Learning To Establish A Routine

I’m learning that, when it comes to productivity and success, it's vitally important to establish a routine. I have a somewhat loose routine, but I want to develop a stricter one. 

What Does A Routine Include?

​A routine includes,

• when one wakes up and when one goes to bed,
• the hours one works and when one does certain types of work
• when one rests during the day and what one does during this time
• when or if one exercises and what one does

​I already have a set bedtime and wake up time for myself, so that’s one box checked.  I have a designated time from 2:30 to about 3:00 in the afternoon to have coffee and maybe a snack and read a book, which I find more restful than being on the computer a lot of the time. I shut down my work promptly at 6:10 in the evening, barring special circumstances. 

What Exactly Am I Trying To Do?

My goal for my routine is to establish firm working and resting hours during the day as well as times during the day or week for personal tasks, such as shopping and making appointments. Oh, and here’s the thing, not online shopping or watching entertainment based YouTube videos during times I’ve designated as business hours.

​I don’t buy the whole “you need to wake up before the sun to be successful” maxim. There is a reason to wake up early if you’re one of the people who’s a true morning lark. Likewise, if 5 am is the only time of the day you can fit in quiet time, then you might want to get up then. But I don’t believe waking up early is magically going to make you more productive, because if you’re getting up early, you also have to go to bed early, so you’re not really getting more hours. That is, unless you want to skimp on sleep, which I don’t recommend.

Some people are night owls and there’s nothing wrong with that. If waking up at 7 or 8 works for you, then do it. I personally wake up before sunrise because I live in a hot climate and it gives me time to walk in the morning before it gets too hot. Ultimately, though, it’s not when you get up that determines how productive you are. It’s how you use the hours that you are awake.

Why I've Struggled

I'm Autistic and a lot of people like me can be very rigid when it comes to routines. I know a routine is impossible to stick to all the time, nor would I really want to. I want to be able to allow myself the occasional spontaneous lunch out or trip to a museum, for example. I also will inevitably have to go to appointments, which will cut into "work hours". My routine is just how I will aspire to spend most of my days. Nevertheless, I fall into the trap of feeling like if I can't stick to a routine 100%, I don't want to establish one at all. I know, logically, though, that having a routine I follow 70-80% of the time will get me much farther than following a routine 0% of the time.

Even without establishing a firm routine, I have no doubt we can get a lot more done by cutting out time wasting activities. Let me say, though, that resting is not a waste of time. What I’m talking about are things like mindlessly scrolling social media, checking my email a dozen times a day, and just mindlessly picking up my phone when I think I have nothing better to do.

What Got Me Thinking About This?

There are two series on Youtube that were a big inspiration to me to start thinking about this. One is “I Tried Writing Like” by Kate Cavanaugh and the other is an untitled series by Nathaniel Drew. So far, in her series, Kate has done the routines of Stephen King, Harauki Marakami, Neil Gaiman, JK Rowling, Nora Roberts, VE Schwab, RL Stine, Brandon Sanderson and others. In his series, Nathaniel has done the routines of Leonardo Da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Pablo Picasso and Maya Angelou. By the way, Picasso was a late riser.

All these people either had a set number of hours that they worked each day or a quota of words (for writers) or other tasks that they required themselves to complete. True to my bullet list above, most of them also had set times they completed these tasks.

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This Week’s Painting Progress

I was adding layers and layers of dark color to my anhinga’s body, but no matter how much I added, it didn’t feel finished. I decided I needed to include these feathers. 

I’d already gone over that part of the paper with paint, though, so I broke one of the watercolor rules and painted over my watercolor with white acrylic paint, so I could paint on top of it. Even after going over my white paint with gray blue watercolor though, I still wasn’t satisfied. I’ve learned that if you’re unhappy with a piece, it could very well mean that you’re not finished. I went back and added even more titanium white. I made lines going the opposite way to the ones I’d made before and just little marks that I’m not even sure what to call. My goal was to cover the majority of the black in that area. I wanted the white spots grouped very close together. Now, I still need to go over these white spots with the blue color of the feathers, but just having them there, I feel makes the painting look a million times better.

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Future Plans

I’ve come to realize that if I want to have themed paintings done in time, I need to do them in advance, somewhat. To that end, I’m thinking doing something with this black bird

for Halloween. I’m sure I want a pumpkin in the painting, but I haven’t decided what other elements, if any, will be in it. 

I might also be painting a dog for a client soon. By the way, if you want to commission your own painting, check out this page.

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