Hey, you there! Does your life feel boring? Are you impatiently counting the days till your next vacation? Do you feel trapped in stale routines, devoid of novelty and adventure? Are you compensating by passively living other people’s lives through media consumption? Or is it just me?

I won’t make this a big deal. If you find yourself in a similar situation, you haven’t failed and there’s nothing wrong with you. Ignore those who are telling you anything else, especially if they’re selling “the solution” to that alleged problem. It’s hard to be in a constant state of excitement all day, every day. You need some boring downtime in between the highs, as every hormonal teenager with an equally hormonal partner and enough time on their hands can attest.

What if you still want to spice things up a bit, you just don’t know how? Pretty much everything is a skill. And to be good at something, you first need to put in the work. Similar to how you won’t be the next Picasso as soon as you pick up a paintbrush, you won’t be a pro at “living an exciting life” as soon as you’re starting to introduce some variety. But you need to start small and be consistent if you want to get to a point where doing interesting and memorable stuff becomes second nature. That’s what this article is about.

To introduce some stakes: If you fail to practice this skill, you’re headed for tragedy. That vacation you’re so desperately waiting for is on the line. Well, not the vacation itself, but the degree to which it will be the adrenaline-packed ride on the proverbial rollercoaster of breath-taking experiences and new discoveries you’ve been hoping for. You can get a boring person out of their dull life, but you can’t get the dullness out of a boring person. Meaning even if you take bland old Bob from accounting and drop him straight onto Love Island, he’ll most likely stay bland old Bob from accounting, won’t know what to do on that show, and subsequently not get any screen time. Maybe he’s been there already, but nobody noticed...

Enough with the insights into my worrying media consumption, let’s get down to business:

If you find yourself craving some more variety in your life, I challenge you to pick 3 routines you plan on doing in the next couple of days. Hobbies, habits, chores, and obligations. Anything that takes up a considerable amount of time, but offers at least some wiggle-room when it comes to the details. For each of them, find one aspect you’ll change next time you come around to doing it. These aspects are:

• Location.
  Instead of jogging through your neighborhood every time, pick a completely different route. Something I like to do from time to time: Start like every other day, but at every fork in the road, pick the direction that’s least familiar to you. Chances are you’ll end up in some boring-ass residential or industrial area, which is probably why you’ve never been there before. But you might discover secret spots you wouldn’t have found otherwise. Alternatively, pack your laptop and phone, and make those important customer calls on a mountaintop, at least if you happen to find one with good reception.
• Time.
  Get up earlier/later than you otherwise would. Grab a book you’d normally read before going to bed in your lunch break instead. Alternatively, watch TV in the morning and do all of the remaining work and chores late at night. I never said it will be a great experience, but it’ll be a different one for sure
• Day of the week.
  Sunday is laundry day. Well, not this week. Doing laundry on a Tuesday evening won’t feel like adding a whole lot of variety to your life, but now you’re free on Sunday. Who knows what you’ll end up doing.
• Focus/Energy level.
  This one can go hand in hand with the aspect of time. Doing something earlier in the day usually means you can still give it your full attention instead of being kinda drained when you’re tackling it later on. You can play around with this aspect in different ways though, for example: Hanging out with your significant other is something that is usually done once both of you are back from work and therefore tired. What if you somehow manage to keep those energy levels high throughout the day (for instance by slacking a little at work. Don’t tell your boss you got the idea from me!) and bring all that energy to some quality time with your loved one?
• Company.
  Let’s say weekly shopping is something you do on your own. How about you grab those little demons you’ve spawned into this world and do it with them. Or try to at least. You could also string them along for something more fun, like your yoga class. You might not think of it as fun after the fact, but you’ll have stories to tell! As will the rest of the yoga class.
• Mode.
  This one’s a little abstract and certainly won’t be applicable to every scenario. Change the mode you’re using to accomplish a certain goal. Let’s say the routine you’ve picked is eating. If you’re a passionate home cook, then you could pick a nice restaurant and eat out. Or the other way round. Another example would be using public transport instead of your car.

For me personally, here’s what I’ll be giving a try in the following days:

• Working out in a different gym than I usually would. The commute might take a little longer, but who knows, maybe I’ll meet some cool new gym bros, so it’ll be worth it.
• I love writing. Usually, I do that by myself, at my desk. No distractions, very efficient. But also quite boring. So I’ll take my laptop and mix with the crowd of stereotypical café dwellers. I’ve never done that before, thanks to my social anxiety. So that’s two challenges for the price of one (coffee).
• I’m currently working on a short video. Editing is mostly planned for the evenings, once I’m done with my day job. Since I’m lucky enough to have an extremely flexible job, I think I’ll turn my normal schedule on its head and start editing first thing in the morning. Curious to see the effects of the different energy levels.

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