Routine is difficult when you work for yourself on a farm and your responsibilties are minimised. This is when you ask yourself very important questions like: Aside from providing food and shelter for my partner and I and keeping the animals fed and healthy, what else actually needs to be done? If my needs for survival are met and nobody is ‘on my back” administrating 8 to 24 hour shifts for me, how do I live in a practical way ensuring that I am doing life with reason. These are questions I have been trying to answer over the last ten years in living a sustainable life-style.
This is Routine:
Doing the same thing every day from beginning to end. Waking up every morning at the same time to get through a tick list in you head of “must do’s”. Same day, different day; Different day, same day. Days just run into each other.
This is Boredom:
Having the same conversations in your head from the start of the day until the end. The pattern of thought does not waver and there is no energy or enthusiasm to change course.
This is what helps me get out of the Rut:
Over the years, I have become more keenly aware of my surroundings and I have become more aware of Cycles. I have come to terms with the idea of intermittent spurts of activity in between times of quietness and solitude. There is always a very basic background of low level activity required in the maintenance of farm and house but the cycles of activity and inactivity are inherent in a day, week or month or even a year.
As a example, the cycles are easier to observe on a yearly basis here in Belize; by looking just at the weather and climate, there are two distinct planting times (May and November) in Belize. The dry season (April to May) is the time to renovate and do construction of any other kind. By virtue of understanding the cycles of the year, the most practical advice is to time planting and construction with the weather cycle.
I have observed that many people (mostly Westerners) are adamant in doing what they want, whenever they want, despite resistance from the weather. They are willing to challenge the elements in order to achieve their goals. This is all fine with me but in my own experience, I have found that the more resistance I come up with (eg. bad weather), the more energy I have to put in to a project both from a physical and monetary point of view.
In conclusion: accept that there is a time to work and a time to wait; Waiting for the right time to do something so that everything is conspiring with you to maximise efficiency. In having a more mature attitude of “watching and waiting” you have less chance of running into daily routines and tick lists.
The routine pattern of the day can be set up by having precise times for certain activities. Examples of these are waking up time, breakfast, lunch, dinner and bed-time. In a bid to alter the routine, I have experimented with changing times like waking up a 2 am in the morning and I have found that even one simple can change the pattern and mood of the day. As far as I can, I also try to cook when we are actually hungry otherwise we run into a problem of just eating meals for the sake of fulfilling the routine. The other thing I have tried is to do nothing; it is one of the hardest things to do because it requires an attitude of letting go. Obviously, I still have to consider the animals in this scenario since they are still my responsibility and in those rare days, I defer to my partner to help out with my daily chores.
In writing this discourse, it is not my intention to encourage people to turn away from their responsibilities. What I would like to impart, is an understanding of efficiency. Everyday, I have to ask myself: what really needs to be done? And if I need to do it, how do I do it with efficiency and impeccability? This minimises procrastination time and stops me from ruminating over the heavy feeling of routine and repetition. For instance, I have certain daily routines on the farm which I can not avoid. This includes feeding and walking the dogs, feeding the guinea pigs, cooking, house-work, collecting coconuts, weeding, pest control, harvesting and general maintenance of edible plants and trees.
If you added all the minutes together for doing all the above it would be about 60 to 120 minutes a day. So, essentially in a 15 hour waking day, very little of it is actually devoted to routine. More time is actually wasted in cogitating over it all! I have learned to spend more time relaxing and doing things which I enjoy (this has actually been tough because I always feel that my work on the farm is never done). I have come to a personal understanding that a farm will take and absorb all the energy and time that you are willing to give it. What I have tried to do is to manage my time and energy in order to achieve a proper balance of physical and mental health without becoming a “slave” to the farm.
From a universal view-point, it is my hope that some readers may realise that the problems of routine and boredom, which I have spoken about in the context of a farm, are actually issues which everyone encounters in their lives no matter how much stimulus they throw into it.