What are some of your routines or habits?

Oh my, what a question! Where do I start? I feel like everything in my life is a routine.

When you get older and settle a little more into just living as an adult, you realize that a lot of your happiness is tied to just having your life together, and that means being organized, respecting your time, keeping the calendar updated. It also means doing what "needs" to be done, like all the chores, going grocery shopping, cooking, etc.

1. Sleep

• I started a habit this year that I wanted to go to bed at the same time every day. I'm getting to an age where I don't go out a lot anymore and fridays are getting free again for the first times in years. So, bed at 10.
• I stop all screens around 8:30pm, sometimes I go up to 9 if I feel like it
• Trazodone at 9 (I have a lot of sleeping problems so only that has helped, so I take that)
• Brush my teeth
• Go to bed and read
• Close the book when the pill hits, then sleep

2. Cleaning

• I have a small apartment with no rugs and all the furniture is either lifted (so I can vacuum under it) or totally solid (so the dust cannot go under, really)
• I tidy up every day after I stop all screens (it really only takes maybe a minute since I just put back stuff where it goes nowadays)
• I always make sure my dishes are done (I don't have a dishwasher), here's how I do it: I have my rack on the left of my sink. EVERY TIME I use some dishes, I rinse it off, if I cook I kinda do it all after, but even just toasts in the morning, I wash my knife and plate every time. This is the key! After the rack is 3/4 full or full, I do the dishes on that day. I just fill the sink with hot soapy water, put the dishes in the sink, wash, dry, put it away.
• Sunday evening I vacuum (takes about 10 minutes), do the laundry (easiest, but takes the longest; I do all my clothes (every week) and bed sheets every two weeks), clean my toilet/toilet sink (takes about 10 minutes). Sometimes I use a swiffer duster on the furniture maybe once or twice a month (takes about 5 minutes).

So yeah, my apartment is always clean, apart from the dishes, I clean my apartment maybe 2 hours a week? It's just spread apart every day because I don't let stuff "stay where it's not supposed to be"

3. Cooking
   I'm getting better at that, so this is what I do for now

• Since I live alone and work in a school, I eat at the cafeteria everyday. It's about 37.25$ for the whole week (5 lunch meals) which is not too bad for not having to cook/prepare stuff.
• I have a cooking app that gives me suggestions, I pick one I like and just buy groceries around it. I do that for maybe 2-3 times a week since I always have leftovers.
• I've been doing that for a while so I have a lot of recipes in my head now. I always try something new every week/month. Like last month it was paan pizzas and roasts.
• For breakfast I sometimes do omelets but honestly, I've been eating peanut butter toasts for like 30 years lol so I still do that

4. Working out

• I'm lucky because my school has a gym and we start classes at 9:45am so I arrive at 8-8:15, workout maybe 45-1h, 4 times a week (all week besides wednesday)
• I do slow reps for now, 5-6 exercices where I focus on a movement (I do pull, legs, full body, push). Sometimes I'll add a push/pull exercices in the legs because I feel like it
• I have a protein shake after/during the workout (2 scoops, ~700ml water)

5. Fun

• I always do an activity every week. Either it's see my family, one friend, whatever, I always do something because I know it makes me feel better. I have very good friends, probably around 6-7 people I can see alone and have fun with so it's cool that I have choice. It's friends I've kept for maybe 10 years at this point, some are new
• Every week evening is kinda busy, but I like to watch animes, play video games, talk with my friends, watch youtube videos and stuff.
• Every sunday is a "me day", I spoke pot, play videogames, eat ice cream, whatever the fuck I wanna do. I love it

As for the rest, I feel like I'm top of things, I love reading reddit and tildes, because I'm a curious person and any knowledge is good knowledge for me so I read random stuff every day. That's about how I live my life.

Nowadays my health doesnt allow for regular habits, but before I got sick I had a couple that worked well for me:

For 20 years I woke up and exercised every day before anything else. It worked great because I'm not a morning person but exercise helped improve my morning mood and energy. I found it helped getting started before I was awake enough to talk myself out of it.

When I got serious about music, I would practice as soon as I got home from work. Same basic strategy as the exercise-- get it in before all of the other stuff distracted me.

My cat is the best at helping me keep my routine.

She wakes me up at 7am.
I bring her out for a walk.
Feed her. Brush my teeth. Clean cat stuff.
Then I leave to exercise.
Return and shower.
Meditate

Begin work.

Lunch
Play with the cat
Meditate

Continue work

In the evening I feed my cat dinner
Exercise.
Return and shower.
Do the night routine of throwing the trash and stuff.
Sleep.

The routine always starts with the cat. The hardest part is starting it. But once I start going, it's easier to do the next step. Since the cat will demand I get up and feed her or play with her, I built my routine around the cat.

That has helped a lot.

I have exactly one routine and it’s a cappuccino in the morning (whatever time “morning” ends up being). Everything else can go, but this one is sacred and if I don’t have it, I have a meh day.