I have a routine.

It goes like this. The alarm goes off at 4:45 am. I wake up somewhere between this time and 5:15 am. As soon as I get downstairs into the kitchen, I fill my 2-litre water bottle, drink a bit while I put the kettle on. Once the kettle is done boiling, I make coffee and go to the sitting room to drink my coffee while I pray for 55 minutes.

For 5 mins immediately after praying, I am quiet, connecting to God, waiting and listening to see if the Supreme Power has something to say to me. 

I go back to my kitchen come office, switch on the laptop and the kettle again. I need some more coffee or maybe tea, depending on whether or not I think my brain can handle more caffeine that soon after the first. 

Sat at my laptop, I fire up iTunes to listen to some classical music, read my bible, and follow that with Hamblin’s book of daily reading. Then, I go on to read a few of the 10 or 15 books I’ve got on the go. That’s a lot of books, I know, but I have a couple of theories on why I read a few at a time. 

Here’s the first theory.

Social media has messed with my attention span, so I can no longer stick to one book for longer than 15 minutes. However, I do manage to get further than 15 minutes in the evenings if reading a novel. This is something I have trained myself to do. During my morning reading, it works in my favour to read from more than one source. And then, in the evening, I train myself to focus.

The other theory is that I have lost the innocent and uncluttered imagination I had as a child. Adult life brings with it too many idle thoughts, considerations or distractions, thoughts of what needs to be done, what should have been done, and what I could be doing.  I suppose you could say the same thing happens when you’re a kid. You get distracted by all sorts. You would rather watch tv or play or fiddle with stuff than spend time reading. This certainly describes my kids who do not like reading. But I wasn’t that type of kid. Reading was so much easier when I was younger. I am however getting back to that place where I was absorbed in a book.

After reading, I write for this blog and then get dressed and go to work which is from the kitchen table.

I am telling you about my routine because I have recently discovered that deviating from my routine changes things. So let’s say I decided not to have coffee. Or, instead of classical, I listen to jazz music. These small changes place me on a different trajectory. And, for some reason, I tend to miss out on other parts of the routine or replace them with other activities. And I’m not too fond of this, especially when it means I get behind on my reading and writing.

It sounds silly, doesn’t it? How can missing out on coffee cause you to mess up everything else you do? I know, and you’re probably right. Unfortunately, I don’t have an explanation for it. Maybe it’s in my head, or maybe it’s to do with getting in my zone. I wrote about the zone yesterday.

Here’s the thing though, reading and writing are incredibly important to me right now. I need them. I need my mind filled with new ideas, other people’s ideas, and their experiences. In addition to thinking better, I want to improve my vocabulary – you know, develop a more remarkable ability to speak and write better. To write like Harlan Ellison, ambitious I know, is the goal I am striving towards.

So, I have a routine, and I promise myself to stick to that routine because, at this point in my life, I’m intolerant of running around higgidy piggledy.

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