How well do you deal with changes to your routine?

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Terrible. It ends up ruining my whole day.

Let me give you a specific example.

Right now I work as a substitute teacher.
Every day of the week is exactly the same.
Only difference may be what school I work at,
but I'm familiar with enough of them so that is not a problem.

Summer vacation is coming up in a week.
I will be temporarily out of work.
And the potential for total disruption in the daily schedule scares the hell out of me.
I thrive on the structure and predictability.

I think that this inevitability has been wreaking havoc with my subconscious for months now.
I've been terribly anxious lately, for no obvious reason. Some part of my brain knew that this big change was coming up, and it has resulted in near-perpetual anxiety.

So, the answer is no. In general I do not deal well with changes to my routine.

changes to my routine just annoy me... now. in primary scool when a lesson was canceled I had a smal meltdown but now I'm fine (kind of)

For me a change, depending on the nature and extent of it, can make me feel at times quite uncomfortable. I just basically have to wait that feeling out.

I get upset at first, then I resign and accept it and change my plans accordingly. What really makes me mad though is if I've gone to great lengths (and sometimes, expenses) to change my plans and then for some reason the intruding event doesn't take place after all.

I am the same way when it comes to my plans changing. Even if I only plan to stay at home and be on my computer for the entire day. It is what I had planned so my mind naturally prepared for a day of just computer. My mind sticks to it and is nearly resistant to change.

To draw an analogy:

Think of my mind as a rocket engine being blasted off into space. the force of gravity here on earth represents my resistance to change of plans. In order for my mind to change my plans spontaneously (transcend the earth's gravitational field), I have to apply a substantial amount of force, which requires a lot of fuel, much like launching a rocket into space. Otherwise it will be like a baseball being projected in the air: it will always come back down (my mind reverts back to my original schedule) no matter how high/hard you throw it. And if something goes wrong with the ignition, lo and behold, a terrible meltdown will ensue.

I apologize for turning this into rocket science.

I don't have meltdowns or anything, but I can get very upset. Like today, I scheduled to go to McDonald's like I always do ag the Outlet Village (a Shopping Centre), even though I went to McDonald's, I got very upset when I found out that I might not be able to go.

I definitely do not handle unscheduled socializing well. But I seem to have ended up in jobs that are heavy on people contact and multi-tasking so I've increased my capabilities over several decades (I'm 56). I've travelled enough to pre-program myself to take changes in stride to a certain point...now that I think about it I believe that just means I hide my stress, which is a skill (not displaying current emotional state or reaction) I achieved early in life...so I guess that hasn't changed after all.....never mind!

I'm a lot milder. I was looking for the salt earlier and couldn't find it even though it was before my eyes. It was not in its usual place. I was mildly annoyed.

I don't do routine per sé but if my plans are disrupted it definitely upsets me a good deal.

Extremely bad when the change in routine involves changing the password of an account that has become muscle memory for so many years.

If the change provides a better alternative, I'm for it.

With me, it's not so much a change in routine, as it is someone breaking into it, but even this is welcomed if a routine is beginning to get tedious. I welcome the chance to take a break.

I don't deal well when my routine is messed up. I make it myself though and I always try to make sure I do it. But sometimes things happen and my routine is ruined. I sometimes don't react in a very mature way according to people I know. I have to be told about changes way in advance or I get very anxious. I like to prepare myself for stuff. I have meltdowns sometimes. Doctors appointments are scary for me. School is also a major part of my routine. I sort of like it. I know my teachers well. I don't like to miss days. My routine comforts me and is sort of a coping method to deal with anxiety so when it disrupted, I feel so much anxiety and I have meltdowns.

crappily.

Since my life is barely ever preplanned even when I got regular scheduled of school and work...
Let alone scheduled on daily basis at home, hmmm...

Honestly I do not know. Not even several successive 'routine' interruptions bothered me too much.
I don't know, maybe routines barely exists here. There is real no precise time when to go, when to eat, etc. I can always be too early or too late, almost never at the exact time.

'Knowing' when something starts and ends just gives me more mental like 'weight' of an anticipation to 'carry'. Supposedly to lessen the impact of change.
Only to find out that the mental weight it gave me is more burden than the efficiency that makes urgency.
I dunno, as I thought about it I should stop 'thinking too ahead' that makes a start or a finish. Think I should focus at getting it done in general than when it should get it done.
Yet losing the meaning and knowing of start and finish makes things slow and derailed. It's a lose-lose if I cannot afford this.

If I cannot afford the lack of time anticipation, my 'best' counter is not anticipate time itself, but certain events like 'it's dinner', 'the meeting is over', 'the last day of that weekly storm', etc.
But then again, it's just more chaotic here and somewhat slower at the same time.


At worst I'd just get confused or annoyed about the overall change, and just bug anyone with questions.
At best it pleases me to do something else other than the known usual.



Really. It takes a more sudden and more abrupt types of changes to make me upset.

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