Routine

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Much of my life seems to be governed by self imposed routine and the need to do things in a particular way. I'm not talking about lining up my toys before I go to bed. I'm a bit old for that.

I have very ridged daily and weekly routines. I could pretty much tell you what I'll be doing at any given time on any day of the week. If I have a task to complete I'll do it in the same way every time.

If I have to do something that disrupts my routine I will need to plan how I'm going to fit my usual stuff around it. If someone suggests a spontaneous change I can feel anxious and quite unsettled.

I'm very rarely spontaneous and will spend excessive amounts of time planning things in advance.

I'm curious about how others are affected by the need for routine?

I think my need, or let's say preference, for routine is not as pronounced as many Aspies', but let me explain my case and others can add their perspective.

You could explain it with cognitive-load terms or the spoons theory. I find making something a part of a routine requires much less attentional focus than having to do every segment separately. I have a morning (get ready for the day/work) routine and a bedtime routine, including grooming and medications. By following all the elements in their usual order, I can be thinking of other things or nothing at all.

When my routines are disrupted, I get "rattled" to the extent that I have to allocate attention to the rather paltry parts of these routines. It's an example of coping with my executive function deficits.

I can cope with changes to my routine only if I am the one making the changes and the decision to change and the need to change is not in anyway urgent. If others people or situational factors distupt my routine, I get anxious and easily overwhelmed, causing me to lash out at others.

Routine helps me devote less resources to repetitve daily tasks so I can spend my limited amount of mental energy elsewhere.

Routines are important in autism, because like with stimming, it helps maintain stability and order like a mental center of gravity. This is needed because of all the sensory input an autistic mind is processing.

I can acclimatise to changes to my routine, but I hate surprises. Unannounced arrivals from family members, for example, catapult me into "panic mode", in which I run upstairs and cower in my bedroom because of the crippling fear.

I very much dislike having my routine interrupted but I also dislike having things scheduled.

Here's an example.

My girlfriend will ask me what I want for dinner at night in the middle of the day as she likes to plan ahead. I will almost certainly say that I would rather not plan it yet and keep my options open.

When it comes time to eat, I decide to make myself a stirfry with some stuff in the fridge. I pull all the ingredients out, and heat the pan up. Right as I'm about to start chopping, my girlfriend informs me that she had ordered us food online and that she ordered something I liked.

Well, I had already had it in my head what I was about to cook. So I say, "well I've already started, I'd prefer to just eat this". At this point I only have the ingredients out, I could easily put everything back, what she ordered me was going to be much tastier than the crap I was about to cook. But I hate being interrupted and having my plan changed. I'd rather throw what my girlfriend ordered me in the fridge for another day and keep cooking. So that's what I do.

Later, my girlfriend feels bad for ordering food I didn't actually want. I feel bad for being a stubborn donkey for no good reason. We talk, everything fine, dont worry.

(true story)

I am very routine oriented. I have a list of things I do everyday, but I keep it as short and as efficient as possible. Having my daily list interrupted doesn't bother me too much so long as I have a heads up. It really only drives me crazy once I actually start something and having someone try to change that. If you tell me that I wont be able to do my nightly routine in the morning, that's fine, but If you try to change it right when I start it, even if it's trivial and the change is better. Hell naw!

my self imposed routine is hard to define because it doesn't relate much to times/dates/plans, but to actions. i have a specific way I want to do things and when the routine is disrupted I feel lost and anxious.

I had some rituals as a kid but never really a routine. But I loved to apply rules to everything and agree on them with others.
Nowadays I don't have a routine either, BUT something else: I want my day to be predictable, with as little stress as possible.
For example riding the bus counts as stress, listening at lectures is stress, talking to people is stress, waiting for a packet delivery is stress, etc... so I avoid it.

I guess I'm more impulsive, so I don't plan. When I need it, I randomly walk in circles. Happens almost every day.

I like to have an unofficial schedule for what I do each day, and I like to give myself certain rules. But I don't mind deviating from my routine sometimes, and I often deliberately break my rules. In fact, sometimes I like a change in routine; for example, last week the power was off at my school during first period, so we didn't do anything during that period, and I liked that because it was different.

I'm a bad autistic - I hate routine.
To me, routine feels dead and boring, like I'm excluding anything else interesting from being able to occur because I'm stuck to the same narrow path like a dog wearing a track of dead grass around a fence. To me there's a difference between repetition (which I do a lot) and routine. If I start falling into a routine and I notice it, I will change. Example - my father called a relative's house of a Saturday to speak to me, because without even needing to ask me what I was doing over the weekend, he knew I would be there. I dislike being predictable. I hate going to the same shops at the same times, hate anything that happens weekly every week, I have in the past even preferred an irregular work schedule.
That said, though, I will still list like mad. Can't function without lists. So I will make a list of everything I have to do and then sub-list of everything I have to do on certain days, and it annoys me if things list-jump from one to the next endlessly and I didn't get them done on the list corresponding to the day I determined.