Organization Vs regimentation
I was thinking about the subtleties here, and wondering if this, like many things, is part of a spectrum.
At one extreme, you have OCD and some autistic behaviours - complete utter regimentation, without room for flexibility or change, often incapable of dealing with unforeseen disruption. These people are your obsessive repetitive routine or pattern followers - e.g they must eat the same meal, at the same day and time, at the same restaurant, or follow a set structure of sequenced behaviour such as waking up a certain time, eating a certain breakfast, driving a certain way to work, etc. This can be micromanaged down to the smallest details. They will not willingly change their routines and any forced outside disruption causes distress.
At the other extreme you have complete chaos. These people have no strategic thinking, no forward planning, no organization. They are capable of change because they have no structures to begin with, but often run into trouble through a lack of methodical, linear predictability. Their chaotic situation often impedes any speed or efficiency as they are messy and disorganized, with no cohesion, often resulting in being late, stressed, and underprepared. They can also be highly unreliable and can't be counted on to remember, or to be at a certain place and time or to have completed certain tasks by that time.
Granted autistic people are more likely to be the former than the latter, but people are often surprised that I'm autistic because I don't display total stereotypical autistic regimentation. I prefer a high level of organization, something I believe to be maybe 70/30 along this spectrum. I prefer a high level of control that is impervious to disruption by change, as it can adapt to and incorporate it, discounting unforeseen external events beyond my control. Thus I keep life very neat, clean, minimal and orderly so I know I have exactly what I need and nothing more or less, I know where everything is and can access it quickly, I know I have relevant information recorded so I don't have to try and remember everything, allowing a less cluttered and distracted mindset while still retaining enough forward planning to be properly prepared and on time. I prefer to have enough balance to be able to respond to unforeseen circumstances with enough flexibility to cope without collapsing and enough structure to be effective, calm and productive. Essentially taking the best attributes from both extremes.
Where does everyone else fall? How does your system work (or not work) for you?
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Alexithymia - 147 points.
Low-Verbal.
I would prefer a precise routine where nothing ever changes. But with severe mental health problems and M.E., I can't get through the basics a lot of the time. (Also homeless right now so location keeps changing.)
This inability to be in a precise routine causes a lot of frustration and makes my mental and physical health even worse
I wouldn't go so far as to say that I am regimental.
I do like to have a structure or else my life will descend into chaos and I'll become depressed.
However, the first part of the OP is very interesting to me because it describes my daughter most excellently.
She is so regimented in her life. She has lists, she eats, drinks and sleeps at particular times and we even have a set menu in our house that she has the last say on. She does all the shopping and it's her who has to put it away in her own little way.
I just go along with it all me.
hahaha...we are at complete opposite ends of the scale to each other, yet we get on so well.
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We have existence
Absolute chaos.
I'm about as ordered and organized as a tornado. If you could see my room, it's just an explosion of who knows what all over the place. Particularly around the desk, which is covered in random stuff. And this giant spiderweb of cables that hangs from it and also rests in a big tangle on the floor. There's a two-and-a-half foot thick (or I'm measuring that wrong, I'm not good at that) ball of cables elsewhere; it's got an entire keyboard jammed inside it, among other things.
I tend to make snap decisions, have what I call "anti-patience", and am late for everything, provided I even remember the thing that I end up late for. I can forget things while I"m doing them. I like to go to new places and explore. If I'm bored enough, and already driving, I may or may not randomly turn down some road I've never been down before just to see where it goes. Which could lead to more roads that go who knows where, so I might turn down those too. I live in the absolute middle of freaking nowhere, so most of the areas around here arent exactly stuffed with buildings, if they have any at all. I've learned alot of shortcuts and alternate routes to places this way. This is always done during the night.
The only thing that comes anywhere remotely near "regimented" for me is my meals. Not the time of the meals, which varies, but moreso the content, as I tend to eat the same things over and over. Though, this isnt out of a need for order, but simply because A: I dont like that many things, and B: cant cook at all. Frankly I can barely use the microwave, but I'll have microwave meals sometimes at least. Depends on my mood, I hate waiting for the blasted thing.
This can conflict a bit with my parents as they are *very* organized, but they put up with it well enough. And I only really destroy my own room, not the rest of the house. Unless I'm the only one here for a few days, at which point the kitchen will be an explosion of stuff until it's time to clean it up before they come home.