Back to the old habits

I've been working this week on establishing systems so that I don't have to think about the routine things I do. Lately, just my routines (or my lack thereof) start to zap my energy, and I end up just wasting time in front of the computer. Now, I know I don't have to live like this...I did well when I kept a Control Journal when I followed FlyLady's system. However, after I stopped FlyLady's system (sometime after I unsubscribed from her list...the email clutter was getting stressful), the daily routines that kept me going gradually stopped.

So recently, after discovering Zen Habits, I read the article Streamlining Your Life and said to myself, "Hey! I do this! Did...something like this...at some point...though now it's hardly there." On a positive note, making my bed in the morning and laying out my clothes the night before stuck even after many of the other routines I established fell apart.

Anyway, as I was reading, I remembered why routines (Leo at Zen Habits calls them "systems", and I like the sound of that for whatever reason) are so useful: they keep you from having to stress over the everyday things. When you're not wasting energy stressing over the constant things like errand running, laundry and remembering when your appointments are, you get to use that energy doing something useful and enjoyable, like decorating, altering books or using the gym membership you took out and have only used once in the past two and a half weeks. It's a bit of structure to free up creative time, which satisfies both sides of my fairly balanced brain.

I started re-establishing my own systems, taking into account the changes that have happened in life over the past several months, and even started following the ones I've revisited. Life's already starting to feel saner.

Now to get that gym time in.