I love a routine.

I like knowing when I’m working out.

I like my little morning rituals.

I like knowing there is food in the fridge, my week vaguely makes sense, and at some point an iced matcha will be involved.

Routine is good for us. It reduces the number of decisions we have to make, gives our days structure and can make healthy habits much easier to maintain.

But I’ve also noticed something.

Sometimes my routine gets a little too good at being a routine.

Wake up.

Work.

Workout.

Shower.

Dinner.

Watch something.

Bed.

Repeat.

Nothing is technically wrong.

I’m productive. I’m doing all the things I’m supposed to be doing.

But somehow Tuesday feels exactly like Wednesday, which felt suspiciously similar to Monday.

And that’s when I’ve realised I need to go do something different.

Not book a three-month sabbatical in Italy.

Just interrupt the pattern.

Take a different route.

Go somewhere new.

Try the class.

Say yes to the spontaneous plan.

Go swimming instead of doing your usual workout.

Eat dinner somewhere you’ve never been.

Do something you’re slightly bad at.

Because routines are great for keeping life together.

Novelty is great for making life feel like life again.

Here are four reasons I’m trying to make more room for it.

1. New Experiences Wake Your Brain Up

Have you ever noticed how slowly the first few days of a holiday seem to pass?

You arrive somewhere new and suddenly you’re noticing everything.

The streets.

The restaurants.

The smells.

The people.

The view from your hotel.

Where you’re getting coffee tomorrow.

Your brain has so much new information to process that you’re actually paying attention again.

Compare that with driving the same route you’ve driven 400 times.

Sometimes you arrive and barely remember the journey.

That’s essentially your brain becoming efficient.

When something is familiar, it doesn’t require the same level of attention. Novel experiences, on the other hand, encourage us to pay closer attention and form new memories.

And you don’t need a plane ticket to create that feeling.

Go to a new beach.

Try tennis.

Take a pottery class.

Order something you’ve never eaten.

Explore a neighbourhood you always drive past.

Work from somewhere different.

Go to a gig for an artist you barely know.

Your brain likes new information.

Sometimes you just need to give it some.

2. It Can Make Time Feel Less Like It’s Flying

This is the one that gets me.

How is it already September?

Didn’t we just do January?

One explanation for that strange feeling that time speeds up as we get older is that adult life can become extremely repetitive.

When our days look similar, fewer moments stand out in memory.

But think about periods of your life when everything was new.

Starting university.

Moving somewhere.

Travelling.

Beginning a new job.

Meeting someone.

Learning something completely new.

Those periods often feel incredibly rich in memories because your brain had so many distinct experiences to record.

This has made me think differently about slowing life down.

Maybe it isn’t about literally having more time.

Maybe it’s about creating more moments worth remembering.

A random Tuesday night dinner.

An early ocean swim.

A spontaneous road trip.

Going somewhere you’ve never been.

Trying a ridiculous workout class with your friend and laughing because neither of you knows what’s happening.

Tiny things that give the week a landmark.

Because I don’t want my entire year to become one long sequence of emails, groceries and “what should we watch?”

3. Being Bad at Something Is Weirdly Good for You

I think adulthood makes us very comfortable doing things we’re already competent at.

Which makes sense.

Being good at things feels nice.

Being a beginner?

Humbling.

I recently started thinking about how good it feels to do something where there’s absolutely no expectation that I should be impressive.

Pick up a tennis racket.

Get back on a skateboard.

Try barre for the first time.

Paint something objectively terrible.

Take a dance class and discover that your body apparently doesn’t understand choreography.

There’s something freeing about it.

You’re not doing it for work.

You’re not monetising it.

You’re not building your personal brand.

You’re not trying to optimise your performance.

You’re just… learning.

New challenges can support cognitive flexibility and self-efficacy, basically, the belief that you can figure things out.

And every time you do something unfamiliar and survive being slightly rubbish at it, you collect a little evidence:

Oh. I can learn new things.

That’s a useful feeling to carry into the rest of your life.

4. It Gives You Something to Look Forward To

I think we seriously underestimate how much happiness comes from anticipation.

Sometimes the plan itself isn’t even the best part.

It’s Wednesday and you remember:

Wait, we’re going to the beach Saturday.

Instant mood improvement.

Having little things ahead of you breaks up the sameness of everyday life.

And they don’t have to be huge.

Book the dinner.

Plan the hike.

Get tickets.

Try the new Pilates studio.

Tell your friend you’re going for an iced matcha Saturday morning.

Drive somewhere beautiful.

Have a picnic.

Go watch the sunset with snacks.

Put something on the calendar that isn’t an obligation.

I think adulthood can accidentally become a diary full of things we have to do.

Meetings.

Appointments.

Deadlines.

Errands.

Admin.

So I’m trying to deliberately schedule more things I’m actually excited to do.

Not because every second of life needs to be entertaining.

But because having something to look forward to makes the ordinary days feel different too.

You Don’t Need to Blow Up Your Life

This is the important part.

If you’re feeling stuck, bored or a little flat, you don’t necessarily need a new job, new city, new relationship, new haircut and a dramatic personality reinvention.

Sometimes you might just be under-stimulated by your own life.

Routine gives us stability.

But novelty gives us stories.

And I think we need both.

Keep the morning routine.

Keep the workout you love.

Keep your Sunday reset.

Keep ordering the same meal from your favourite restaurant because you already know it’s elite.

Just leave a little room for:

“Should we?”

“I’ve never done that before.”

“Why not?”

“Okay, let’s go.”

Take a different route home.

Try the class.

Swim in the ocean.

Talk to someone new.

Book the weekend away.

Wear something you normally wouldn’t.

Say yes occasionally when your routine would prefer you said no.

Because sometimes the thing you need isn’t another habit to make your life more organised.

It’s something that makes you excited to be in it.