I don't know if it was the four years of living in a monastery that did it to me, but for my entire adult life at least, I've come to really enjoy my various routines. Schedules and sameness are comforting, and though I'm game for whatever come the weekend, I really enjoy keeping to the same routines Monday to Friday.
In my years as a monk, my schedule looked something like this:
5:15 Wake up, shave, and shower
6:00 Morning Prayer and Mass in the chapel
7:00 Breakfast with the community
7:30 Clean up breakfast for the community
8:00 Leave for Manhattan College
9:05 First class
6:00 Get home from Manhattan College
6:20 Meditation in the chapel
6:40 Evening Prayer in the chapel
7:00 Dinner with the community
8:30 House class (class at home in the monastery with the other Young Brothers, various topics relating to monastic life)
9:30 Night Prayer in the chapel
10:00 Great Silence (supposed to be quiet and in bed, or at least in our rooms). This is when we'd start doing the bulk of our schoolwork and reading for classes at Manhattan.
It wasn't easy, but on Saturdays we'd get to sleep in. Mass wasn't until 8:00 AM! Woo-hoo!
In my home life now, my schedule looks something like this:
7:00 Alarm goes off for the first time
7:10 Alarm goes off for the second time
7:20 Alarm goes off for the third and final time
7:30 I finally get up, make the coffee, and prepare breakfast
7:40 I shave
7:50 I eat breakfast
8:00 I brush my teeth and shower
8:20 I leave for work
8:45 I arrive to work
1:00 Salad, always the same, then a walk around the park
5:00 I head to the gym at my job (a 1-minute walk)
5:50 I finish at the gym and head home
6:15 Home, do situps and lift weights, have a bowl of Cheerios
7:45 Dinner (most often a grilled chicken sandwich)
10:30 Brush my teeth, get in bed to read
11:00 Lights out and sleep
It'll vary a little here and there, but that's my schedule for the most part, and I like it! Certainly more sleep and an easier life than when I was commuting to the Bronx for college, and trying to manage a tight monastic schedule too!
Maybe schedules aren't so bad. If nothing else, they keep us moving forward.
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