5 STEPS TO GETTING BACK INTO ROUTINE.

It feels fitting that I’m writing this post at quarter to midnight, on a flight from Auckland to Melbourne. I began my first Fashion Week post en route to Auckland, after all. It was a much earlier time in the morning; early enough to gasp at the the blend of silky pastels brushing the sky.

Now, the sky is far different: like an empty hole that never ends. It is brightened only by the flashing orange light outside my window. I’m hoping this isn’t an indicator of some sort of disaster or faulty engine. But I’ve decided the fact that it’s going off every 5 seconds must a positive sign.

I’ve got the whole row to myself, and yet, I’m not sure I’m really maximising it. I’ve tried to spread out and sleep, but the cool air flowing from the conditioner above is proving too distracting. I know what you’re thinking: why don’t you just turn it off? And this would makes sense, of course — if it weren’t my only source of air-flow. For some reason, to shut it off seems just as unsettling as my attempt at sleeping.

I’m predicting we’ll land in an hour or so, but I can’t be sure: our flight was delayed due to operational issues [again, something to be concerned about or not?] for about 40 minutes. I’ve lost track of time now, confused in some trans-pacific in-between.

So I thought I’d write.

My inability to sleep hasn’t been helped by an emergence of thoughts regarding tomorrow. I have an interview, I have to unpack, I want to get back into the gym, I should probably try sleep in, I have a myriad of work tasks to complete. And I have my boyfriend to shower in love [to make up for lost time obviously].

On that note — with a busy few days ahead [what’s really changing at all other than my location] — I thought I’d end this Fashion Week and too, this little trip across the Tasman, with a few tips for getting back into routine.

1. Don’t delay your return to routine. If you can, push yourself back into things from day one.

If I don’t get home by 1am tonight, I’ll try to go to the gym reasonably early tomorrow morning. I find that if I delay to integrate routine activities for even a day, it becomes a far slower and more arduous process to find routine over the days that follow.

I’m an all-or-nothing type of person. I know this about myself — so I also know that if I avoid routine on day one, I’m more likely to re-use the same excuse on day two. I find that the sooner I push myself back into regular habits, the more stable and “at home” I feel in the long run.

If I’ve an epiphany whilst travelling and I wish to implement certain change into my daily lifestyle, it’s also pertinent that I make this happen early on.

Let’s just imagine I’ve returned from a stint of Eat Pray Love as opposed to Work Pose Wear, and that I want to start daily meditations. In that case, I ought to begin making time to meditate, not on day four, but straight from day uno.

It’s too easy to fall back into old ways of being, or of filling our time — particularly when these are associated with a place like home. Implementing changes as soon as I adjust back into my routine is almost a way of tricking myself into believing these new habits were, in fact, always apart of my day-to-day.

2. Unpack as soon as possible.

There’s nothing worse than having a suitcase full of things, lying in the middle of your room; bits and bobs scattered everywhere, still unpacked several days after your return. Even if you’re incredibly busy on your arrival, try your best to make it a priority to unpack.

Tomorrow morning, ideally after the gym, I’ll aim to sort the complete contains of my case. To put what needs to be washed in the wash; to return my jewellery, bags, accessories and shoes, each to their rightful place in my apartment.

I feel like it pays to start the process sooner rather than later — particularly if you’ve got a lot of washing to do. Knowing me, I’ve packed the entirety of my wardrobe, so it’s best I get that in the wash and back on it’s way to me as soon as possible.

3. Get an early night.

Most often when I travel — including small distances like Melbourne to Auckland — my sleep patterns tends to get slightly [or significantly] out of whack. In hindsight, this is probably my own fault more than it is circumstantial. After all, I do tend to choose the most annoying times to travel, and then, repeatedly proceed to make the same mistake.

Every time I go to book a flight, I’ll choose the 6am one, thinking how perfect: I’ll have a nice, early start and arrive in New Zealand by about mid-morning. What I always fail to factor in, is the fact that I’ll have to wake at 3am or earlier to actually get to the airport in time for an international flight.

Particularly on this occasion — with the most craziest of weeks having just passed — re-discovering stability in my sleeping pattern feels pertinent. If there was a scale that could measure how many hours I am deficient, I wouldn’t want to know the answer. That’s how potentially off the scale we are right now.

This entire week, I’ve prioritised working late [I’ve event tried to keep up with Tony’s night owl tendencies] whilst also attempting to maintain my early starts. And let’s just say this, I feel it. I’ll probably feel it even more tomorrow.

My point is, when you returning from travel, if you can, make sure that the following night is an early one. Getting back into a pattern [particularly if that involves early morning gym sessions] requires that you get a good sleep. So too does being inspired and motivated to bounce back into your everyday life.

4. Attempt to eat healthy again.

Right now, I crave the refreshing taste of a smoothie bowl. Or the cleansing goodness of a nourish bowl. In fact, I crave anything that resembles health and the food pyramid [minus the meat and the fish and the dairy because #vegan]. Every time I head to Fashion Week, I find that I’m far too busy to think healthy. Or perhaps I just don’t care so much.

There are few periods where I let my fitness and health slide throughout the year, but I’m sure that whilst I travel — particularly for Fashion Week — is one of them. It’s one of the few occasions where I think exercising [or waiting for a healthy alternative] might be more detrimental to my ability to get through the week then beneficial.

For the past week or so, my diet has comprised of a series of quick fixes — that is, if I could get my hands on anything at all. Unsurprisingly, I now feel more than ready to get back into healthy eating. I know that re-balancing my diet is an element of my lifestyle that really encourages a back-to-routine mindset for me too.

Eating well obviously makes me feel good. But it also motivates me to smash goals outside of the health and diet realm. It makes sense really: when we eat well and nourish ourselves, we feel more at ease to focus on other goals.

5. Accept that our return to routine is not going to happen in one day.

This is something I definitely struggle with — especially at the gym actually. Over Fashion Week, I didn’t get too much time to exercise, and I just know that I’m going to frustrate myself tomorrow when I attempt to get back into it. I always expect to be able to bounce back as if I never left, and then, I’m always wildly disappointed when I can’t.

To say that I could take cues from this one would be an absolute understatement. Deep down, I know that to re-group and to revitalise properly requires several days of recuperation and organisation.

Of course, it doesn’t pay to beat myself up over this. We should remind ourselves, instead, that adventure is always worth a temporary upheaval in our lifestyle — even if it does mean having to muddle our way back to routine eventually.

On that note, thanks to everyone who tuned into another awesome New Zealand Fashion Week. I hope you enjoyed my coverage — and that you found something different, interesting and unique in it.