ritual vs reaction

Well-designed rituals give us superpowers.

Well-designed rituals give us superpowers.

It’s easy to slip into reactive behavior, doing things as you think of them or when some external stimulus prompts you to handle it. This is fine for unimportant tasks, but lots of little reactive tasks will add to tremendous chaos in your life if you aren’t careful. If you struggle with too much chaos, try turning some of your tasks into rituals and see what it can do for you.

I was one of those drivers always running on a near-empty tank. I used to wait until my gas tank was below a quarter before filling up at the gas station. Most of the time, this worked out, but sometimes (all the time), I’d get busy, and the needle would continue to creep closer and closer to empty. I never ran out of gas, but I often ran close to it. The chaos and stress this added to driving was awful, but that all changed 13 years ago.

About 13 years ago, I stumbled on Thomas Limoncelli’s book Time Management for Sysadmins. He’s a big advocate for creating routines to mitigate chaos. One of his examples of building a solid routine was “Gasoline on Sundays.” I remember reading that and feeling shocked. That’s all I have to do? So I gave it a try. Like magic, this simple behavior removed so much unneeded stress from my life. I’ve been hooked ever since. These days, it’s Saturday morning, right after we go grocery shopping. Like clockwork, I fill up the tank, no matter what the tank reads. The result is astounding: I no longer have to think about running out of gas (ever). Since that day, I’ve never been stressed about the empty gas tank, and it’s just become part of my weekly routine.

Zero stress.
It’s the best kind of boring.

Of course, I didn’t stop with fuel. I’m always looking for reactive tasks I can turn into rituals at home and work. If you feel chaos creeping into your life, take a step back and pick one reactive thing you think can turn into a ritual. Give it a try. I don’t think you’ll ever go back.