There’s always some message or picture popping up uninvited on my iPad. Sometimes a long-ago “photo memory.” Sometimes an urgent invite to “upgrade” something or other.
But the other day took the cake. As I walked toward the recliner, iPad in hand, up popped this message: Open Word based on location in your home.
Huh?
Suddenly, it occurred to me that Microsoft had been tracking my habits. And every morning, just after making coffee, I head to the recliner to type entries in my gratitude journal. In Word.
This is slightly unsettling – a mixed bag for which like many techy things I am both disturbed and grateful.
As writing friends pointed out, “Wow! That’s terrific. Now you have a robot telling you it’s time to write!” Point taken. Writers, including myself, can be very resistant to writing. Now I had a robot nudging me on.
But then there’s the privacy thing – that uneasy feeling that big brother is watching me. The same big brother that plants ads on my Facebook page for blue leg warmers just after I’ve Googled “blue leg warmers.”
Probably the most concerning, though, was the sudden realization that my life had become so routine that any idiot robot could predict what I was going to do next. This is slightly terrifying for someone who likes to think she’s spontaneous! An adventurer!
Journaling is one thing – probably positive – but this could get quickly out of hand. With Alexa also watching who-knows-what, what would be popping up next?
When I finished writing and headed to the kitchen, would a voice pop in with Turn on stove, based on current location in home because it was time to make oatmeal? Or Open pantry based on current location in home because it was time to retrieve the walnuts and raisins?
No doubt, returning to the bedroom would spark Make bed based on current location in home or Get dressed based on current location in home or every four days Retrieve dirty clothes based on current location in home.
“I know! I know!” I want to say. “It’s what I DO.”
In search of expert opinion on how to dump routines and restore spontaneity, I could find almost nothing. Granted, most experts seemed to be writing in support of apps that help you establish routines rather than break them. But there seemed to be plenty of evidence that maybe it wasn’t so bad to make oatmeal (or whatever) for breakfast every morning, or make your bed at the same time, or wash your clothes. Instead, I’d be less stressed, more efficient, get used to the demands of “real life,” yada, yada, yada.
One even claimed that routines were the secret weapon of Freud, Beethoven and Georgia
O’Keeffe. O’Keeffe reportedly worked three hours in the morning, broke for lunch, took a nap, then worked from 2 p.m. till evening. How dull.
Internationally best-selling novelist Haruki Murakami reportedly told The Paris Review he got up each day at 4 a.m., worked five or six hours, ran a 10K and/or swam 1,500 meters, read a little, listened to music and went to bed by 9 PM. Yikes! And Hmmm. No mention of breakfast or laundry.
Maybe brilliance depends on the quality of the routine more than its existence. Or maybe any routine is good, especially in uncertain times when just about anything feels more predictable than the daily news.
At any rate, I’ve come around to feeling less annoyed with Word and potentially with Alexa and think maybe the next step is to figure out how to harness them – and possibly my Apple Watch – to bring out my inner Beethoven or O’Keeffe (not so sure about Freud).
How about if every trip to the basement sets off Get on exercycle for 60 minutes based on current location in home? Or every trip to the car triggers Go to library or walking path based on current location in garage?
I guess I’m good with that. I just hope I can work in a few spontaneous jogs to the ice cream shop down at the corner without some robot reminding me. On second thought, I might enjoy the permission.
Copyright 2022 Pat Snyder
