#179: Beyond routines - by Haley Nahman - Maybe Baby

I’ve spent most of my life dreaming up routines that might finally stick. When I do something “good” for myself, like practice yoga or prepare a nice breakfast, I often think, I should do this every day. When I meet friends for lunch and find it energizing, I say, “We should do this every week!” During most vacations I’ve taken, I’ve spent at least a portion of my time there considering how I can return on a regular basis. It never feels like quite enough to enjoy these experiences in isolation. I need to imagine doing them over and over. All this planning is evidence of a kind of value system. It appears I’ve deemed the routine the highest form an activity can take; the perfect, syncopated rhythm through which I might finally, properly live. Popular culture seems to agree with this view. Morning routines, writing routines, exercise routines—these are the blueprints of modern self-actualization, shared online one after another for a perpetually searching public. We study them like clue

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• anne g