!).

So I bet you can see where this is going. I hyperfocused on office arranging like a madwoman. So much that I completely neglected my weekend routine - house chores, meal planning, grocery shopping, and rest. This has created a pretty huge ripple effect into my week. I told myself "oh, I'll just get groceries on Monday." No. Full stop. Grumpy cat. That did not happen. Because I wore myself out over the weekend (no rest and all hyperfocus), and then needed to catch up on composition work and e-mails after my getaway, I had no energy to get my weekend errands done on Monday. I didn't get groceries until late Tuesday night.

Now you might be thinking, "So what? Now you have you're groceries and you're back on track." Oh no, sir. Ma'am. I am not. As a part of my weekly routine, I make big dinners on Monday and Tuesday night while my partner teaches ('cause good luck getting any work done during saxophone lessons); this means that on Wednesday and the rest of the week, I can work a little harder on composition and not need to worry about making meals. My brain is very accustomed to this pattern, and this week is no exception. I worked very hard on Wednesday, despite making a plan to include my meal making and some other errands. But my brain was not prepared for this change in routine, not to mention it is now adjusting to my new workspace (because my new workspace is just that -- new = change = Ahhh!!!!!!), and it was overloaded by the time I got to making dinner. So I crashed. I ate my food and I crashed. Watching The Flash. And Interior Design Masters.

As a result, I am presently staring into the face of a HUGE pile of dishes, and I am still feeling frazzled with all my little errands I can't seem to get done in this week that comes from the pages of a Lewis Carrol novel (in my mind anyway). So I have decided that today needs to be a catch up day for my chores and errands. This means no composition today. Insert very sad face. 

Budgeting time and managing my house are really difficult factors in working from home. They weren't any easier when I worked at the library either, but somehow I imagined that it would be easier as a freelance composer. Wrong. Very wrong. Oh well - it is a lesson learned (temporarily... look out for this exact same post in 3 months. Jk! But really...)

​So next time my exciting desk arrives, or I have a super exciting organizing project, I'll need to make sure that I honour my routine and work around it so that my composition week can still go ahead as needed. And for today, I will let the words of The Flash's dad guide my day:

"Sometimes we have to slow down to get back to where we want to be."