What's Your Minimum Viable Routine?
When things don't go as expected, expect the bare minimum.
This is not quite the week I expected.
On Friday, I flew home from a work trip to Dallas where I attended a conference, met some incredibly lovely people, and filled a notebook with ideas and to-dos for the week ahead. I was JAZZED. My plan was to spend the next week in high productivity mode, getting things done before all that delicious inspiration dissipated.
But you know what else happens when you travel? You get sick.
It’s nothing serious, but you know how it is when you’re ill: the brain fog, the fatigue, the desire to do nothing more than lie in bed and rewatch The Sopranos (which is exactly what I did all day yesterday).
Even so, I’ve tried to carve out a few minutes here and there for the daily routines that keep me grounded.
The Minimum Viable Routine
On a normal day, I have a whole hosts of rituals and practices I use to help me feel more sane in a weird and troubled world. I meditate, I do some structured journaling (in the morning and at night), I walk, I give myself treats, I do yoga. And I’m constantly adding and subtracting things I want to try.
Right now, I’m not able to concentrate much (or even stand for long periods), but keeping my rituals in place in some minimalist form helps me keep going with them. It makes it easy to take care of myself, even in the smallest, simplest way possible. I think of this as my minimum viable routine.
Perhaps even more important, having a minimum viable routine releases me from any guilt about not being capable of meeting all of my daily commitments to myself. When I’m sick, or life hits a major hurdle, or I’m just extremely stressed out, I can forget about doing things perfectly and just give myself a tiny bit of care. Often this leads to doing a little bit more.
My minimum viable routine:
Meditate for just 5 minutes.
Take a shower or bath.
Write one sentence in my nighttime journal.
That is it, the absolute bare minimum. And even if I don’t do these things, I encourage myself not to feel guilty about it. I wouldn’t even call them non-negotiables; everything is negotiable.
What’s your minimum viable routine when things get a bit hairy in your world?
You might want to take a covid test. I live in Fort Worth which is right by Dallas. Covid is everywhere. A few weeks ago I had a sore throat and thought it was allergies. Turns out it was covid. I took Paxlovid and it fixed me right up. Hope you feel better soon.
This is really helpful, thank you.