The benefits of monotony

I’ve picked up running this year. Gotta keep the mind clear with all these stressful producing jobs. If you followed me on Strava you’d see something peculiar: I run the same route virtually every time. 

CEOs and productivity YouTubers flaunt their monochromatic daily uniforms all the time. These guys wear the same grey tee shirt and New Balance shoes every day of the week, claiming they’re saving their decision-making energy. The mental benefits of decreasing the decisions on simple tasks (and saving them for arduous ones) have been well documented. 

But doesn’t this all sound a little monotonous? 

I’ve become one of those guys recently, too. And I can tell you, it is monotonous. When I eat the same breakfast and lunch six days in a row, and when I run past the same things every week, it’s not interesting. But this interesting part is this: I’m still doing it. 

When I run a new route, there are a thousand little side streets I could take to turn back early. A thousand times I ask myself should I turn back? And often times I cave early, not running as much as I hoped. But when I run the same route every time, my mind is on auto-pilot, and I’m not tempted to turn back. Now, I’m taking the time to eat a full breakfast and lunch every day (even on busy days) because my mind has no easy place to turn back. The easier thing to do with monotony is to think about something else while the boring thing gets done. 

Even though monotony is boring, sometimes boring is what we need to stick with it.