Am I the only one here who loves changes in routine?

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I just feel excited and alive whenever I have a change in routine. Even mundane stuff like doctor's appointments. I also have little to no problem being on time for that stuff. It's just routine things like school that I have issues with.

Normally I follow a pretty set routine that is timed down to the minute for each day of the week. Things just work out better if you know what to expect and it allows you to focus on other things

That being said, when I go on vacations I go completely off the tracks and plan absolutely nothing. For example, recently we went to Hawaii and didn't even reserve our hotel rooms more then a night out. A week of random wandering with no idea where we would land next.

Both behaviors drive people crazy around me.

I have routines for waking up and bedtime. The middle of the day is up in the air. But even though the middle day is up in the air, I still would like to choose what I'll be doing and I'd hate if someone else planned things for me. I especially hate surprise visits from people who think that because I'm home and doing nothing, that means I'm free. I like being home and having some relaxing downtime a lot, so really, I'm not free. But people don't understand how I could want to spend downtime alone I guess? I don't know. So even though I don't have extremely rigid routines, I don't like surprises and I don't like being extremely busy.

I have a routine and if something external invades my routine without warning then I am not happy. It just throws me off balance and I have to take some time to get my head around it. I think I deal with it quite well these days.

If I expect a change in routine then I am quick to adapt and it doesn't bother me too much, but I'm not keen on surprises.

only when i make the change, and it must be a small change.

My morning routine is more or less timed down to the minute during weekdays the rest of the day tends to happen in the same order but the times tend to change a lot. The weekends don't tend to have a specific routine to them. The only time at a weekend where my routn tends to stay in place is my morning routine which again happens in the same order but the timing changes a lot.

For me it is all about having a plan. Part of my routine is built in regular variety. As long as I know what is coming, I can plan for and handle a great deal of non-routine activity and variety. It's when there is a dramatic last minute change to a plan that I go down. Getting home from work then being called right back in at like 9p for an overnight pretty much set me on course for a meltdown, so I lied and said I had started drinking while cooking dinner and couldn't come in. >_>

read about the differences between left brain dominancy and right brain dominancy, it sounds like are right brain dominant [needing change and lack of scheduling is a trait of theirs] as opposed to left brain dominant.
most autistics are left brain dominant which is where professor simon baron cohens extreme left brain theory of autism came about but there are quite a number of right brained autists.

from own experiences,am unable to cope with routine change at all and get diazepam prescribed for it.
am also a user of daily PECS timelines to have a visual reminder of every step that makes up routine.

Routine changes don't bother me at all.

I don't care for it but I'm an extremely flexible person.

It just depends on what the change is.

If I was supposed to stay in all day one day, then all the sudden I have to go somewhere I'm pretty upset about it. Especially if it's something that will last more than an hour.
It's mainly upsetting because I was all set and excited to stay in that day and it gets blown apart but some BS that came up.

Other than that, I'm very flexible. A lot more flexible than most of my NT friends I know.

I generally follow a routine/schedule because of school, working out, eating a specific diet and tutoring sessions and what not, so it's hard to not have a schedule otherwise I wouldn't be able to get it all done.

I like some changes to routine but it depends on what it is. I generally don't like unexpected changes that come up suddenly. I like to have some advance notice and warning so I can prepare myself.

When something that is routine, has to be changed over to a new routine, it is hard. Like when I have to change how I do things on my computer for work, if I am used to filling in certain boxes or clicking certain buttons, and then I have to change it, it really discombobulates me.

But if is more of a one-time, or once in awhile thing, it can be nice to do something different.

It's not so much changes in my daily routine that bother me as much as it is unexpected changes in plans. When something is added to my schedule, be it work, a social engagement, an appointment etc, I have a tendency to plan my entire day around that one event. So if something happens where said event is suddenly canceled then I no longer have that as an anchor to hold the rest of my schedule together, which then leaves me with a bunch of time that I set aside all for nothing, which THEN throws me into a state of disarray because I've lost control over the situation (and like a lot of Aspies, I absolutely need to have that control otherwise I go into panic mode). On the flip side, if something suddenly comes up on short notice that wasn't originally part of my schedule (I go internally bonkers when this happens with work), then it's pretty much the same deal. Either way, it's all about the need for predictability and mentally preparing myself for things beforehand.

my routine is flexible but if its not there, i loose my mind. i enjoy small changes like a movie, or a dinner at a restaurant. anything like a sudden change in plans results in a meltdown

I can change my routine, but it's almost never spontaneous. I plan it out ahead of time. Changes in my daily work happen. It's the nature of my career. They upset me, and annoy me, but over the course of a 30 year career, I've developed coping skills to avoid losing it. I would occasionally snap early on. But my work is just a living---it's not my life. If I have planned something that I enjoy doing, and a last minute change upsets them, I get angry.

A change in routine is only fine for me if I'm somewhere else. If I can't wake up at 6:15am, wash up and take a quick 25-minute nap before starting the car and going to work for real then I get frustrated.