It’s weird, you know. After Christmas is done, after all the extra tasks I’ve given myself of shopping and card-writing and wrapping and cooking and cleaning and celebrating, by the time January 2 rolls around, I’m looking longingly to the return of my mundane routine.

I’ve worked primarily from home for a long time and have been able to “set my own hours” while I homeschooled my boys and managed my home and work responsibilities. For years, I sort of flouted a set routine, I’m sorry to say (or am I?) When my kids were young, we sort of flew by the seat of our pants: we got our schoolwork done (somehow) but we didn’t always start at the same time of day and sometimes we spontaneously took a day (or two or three) off. As the boys got older and busier, it felt like the calendar dictated my days and weeks as I ferried them to music lessons and youth group and theater and part-time jobs. And because I still had to make sure we were all fed and the house was cleaned and my work-work was done, it was a pretty busy season of life.

As an empty nester, you would think that there’s plenty of time to get all that I want to get done in a day. But for some reason, it doesn’t work that way. If I let time go unbridled, I can easily get sucked down an Instagram or Internet or Organizing vortex and then NOTHING gets done – because really, I’m kind of a minimalist and the house doesn’t need to be organized, again.

Schedule, schedule, schedule! That is what gets me down to the basement to work out regularly or out the door to walk, it’s what gets my butt in the chair to write and what keeps me from falling into those vortices. And because I have #goals when it comes to writing, I have learned this last year or so to give myself small assignments every day. Have I always been good at following through? Noooooooo. But I keep trying and refining and failing and getting back up again.

Because no one else is telling me what to do, I have to tell myself. Everyday I write down three things I want to work on. The first one is the most important and the thing I really need to do that day. The second thing is the thing I do when I’ve completed enough of the first task or finished it completely and I need to switch tasks – after a break and a coffee and maybe a small amount of time in the Instagram Vortex. The third thing I may not even get to that day – but that’s okay because it’s not as important as the first and second thing and at least I worked on those and the whole day wasn’t lost. And sometimes it helps to write down the three things the day or night before so that I don’t have a brain lapse when I look at an empty day and think I don’t have anything to do that day.

For the most part, I have a routine: I get up, read, drink some coffee, exercise, drink some more coffee, etc. But then it’s time to get to my three tasks. All the other stuff – laundry and lunch, errands and extras – that gets fit into the spaces in between of what I’ve decided are the most important things to do that day. And yes, sometimes lunch or laundry is the most important thing if a friend is coming over (that used to happen, right?) or we just got back from holiday (that used to happen, too.)

Is it boring? Well, yes, maybe it looks that way on the outside. But if the outcome is between finishing a writing project or finishing Netflix, Future Bonnie is gonna be happier if she finishes the writing project. And if I get to my writing chair on time everyday, there still is plenty of time for Netflix.