A Routine Check-Up

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I don't generally get much done in my life. I'm not employed currently, so I have a lot of free time on my hands, but even so I seem to squander most of it doing little more than sitting in front of one screen or another.

There are other things I want to spend my time doing, but they rarely/never end up happening. Even when I'm unsure of what to do with myself, I'll sooner turn to my phone and browse than find something productive to do with my time.

I can now better see why routines are common amongst Aspies. I sometimes struggle with things that aren't planned, and I guess lacking a routine, it makes sense that I struggle to get much done.

I've tried devising a routine for myself in the past, but considering all the free time I have right now, I didn't know how to choose when to do certain activities, and just generally how to structure it all. In addition, I'm not sure how I'd mentally prepare myself to stick to one even if I did have one, being so used to not having one.

So WP, what's your experience with routines? And do you have any advice for someone struggling to pull one together?

i am currently in the same sort of state as you, due to a lot of medical issues i quit my job and have had a lot of time on my hands. when i was eventually able to do something small i tried the following :

1: start with one very small thing, do that consistently for 90+ days
2: then add one more small thing and do that consistently for 90+ days
3: repeat step 2

i started with a waking up routine which was basically an alarm on my phone set for a certain time with 3 x 5 minute snoozes. once i was able to do that consistently i added more ... it is fairly long now but has taken a fair amount of time to build up. i have one for when i eat and when i prepare to go to bed.

i prefer to have a plan vs random stuff happening, with the latter more likely to cause bad things(tm). this will in all likelihood be the way i need to do things for the foreseeable future. i find actually writing things down in detail and going over them regularly helps. adding very small things less often vs lots of things all at once works best for me, ymmcv.