Comforting Habits

Voice of the DBA

I was chatting with a friend recently about routines and some of the helpful or silly things we do. I mentioned that when I played adult baseball, we often had Sunday morning games and a routine of mine was to drive to town, stop at a 7-11, and get a large cup of coffee and an apple fritter. It was a comforting habit that I still have today, often stopping when I have a morning flight to do the same thing in the way to the airport.

Only in Denver though, not when I’m flying out of other cities and returning home.

At another job, I rode my bike to work. However, I’d drive Monday morning and leave my car at work, taking it home Friday afternoon. In between I’d commute on a bicycle 10-12 miles each way. On Monday, I’d buy a half dozen bagels for the week, which I’d leave in my office. After riding in and showering, I’d toast a bagel and have that with my coffee. It was a nice way to start the day while I scanned email or had a morning meeting.

Apparently, many of my routines revolve around food.

I have other habits, like waking up and checking my email before doing anything else. Not always, but most days I’ll stir, give up on trying to sleep, and scan email from bed to see what is in store for the day. I don’t always get up and go to work, but I can mentally prepare myself for how the workday will go. I’ve often found this helps me ease the way into the day, and I’m less stressed when I’ve broken the question of the day or had some other issue. I am prepared for what I’ll face in the next hour after relaxing with my wife for a bit longer.

Routines not only bring us comfort, but they ground us in the chaos of the real world. Even if we have lost control of our work, with others pressuring us to meet deadlines or fix a broken system, a routine helps us to react calmly and not panic.

Even during security or failure incidents, which can be very stressful, I’d start the issue with a blank notebook page, writing a few known facts down on paper and starting to think forward as to how I’d manage staff. Often this exercise had me making initial decisions about who would work now and who would go home to come back later and relieve people. This was before I knew the scope or details of the problem. Even though I often had to change my plan, having a plan to change gave me comfort.

Think about the repetitive things you do on a daily or weekly basis. Think about the things you do in response to periodic events. What comforting habits do you have that help you get through the day or just bring a smile to your face.

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.

Note, podcasts are only available for a limited time online.