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How much are you affected by changes in your schedule?

Rainbowcat

Well-Known Member
I had to take an exam,i studied well and was ready for it. A day before the exam,
I received an email about the exam being postponed and being rescheduled for the next week. When i read the email i got upset,cause the plan of the day was to revise the study material before the exam. I tried to work on my feelings,but i got upset and disorganized. It was 11 am and i had the whole day to study something else. I ended up doing nothing what my studies is concerned. I wanted to leave behind this exam and begin preparing an essay,which takes time,this was my next step.

I am working on not getting upset when something unexpected is changing my program. But the half times i can't control my feelings of being disorganized,this of course costs me valuable time and then i am falling behind schedule.
Any advice, welcomed! :)
 
Routine is comforting and makes sense - but in every job I've worked, I've been forced to adapt to changes and problems.

I prefer a change of plan to be sudden - where I have to do something now. As opposed to a delay or rescheduling of an event. Future plans tend to have me fretting about the event. Usually the anxiety and worry about situations makes the even themselves feel anticlimactic.

Ed
 
l hate changes. It sets my brain spinning backwards, causes a rash of self judgements like Evil Knivel spinning over a bunch of cars trying to avoid crashing. Then l have to be in the moment and deal down my hand of cards. So l go right to black and white- this is good, and this is bad. I cut up the change like a jinsu chef and dissect it until l feel comfortable in my knowledge. This works well with work related issues. Definitely not with anything else.
 
Remember the serenity statement, it help me with sudden changes in scheduling.

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
 
To much changes at the same time and i go blank (ie my brain shuts down )

I HATE changes in my daily or life routine but i try my best to cope with them as they arrive.
 
Routine is comforting and makes sense - but in every job I've worked, I've been forced to adapt to changes and problems.

I prefer a change of plan to be sudden - where I have to do something now. As opposed to a delay or rescheduling of an event. Future plans tend to have me fretting about the event. Usually the anxiety and worry about situations makes the even themselves feel anticlimactic.

Ed
I agree. I suppose i will be forced to adjust to changes.
Personally,i experience greater worrying in a sudden change. In a future event i can organize my time and try to get prepared for it as much as possible.
 
For me, if an event is in the future I begin planning ways of talking myself out of attending. If it's a spontaneous event - I have little time to start second guessing myself.

Ed
 
l hate changes. It sets my brain spinning backwards, causes a rash of self judgements like Evil Knivel spinning over a bunch of cars trying to avoid crashing. Then l have to be in the moment and deal down my hand of cards. So l go right to black and white- this is good, and this is bad. I cut up the change like a jinsu chef and dissect it until l feel comfortable in my knowledge. This works well with work related issues. Definitely not with anything else.
I understand. My brain some times has also worked like that,it is the best reaction for a change. Usually i need to wait until i am calmed down,which takes time.
I liked how you desribed how your mind ha ha
 
Remember the serenity statement, it help me with sudden changes in scheduling.

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Thanks! That sounds a wise way. I will try to remind that to my self.
 
It depends on the situation. I can't "switch gears" unexpectedly very well. But I do OK with it when it comes to little day to day stuff (like what particular duties I'm going to be doing at work that day. I get grumpy about it, but I'm OK with minor change.)

Major routine changes seriously mess me up. For example I stayed busy all morning one time spending time with a friend instead of my usual "eat lunch in front of the computer and mentally get ready for work" routine. I felt dissociated for the first several hours of my shift.

I recently switched from working 2pm-10pm to working 10am - 6pm. For the first week or two, I was chronically dehydrated because I relied on my work/break schedule to eat and drink. My schedule changed and I couldn't figure out when to drink and didn't get enough fluids, then my mental state went to crap for a week before I figured it out. My diet has gone to crap because my eating schedule has changed and I haven't figured out how to get it back on track yet. Both eating and drinking regularly go to crap on weekends because without my work routine...you guessed it! LOL (Fortunately, it doesn't tend to cause too much trouble because weekends are typically only two days.)
 
It depends on the situation. I can't "switch gears" unexpectedly very well. But I do OK with it when it comes to little day to day stuff (like what particular duties I'm going to be doing at work that day. I get grumpy about it, but I'm OK with minor change.)

Major routine changes seriously mess me up. For example I stayed busy all morning one time spending time with a friend instead of my usual "eat lunch in front of the computer and mentally get ready for work" routine. I felt dissociated for the first several hours of my shift.

I recently switched from working 2pm-10pm to working 10am - 6pm. For the first week or two, I was chronically dehydrated because I relied on my work/break schedule to eat and drink. My schedule changed and I couldn't figure out when to drink and didn't get enough fluids, then my mental state went to crap for a week before I figured it out. My diet has gone to crap because my eating schedule has changed and I haven't figured out how to get it back on track yet. Both eating and drinking regularly go to crap on weekends because without my work routine...you guessed it! LOL (Fortunately, it doesn't tend to cause too much trouble because weekends are typically only two days.)

I understand,routine is very important.
My sleep routine got mixed up since Sunday, due to the daylight saving time. I still haven't been used to it.I sleep less during this week.
 
This really depends on the situation. I recently got a phone call reminding me of my annual checkup, which I had forgotten about. At first I was a little agitated, because this meant having to redo my expectations, but after a short while I was able to get used to the change.

Changes in my routine can be confusing. Like, if I normally clean area A first, then move on to B, then C, but for whatever reason I can't do B, then I get kind of thrown off. Sure, I can just move on to C and come back to B later, but I still have an overall feeling of mild confusion. And a little agitation because this means having to figure out how to change my schedule to adapt.

But changes to other habits can be worse. If I can't do my daily crossword when I get home from work, if I can't watch TV while I eat dinner, if I can't have my after-dinner snack; these things cause a bit more agitation.

I don't freak out about changes, but I can get a little frustrated (but then, I get frustrated pretty easily).
 
This really depends on the situation. I recently got a phone call reminding me of my annual checkup, which I had forgotten about. At first I was a little agitated, because this meant having to redo my expectations, but after a short while I was able to get used to the change.

Changes in my routine can be confusing. Like, if I normally clean area A first, then move on to B, then C, but for whatever reason I can't do B, then I get kind of thrown off. Sure, I can just move on to C and come back to B later, but I still have an overall feeling of mild confusion. And a little agitation because this means having to figure out how to change my schedule to adapt.

But changes to other habits can be worse. If I can't do my daily crossword when I get home from work, if I can't watch TV while I eat dinner, if I can't have my after-dinner snack; these things cause a bit more agitation.

I don't freak out about changes, but I can get a little frustrated (but then, I get frustrated pretty easily).

I relate to all of that.


The funny thing is that my next exam got postponed again. This time i tried to study something else,but couldn't concentrate well. I am happy i managed my frustration to a certain degree.
 
It depends on the situation, but my response to unexpected change can range from annoyance to rage.

If it’s work related and something forces me to be more than 15-20 minutes late for a booking, I will cancel it and rebook the job to another day. I can’t work out of sync with my schedule. I’d rather just stay home or go home early.

Last Friday I went on a hike with my son and a friend from school. My son was not ready and was still getting his gear together when I had wanted to leave. I got angry with him because I’d asked him the whole week before to get his backpack ready to go the night before.

I just got in the car and backed out of the driveway and he ran down with all his gear in his arms and finished getting ready on the drive there.

If I don’t properly prepare for something well before it happens, I won’t go. I make sure all my activities are well planned.

I don’t do spontaneous too well. This bothers my wife sometimes.
 
I don’t do spontaneous too well. This bothers my wife sometimes

Some times i like to do things off schedule,when i initiate them.
But if some friend calls and wants to arrange something the last minute, i get disorganized and feel i can't change my program,because things will be left undone. So a lot of times, i decline any offer being made like that.
 

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