Monday cannon fodder: routines

We are creatures of habit. Most of us wake up at basically the same time every day, have our normal breakfast and coffee, and go to work. Some of us even go beyond that: we sit in roughly the same place on the bus/train, we check the same websites in the same order, and try to keep the little things consistent. We love our routines.

For a lot of us, that’s been turned completely on it’s head right now. It’s tough, but to the extent that means we’re staying home, it’s a good thing.

But the disruption is real, and one of the things I’m missing most is sports. When I wake up, I usually check the previous night’s scores and scroll Twitter for highlights and insight. I listen to sports podcasts (whose source of content has mostly dried up) to help get through the day. When I need to un-focus for a bit, my go-to is whatever article on SBNation, The Ringer, The Athletic has caught my eye. I watch at least half an hour of whatever game is on in the evenings and/or an entire Champions League match on the DVR. On the weekends, it’s a couple hours of game-watching a day.

Of course, most of that is gone right now. It’s an interesting dichotomy — the current situation has revealed both how important and unimportant sports are in my life. To an extent, my time is built around sports content consumption. It’s definitely my preferred entertainment source. But my world hasn’t collapsed without it. Sports’ hiatus has thrown into sharp relief what really matters — family, friends, health. It’s not as if that is some sort of shocking revelation for me. It’s just a reminder that we shouldn’t take anything for granted, especially the important things.

I’m working on finding new ways to pass the free time in my day and to maintain a sense of structure. I’m probably not quite there yet, but I’m getting by. What are you doing to maintain a sense of normalcy and routine during a distinctly not-normal, not-routine time? How’re you doing without sports? Do you have new rituals that you’ve picked up or are you still winging it?