I made a goal to write a blog a week in September and went missing for another two months. It’s been nearly eight weeks since I last pushed a blog. Let’s not make excuses for that shit, life sucks sometimes. Things get messy and life doesn’t always cooperate with your other plans.

So what happened in two months? Well, quite frankly, routines weren’t in place anymore and every one in my house fell apart. EVERY ONE. That sounds dramatic, but people underestimate just how important routines are for you. I have a toddler. Toddlers are especially great examples of needing routine. The daycare we use shut down for two weeks due to a COVID outbreak. My kiddo began peeing their pants and throwing tantrums like we haven’t seen in quite some time. Daycare re-opened but we were prepping to leave the country and leave the toddler behind for a week. That expected break in the routine meant they weren’t ready to go back yet. We spent nearly a month fighting a broken routine with a toddler at home. We are still fighting to regain control of bedtime and conquering routine fears.

But adults need it too? Yeah, some of us do. But also, some of us that need routines HATE routines. Hi, I am one of those people that need and hate routines. Let’s talk about the awkward person in the room. I recently learned why I struggle so hard doing certain things that are really easy for a lot of other people and it was mind blowing. I was sent a video that was only meant to be like a kick to motivate me to edit my manuscript some more and instead I stopped everything and began to research the issues in the video. Because of this, I went and started to get actual real help for the issues with my concentration and realized I need that routine I hate so much.

What life has been like for me so far? Well, I typically love difficult problems but once I solve them a few times, it becomes boring and repetitive. I like challenges and I love procrastinating until the absolute last minute. This means that self editing my manuscript and having no deadlines to meet is causing me to make no progress. I have dozens of hobbies I picked up over the years in boredom and moved on when I felt like I got enough out of the experience. I also come off as an extrovert in a small discussion but out of my own comfort zone I am the shy person against the wall trying to go unnoticed.

How is a routine helpful then? Well, by establishing an expected plan with deadlines and benchmarks or progress, I can feel like I have a time line to meet. Won’t I just see past that since I am setting one up for myself? I mean, there is always risk in anything we do in life, right? Okay, what next? Well… It’s the end of October. NaNoWriMo is right around the corner. The last three years I have successfully met the 50,000 word goal towards finishing manuscripts. I have a couple others in various stages of completion for initial rough drafts. This year’s plan? I have five more days to set up some goals and get my ass into gear.

We’re all only human, let’s lift each other up in our difficult times. Time to strap on my writer or editor hat and make some plans and goal benchmarks and make some magic happen. I also plan to check in more frequently. Part of my planning will include setting up a blogging schedule to meet and finding myself and accountability buddy to check in on me if I start slacking for some reason.