Cutting the Routine

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I've been trying recently to cut the amount of alarms I set i.e. an alarm for my 9pm cup of herbal tea, and my 7pm alarm for dessert, and perhaps even my morning alarm, which I still set during the weekends. I've also been trying to do things when I feel like (or need to be) doing them, not when the clock says that I have to. It's been going well, but its tough. I had breakfast 1 hour late this morning, but the rest of the morning was fine. In fact, I didn't get hungry at 11am!

Is anyone trying to break out of the routine-istic behaviour they find themselves trapped in as a result of AS?

I have the opposite problem, too much chaos. If I write lists down, I might try and get things done. But too often I don't write a "to-do" list and then accomplish nothing. I wrote a shopping list and studied a menu for dinner, but haven't done a couple other needed errands.
I need deadlines and instruction to do anything. and coffee.

Here is my rigid schedule...wake up when I feel like it,around noon.Get coffee and smoke cigs while I visit WP.Play with cats when they ask for attention.Talk to my boyfriend if he says something.Eat dinner
around 6-8pm while watching TV.Let the bunnies out to play and clean cage,feed/water all animals.Watch movies with BF or read.Watch Adult Swim and maybe have sex.Go to sleep(or try) around 3-4am.Usually toss and turn for several hours with restless legs from lack of excercise during day.<------This is on my week off from work.When I work,I go to bed around noon and wake up at 7pm,drink coffee and go to work for 11 hours,repeat for a week.

If I feel ambitous,I will "pick up" mess in house or shower,get food or animal supplies.A few times a month I will go to thrift store or out to buffet with BF.

This has been my "schedule "for years.....the only change is the obsession before WP used to be arts,crafts,reading,refinishing furniture.

Alarms? I'm up before my alarm goes off, I dont have the patience to wait for it.. I dont mind being a little late with things now.. I've balanced that area of my life out.. That, and my mental clock is pretty accurate

I wish I had routines, I live in - not total - but semi-total chaos.

The only routine I manage is to do tai chi in the morning. I get up when I feel like it, ususally between 8 and 9 in the morning. Use the bathroom, stretch, do tai chi, it might take a while, because of all the little things I just have to do. I tell myself I can open the computer afterwards as a reward.
Then I have breakfast, and some days I manage to go shopping before lunch.
When I come home I have lunch, play with the cats, maybe we go for a walk, wathch tv eat sweets, feel tired and have a nap for an hour or two. When I wake up, what do you know, it's dinner time.

In between all this there is a lot of daydreaming and talking to myself. On rare occasions I try to clean the house.

Routemasters don't cut their Routines. They follow them religiously.

I actually can't stand having a routine. I love changes and I welcome them right in. If everything is the exact same every day, it just gets really boring. The only routine I have right now is my class schedule at school. Then again, everyone in school has to follow that. So I guess I don't really have one.

My husband is on the spectrum and I am NT. We've been together over 30 yrs. Any time there is something new in his life or we travel - the first thing we do is devise a routine for him to function with the basics. Over time I am convinced it's actually the safety of his routine that has enabled him to become MORE flexible as he ages.

My routine is simple: get up around 1:00 PM, have coffee & cig, take a shower, get the ole office clothes on (I currently have 4 outfits! This is A LOT for me...), go to work, answer stupid computer questions all day, get home at 12:30 AM, eat supper, stay up painting / sculpting clay / working on pc / watching the Daily Show and the Colbert Report till about 4 or 5 AM, then lie in bed and read my beloved encyclopedia for an hour before falling asleep.

It drives my bf crazy, but I like it.

Encyclopaediae are good indeed, although I prefer the medical kind. I tend to be a bit more sporadic nowadays, i.e. eating when I feel like it, not when it is 6.30am/11.30am/5pm. I feel much more relaxed. I still get up at 5.45am though; my biological clock is fascinatingly accurate. It is half term now for me, so there is little routine to hang onto, although I still like to agree a time when my Mother and I go out, for instance, or a time when I go for a brisk walk or a cycle. But that's quite normal I think.

I have a rough routine, its more the rituals which are a problem. I do tend to eat the same time each day though.

My routine:
get up, start my comp, do random stuff all day, go to sleep.

My routine:
Get up, start my comp, chat/listen to music/watch movies/play games all day, go to sleep.

On work mornings. I get up, grab a clean pair of underwear and my work uniform, go in the bathroom, striping naked, weighing myself, getting dressed, having breakfast on the couch while watching Tv and brushing my hair and I brush my teeth when it gets close to leaving and I put two barretes in my hair or a bobby pin. Then I turn everything off and put on my shoes and call for my dogs making sure they're still around and i feed them and I lock my door and leave.

On non work days, I get up and weigh myself and have breakfast on the couch watching TV, then I do whatever I feel like doing. I'm always planning what to do the next day when I am off work. If I don't plan anything I feel restless and bored because I don't know what to do.

Does anyone find it very hard to break your routine? I sure do. Is this an aspie thing?