“Something I've always found difficult about the holiday period is that it messes with my routines,” wrote the great Oliver Burkeman in his newsletter this week.
He goes on to make the case that he has spent much of his life in search of the perfect daily (and especially morning) routine: a combination of journalling, meditating, and exercising that would make his day run smoothly. He fantasizes that once discovered, it will stay in place for the rest of his life.
But, like most of us, he struggles to implement a perfect routine. Some external force would - a deadline, a newborn baby - or his own mood will rebel and sabotage his efforts of sticking with the routine within days of coming up with it. “Christmas and holidays are the worst,” he laments, “They exacerbate the drama involved in trying to find some kind of rhythm.”
He has got a valid point there, but I like Christmas break and holidays for the same reason he dislikes them - they mess up my routine. I like them because they make me get out of the rut I created for myself through self-imposed routines and deadlines in the name of productivity.
Time and time again, I have discovered; when I have no deadlines, no rituals, and no pressure; I make breakthroughs. Those breakthroughs sometimes lead to a complete change of direction.
Routines and habits are good, for most of the year. But it is good to break them now and then. The rest of the year might be a good time to try and implement productivity advice but the holidays are the time to go with the flow.
We could simply get out of the way and let things happen. Things are always happening anyway. Then our job becomes to direct the flow a bit so that we end up focusing more on the things that matter to us.
Oliver also narrates a story that sums up the practice of daily routines:
Benedictine nun Joan Chittister, always used to ask novices entering her priory the same question: "Why do we pray?"
She became accustomed to hearing the same old answers, about glorifying God or aspiring to perfect virtue – answers "full of the piety that comes with newness and the theology that comes from books."
Then she would respond: "No. We pray because the bell rings."
Such is the essence of Benedictine time management: you pray when the bell rings for prayer, work when the bell rings for work, and rest when the bell rings for rest.
I use the same story to give myself permission to break the routines.
So when the Christmas bells ring, it is time to get out of routines and let things happen.
Knowing for sure, when I get to the other end of the holidays, I would have made some sort of a breakthrough.
I have quoted Oliver Burkeman more than any other author in various issues of A Whimsical Writer. It is only fitting that I end the year, by recommending one of his books, Four Thousand Weeks Time Management For Mortals, which was the highlight of the year for me.
I read Oliver Burkeman’s books for the same reason I watch Tiger Woods play golf or Roger Federer play tennis, to watch the masters at work. I can never write like him, but when I read him, it feels like he is reading my mind and putting in a language that grips me like Tiger’s golf and Federer’s tennis . This book is a must-read. If you haven’t already, add it to your holiday reading list.
That’s all from me this week.
There will be one more issue of the newsletter before the year ends, I have been working on it for weeks. I hope you will like it. Stay tuned.
Merry Christmas and a stress-free, routine-free break leading to ‘breakthroughs’.
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Good post!! I too welcome a break from routine this time of year. Routine has it's virtues but so do breaks from them. I wish you a happy holiday break!!