Does anyone else but me have routines that they do (for small things) everytime and if they have to differ from that routine, it messes them up? Like if I don't do the same thing my body is programmed to do each time, I might forget a segment completely.
The routine I am thinking of currently is my drying off routine. When I get out of the shower, pool or whatever wet object, I have a specific routine I use while drying off. Everytime...no variation, unless I am interupted by something or I have some sort of reason for not following it (like a wound or injured area). If I have an injured hand, then the whole thing gets thrown off and trying to do the same routine with only one hand is difficult.
Normally, it is not really something I think about, I think it is just muscle memory from doing it so many times. The routine varies only if I don't wash my hair but that only affects the beginning. I can get going in the same routine after bypassing the hair in the towel bit. But if I get interupted or have another reason that requires routine variation, it causes me to have to think about it so I don't end up forgetting to dry my back or something. I had a cut on my left hand the other day and not only did it mess up my drying off routine, it messed up my shampooing, soaping and shaving routine as well....guess that is what made me think of this.
It is strange how you can get so used to something that you can go through the entire thing without even thinking about it, like breathing almost. Unfortunately, I know a few people that do this while driving....the not thinking about it part, not the drying off part...haha.
5 comments:
I tend to do that too. It always throws me off when I go out of order, including drying off. For me the big thing is socks and shoes. I do left sock, right sock, left shoe, right shoe. If I do it another way, it feels really strange!
I have a morning shower routine and if I mess it up, I'll forget to do something dumb like condition my hair. It just throws the whole shower off.
Yeah, I am not alone in my routines...I was thinking that perhaps I was just nuts and no one else would even think of something like this.
Routines are crazy. I can think of one I have about going to sleep. I always lie on my stomach, just for a few seconds, and then have to turn on my right side. I'll try to mess it up tonight and see if it throws me off.
I also shave my left leg before the right one! If I do the right one first, I will forget the left one. I tested this out this morning :)
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