The importance of routine

As part of a forthcoming series of articles I covered the importance of adhering to a routine. This was something that I've always done and always felt is important but quite how important I didn't realize until this month.

This month Stacey is having a few weeks off work while she's waiting for all the CRB checks to come through before starting her new role as Senior Management Accountant at the Birmingham City Council which she really deserves after a few really hard years studying to become a Fully Qualified Chartered Management Accountant with CIMA. Anyhow I digress.

As I've got a fair amount of work on at present, I knew I wasn't going to be able to spend time with her for all the time she had off but I decided having a few late mornings wouldn't hurt. How wrong could I be? The most disruptive thing this month so far has not been Stacey wanting to do things (which I thought it would be) it has been the semi-lack of routine.

For the past 3 years I've got up with Stacey around 6:30am and got into the office after seeing her off (usually around 8am but in recent months due to lack of motivation for her job this dropped to 9am) and then I would work until her return at around 7:30pm. This gave me a good 11 hours office time a day.

What I've found however is with the lie-ins etc over the last week is how your mind gets into a routine. When you disrupt the routine i.e. by getting up at 9am, your brain suddenly finds it harder to get into gear with what you're working on.

This disruption basically means, where it used to take me 10-15 minutes in the morning to gather myself for the day ahead (turn on computer, check emails, think about where I got to the night before etc) it's taking me closer to 30 minutes. I'm also finding I'm getting distracted a lot easier! This week, we've started getting up at 8am, then starting work around 9am and already I've been at least 50x more efficient (though still going to bed around 2am means I'm getting increasingly knackered!).

I'll stress again now, if you're planning on working for yourself in the future: have a routine and stick to it!