Routines and the Inner Control Freak

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This is our routine (ideally). Ideally is also code for NOT TEETHING, so I haven’t done this in a while. At this very moment there are dishes on the bench and a play area to clean up which I have absolutely no intention of doing tonight. Even though I know it would make everything easier tomorrow. Ok now that I’m thinking about it maybe I will do those dishes . . .

I like routines, always have. Of course I didn’t use to have routines, I had schedules. Routines are more flexible than schedules and pre-baby I didn’t need flexibility so I had a schedule and I would stick to it. I would also generally arrive everywhere at least 15 minutes early, now I always seem to be late. Although, in my defence, I blame Josh for the lateness because he is very male and linear when we are going somewhere. So if I am busy doing something before we leave he will wait until I am ready to leave and then decide there are a million things he has to do like lock up the house, change his shirt, put his shoes on, change the baby seat between the cars, find his keys and generally he also likes to just do a patrol around the house about three times for no apparent reason other than to satisfy his OCD tendencies. All of which I maintain he could do while I was busy and be ready to leave as soon as I am.

I have mentioned this to him and he smirks at me as though multi-tasking is like calculus – a great thing in theory but having absolutely no practical application or purpose in his life.

Nonetheless, I still like my routines. I’m the kind of person who would actually get quite depressed if I didn’t have a routine. And when you write it down like that it kind of sounds really sad and pathetic when in actual fact it’s not. Weird, maybe. Pathetic, no. Routines help me feel like I have actually achieved something in the day, even if I don’t get around to all of it. So even when I get to 7pm and the house is a mess I still know that I baked bread, put out three loads of washing and tidied up the toys three times. I think it’s also easy to lose time when you are at home by yourself and I’m easily swayed by Dr Phil and Oprah that a loss of productivity for an hour or so isn’t so bad. Yes. I said it I enjoy the crap TV that is Dr Phil and Oprah because they provide me with voyeuristic drama and occasionally even little pieces of semi-useful information. I love SuperNanny too. I’m beyond help.

What I struggle with in terms of my routine is when I can’t do everything what should I sacrifice first? Work? Cleaning? Cooking? Exercise? I don’t know and so I usually give up and do NOTHING. Very practical. But then it does give me time to catch up on reality tv.

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Tagged as: control freak, multi-tasking, perfectionism, routine, schedule, TV

http://www.unlikelymama.com amber

Wow, and I thought I was kinda OCD-ish with my Outlook calendar for personal stuff. I'm a big fan of planning…though ever since Alexa was born my apointments to my self have gone to shit.

http://intensedebate.com/people/zoeyspeak zoey @ goodgoog

I'm very good at planning – the actual doing often eludes me. Particularly when the energizer bunny decides that today is going to be a non-sleeping day.

great_auntie_macbook

There's nothing like a list – if you disobey it … that's its problem! And if you get something done, isn't it the best thing to draw a red texta line through it and feel very proud! Beats the hell out of scrubbing the floor etc!

http://goodgoog.com zoey @ goodgoog

@great_auntie_macbook, I get way too much enjoyment from ticking things off!!

http://www.blogger.com/profile/00029203557803972231 Melanie

Great post. I love lists. I am almost one of those people who has a list to keep track of my lists lol. But I do find my perfectionism is an all or nothing affair. If I can’t do a perfect job, I don’t want to do it at all. :/
http://ceaselesspraises.blogspot.com Carrie

Hmmm, I couldn’t see your routine for some reason! But I am the exact same way – in fact I totally LOVE having a schedule, but I won’t schedule my baby’s feedings (he’s only 4 months), so since I feed on demand, it’s a ‘routine’ for us right now, too. If I had a schedule & it was ‘interrupted’ by baby’s feedings or whatever, it would be too frustrating. So we have a routine & I have a huge to-do list, one little list for what I hope to accomplish each day (like dishes, laundry, school, sweep the floor, etc.) & one big list of stuff that needs done as soon as I get time (like the thank-you notes from when Davey was born 4 months ago…).