So today I took a maintenance day.
And what is a maintenance day? A day when my only assigned work is in upkeep, personal maintenance, personal administration, upkeep, cleaning, cooking, arranging, organizing, getting everything into a clear state.
Of course, throughout our days we have to do things like cooking and cleaning, but there’s something about simply assigning it to myself that this is my day to do nothing except that.
I don’t have- It can be refreshing and helpful to simply have one task for the day, to have a break from this kind of, oh, should I be doing this, should I be doing that.
If it’s very clear, the focus of this day, on one thing, I find that helps to really be focused to do it well and to enjoy it.
It didn’t feel like it’s wasting time.
Because, you know, a lot of this kind of routine upkeep, it can feel like a waste of time.
Cleaning, cooking, organizing: these things can be used to procrastinate doing more urgent things.
But having this as a day, and here it is on a weekend, a Sunday, it becomes a break from the work of the week, and it’s almost like a little vacation.
Maybe that’s pushing it, to say you’re cleaning your home and that’s a vacation.
But there’s something about having that time to put all work on hold, to say I I will not work today on any of these active projects, professional, personal projects.
My only work for this day is to take care of all these mundane, routine maintenance tasks that so often during work periods they can kind of get in the way, break up the day, take time away from other projects.
Let’s put all these mundane tasks into one day, and it serves the function of the break from all the other work, and it lets me start my Monday tomorrow with a nice, clean, organized, stocked with food foundation to put my energy into my projects, my work.
And maybe- it just kind of amazes me sometimes that I’m able to derive so much pleasure from a day of cleaning and cooking.
And I have to attribute it to recovery from my past addictions to highly stimulating activities that were bombarding my brain with stimulation, so that any activity that is so essentially dull and unstimulating, routine tasks, would really be painful.
But without these high stimulation, low value addictive behaviours filling my brain, I can really enjoy the day, that I feel like I’m getting a break and I’m putting everything in order.
I have an orderly environment to look forward to, and I feel like I’m making an improvement in my situation by the end of the day.
And in the afternoon cleaning, I was working on building my collection of songs.
I’m just collecting all my favourite songs, I’m just collecting them all, and listening to music while cleaning and cooking and organizing, it really is one of life’s simple pleasures.
So this is one more thing to add to the toolbox of things that I find useful.
I don’t know how frequently it’ll be.
Maybe once a week would be too frequent to devote a whole day to this, but I’m gonna see how it goes for the next one to possibly have another maintenance day next Sunday, or maybe every week, two weeks, at the least once a month, to have a day like this is really something that I find is rewarding on the day itself and also leads to a solid beginning to a new week.
So if you have any kind of ritual like this, any kind of maintenance routine, I would be curious to hear about how you organize your time with regard to these simple activities.