How We Form Our Routines

How We Form Our Routines October 28, 2014

Speaking of routines, Casey N. Cep wrote at Pacific Standard about how we form our routines:

We might not live in manors as grand as Gardencourt or inherit sums as large as Isabel Archer, but we can all make ceremonies out of the things we do every day. A ceremony is simply something we do with care and attentiveness. Agreeable hours, then, can be made from whatever things fill our days, especially the things we love, but even those things that we must do out of necessity.

One of my aunt’s most agreeable hours is when she picks up her grandchildren from daycare; she loves that first hour when they are so eager to describe all they’ve done, to report every nook and cranny of their days. A friend’s most agreeable hour is right after he has breakfast, when he writes by hand, without his computer. Another friend’s is when she does the laundry, following a set routine every week of separating the whites and darks, delicates and towels.

So much is made of how quickly we form such routines. A popular myth is that it takes only 21 days, less than a month, to form a habit.

Read the rest here.


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