Routine

Episode #626

January 30, 2021

We all have routines.
Some are natural, some voluntary, some necessary and others imposed.

 

Whichever type of routine you have, it is helpful to be reminded.

Natural routines, such as heart beating, breathing, hunger and sensing, are automatic.
Systems in our bodies remind and compel us to stay on routine.

Daily routines are easy to perform because of repetition memory.
i choose to do my daily grooming in the same order so i don’t forget something.
Exercise, shower, brush hair, take vitamins, floss, brush teeth, mouth wash, lotion and dress. Repeat daily.

A new daily routine for me is to check for COVID vaccine availability. This memorized event is motivated by desire and survival. i check every morning.

Some routines include a natural prompt.
When my pill dispenser is empty, i fill it… always on Saturday.

When the kitchen water catching bin is full, i water the tree in front of the house.
When the gas gauge in the car is near empty, i fill it up.
When the refrigerator is low on food it’s time to go to the grocery store.

i keep weekly and monthly routine reminders on my calendar.
My daily routine always includes looking at the events on my calendar.

Weekly Zoom meetings are an example of a repeating event on my calendar.
Zoom will add a scheduled event to your calendar which includes all the necessary data and links to join the meeting.

In the Macintosh Calendar app you can give an event a name, location, time, repeat frequency, alert, list of invitees, a note and/or attachments.

Monthly chores repeat on my calendar as day long events.
i am reminded to vacuum, clean appliances and treat septic every month.

Whenever i leave the house my routine is to count to 4:
1.ID, 2.Keys, 3.phone, 4.mask.
As a man over 60 i can only remember four things at a time. 
Luckily, i only have to remember four things.
Cartoon characters only have four fingers… convenient.

For a routine of projects in my “free” unscheduled time i depend on my list of tasks. i maintain this list of projects in my list software, Tick Tick. Periodically, i change the order of the tasks to prioritize the projects. When deciding on a project to do, i start at the top of the list.

The routine of doing a project is dictated by its natural flow.
The flow of a project is always the same:
Conceive > plan > measure > gather materials > prepare the parts > assemble > install > quality control > cleanup.
One step leads to the other until completion.

We programers call certain parts of a computer program “routines.”
These are sections of the program that repeat and are called on frequently.

The first program i ever wrote was a Simon game where a series of colored lights is mimicked by the player. My first version was six pages of code and it worked well enough. My friend, the real programmer, looked at the code and wrote two paragraphs. One paragraph was a command sequence and the other was a looping routine which displayed the increasing sequence of lights.
He said, “i think this will do the same thing.”
His code was elegant and efficient because of the routine he used.

A routine is something repeated, regular and reliable.
Routine is the heartbeat of my life.

11 Comments

  1. Trish Landau January 29, 2021
  2. Glenn Still January 29, 2021
  3. Maria January 30, 2021
    • Rick Thues January 30, 2021
  4. Jeff E Laun February 1, 2021
    • Rick Thues February 1, 2021
  5. Chela March 10, 2021
    • Rick Thues March 10, 2021
      • Chela March 11, 2021
  6. Chela March 10, 2021
    • Rick Thues March 10, 2021

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