Keeping this rolling…

I’m back at home from an unexpectedly extended vacation to Puerto Rico. I find it easier to start new habits and break old ones when I travel. The change of environment and also having to make due with less has somewhat of a calming and cleansing effect on me. This, in turn, helps me to think more clearly and unwind a lot of the thoughts and routines that form at home over the course of time. The fact that I work from home only makes it easier to establish routines and get caught in them, both good and bad.

I used to travel a lot for work and don’t do much business travel right now. Fortunately most of my travel is vacation related with my wife. Last week was a mix of both, as I kept up with my work, while also trying to find time to enjoy our unexpected and extended holiday.

Having the mind-freeing space of being in a beautiful island location also helped me get started writing this blog. Starting this blog was on my to-do list for the holiday break. I tried to back-off the list about mid-way through the expected part of the break and the blog didn’t get started as a result. Once the break was unexpectedly extended, I had unwound enough to just start it, by taking the very simple approach of starting to write, without over-planning or over-thinking what the purpose of the blog is.

I was able to establish a routine during that week that made time for writing each day. Now that I’m back, the routine needs to be adjusted and fit into the overall daily routine that I’m working to establish for the new year. I find that establishing a repeatable daily routine, to the extent possible, is a key factor to successfully working from home. At times I wonder if the routine becomes too routine and makes working at home more difficult. However as I’m writing this, knowing that the daily routine will be established is having a calming effect on my mind as I begin to think through the plan for the rest of the week. I’m going to give it a shot to see how the routine works and leave space open to adjust it along the way.

I was surprised to find how quickly and easily falling back into old routines and ways of thinking could be, once returning home. There are a number of changes I look forward to making this year. My experience coming home over the weekend just went to show me that doing things differently while away is much easier than doing them when back at home, where all of the familiar forces begin acting to push me back toward previously established thoughts and habits. Recognizing this early should give me some power to counteract the old way of doing things or at least help me remember that doing so takes concious effort. I’m hoping that concious effort, which may start out at a high degree of difficulty, becomes less difficult as time passes and new habits and routines are started and become the new normal.