They mostly revolve around turning things of my life that you ordinarily would handle as one-offs, as structured, routine tasks. This reduces my daily cognitive load, allowing me to spend ever more time with my default mode network activated instead of in focus state.
So if I'm ever in a situation where I'm not really quite sure what to do, I come up with a rule and do it that way the next time.
I've been optimizing this process for perhaps a year after I got interested in it. Everything in my apartment has a history and a little set of rules. I keep a spray bottle of daily shower cleaner in my bathroom. It lives on the ledge of the sink when I'm not using the sink and moves to the lid of the toilet when I am. I don't feel comfortable yet putting it away because I think if I do that I'll forget to use it after I take a shower. Maybe in another year.
Having to remember to do stuff sucks. I always make a visual reminder. A few times I forgot to put washed clothes in the dryer. Now when I'm washing clothes the hamper gets put in the way of the door so I can't miss it.
Nothing stays in mind, so it's free to imagine and wander. I do this at work too, every task gets routinized. Very rarely am I caught off guard with not knowing how to do something.
About a year in I noticed myself naturally waking up earlier. It helps that I don't set an alarm clock anymore. But I'm routinely the first one on my team into the office anyway.
I live alone, and I've often wondered how my lifestyle would alter if I had to live with somebody. Well, the few times I've had someone over regularly, my routine adapted to accommodate them, I was surprised how easy it was. If things got out of place, I'd just return them to their place when I noticed. The little routines have accumulated their own inertia.
The most fascinating thing about it is, even though I feel like I'm doing a lot less, in reality a lot more gets done than otherwise would be. Routinizing something makes it ten times easier and take ten times less time to accomplish. It's so worth doing that before I even get started I look for ways to optimize.
I think this is how primitive peoples must've lived all the time. Tons of stuff that needed to be done, day in, day out, over and over again. Optimize, optimize, optimize.
Thanks for your detailed reply! I have been attempting to incorporate more routine in my life, but I hadn't considered the why, really. The concept of reducing cognitive load makes sense, and I agree that "having to remember to do stuff sucks" 100%.
So if I'm ever in a situation where I'm not really quite sure what to do, I come up with a rule and do it that way the next time.
I've been optimizing this process for perhaps a year after I got interested in it. Everything in my apartment has a history and a little set of rules. I keep a spray bottle of daily shower cleaner in my bathroom. It lives on the ledge of the sink when I'm not using the sink and moves to the lid of the toilet when I am. I don't feel comfortable yet putting it away because I think if I do that I'll forget to use it after I take a shower. Maybe in another year.
Having to remember to do stuff sucks. I always make a visual reminder. A few times I forgot to put washed clothes in the dryer. Now when I'm washing clothes the hamper gets put in the way of the door so I can't miss it.
Nothing stays in mind, so it's free to imagine and wander. I do this at work too, every task gets routinized. Very rarely am I caught off guard with not knowing how to do something.
About a year in I noticed myself naturally waking up earlier. It helps that I don't set an alarm clock anymore. But I'm routinely the first one on my team into the office anyway.
I live alone, and I've often wondered how my lifestyle would alter if I had to live with somebody. Well, the few times I've had someone over regularly, my routine adapted to accommodate them, I was surprised how easy it was. If things got out of place, I'd just return them to their place when I noticed. The little routines have accumulated their own inertia.
The most fascinating thing about it is, even though I feel like I'm doing a lot less, in reality a lot more gets done than otherwise would be. Routinizing something makes it ten times easier and take ten times less time to accomplish. It's so worth doing that before I even get started I look for ways to optimize.
I think this is how primitive peoples must've lived all the time. Tons of stuff that needed to be done, day in, day out, over and over again. Optimize, optimize, optimize.