Routines ... What´s that really all about?

I´m a pretty heavy morning routined person … and I´ve never really thought much of it — Have you?

In my past life I´ve usually had the mornings to myself. I was working from home and I had to be ready in front of the computer for the 9am morning meeting — I had a routine. I usually got up at 7.30am, went straight for the coffee machine, had a cup and a cigaret, read a few news or blogs and checked out the selected social medias. Before I knew it it was time for a bath and soon after work was starting.

Even when I moved to Copenhagen and started living by my self I took that routine with me, now I only have to get out the door 20 to 9 in order to be at the morning meeting — but the things I do in the morning are basically the same.

Then something happened … The last two weeks I´ve been thrown out of my routine, and the other morning I ended up in a situation where I could do non of the things I usually do — Basically I had no Internet, TV or other media to consume in the morning, I was left to, well — just myself … No way, how sad you might think :p I know, but really, when is the last time you´ve had hours where you had nothing to do and nowhere to be … Maybe just an hour to you self and no plans? And more important, what did you (decide) do with that time?

My first instinct was that I could might as well just go early to work, but then I started thinking … what is it about these routines, why do we have them? Why is it that I have the urge to fill every vacant moment doing something? Why is it that I don´t take more time to just do nothing? Am I afraid that if I don´t do something with all my time it would be wasted? Is what I´ve usually been doing actually useful for me?

I didn’t come to any conclusions that morning and actually still haven´t — I just found it curious that I finally realized that I´ve been a slave to a routine and all that it took to shake me was … nothing.

Do you have a routine? And why?