By At my prior employer my calendar was chock-ful of meetings. From 9 am until 5 pm I jumped from call to call. The president of the company laughingly said to me,’Meetings are up. Productivity is down.’ And yet I managed to stay productive (which is probably why my calendar continued to stay full up until my departure).
And then suddenly there were no meetings. I had nothing to prepare for, nothing to do. It was a shock to my system after decades in Corporate America. I’ve now been an independent consultant for almost two years. The calendar invites have creeped back in a little, but nothing to the degree that it was before.
I’ll admit that I liked some of that routine. I like having a schedule. The structure comforts me. Notice that I’m saying routine and not rut. Routines are habits or tasks that are repeated and consistent. Ruts are when routines go bad. Ruts are repeated unproductive activities.
So today, let’s be grateful for the routines in our life. I’m grateful that Trash pickup is every Tuesday around 8. I’m grateful that on Wednesdays I’m expected to be at handbell practice and choir practice. I’m grateful that I had a recurring call every Monday at noon for a workshop project.
Can you be grateful for any routines in your life?
Here’s an image of a calendar that was close to what mine looked like:
