How to break the monotony of life?

What does MONOTONY in life mean?

Monotony is basically the repetition of the same tedious routine. If you have a nine-to-five job, it means you spend most of your time in your working space.

Usually, when we come back home from work we have little time left with us which is just enough to get our daily chores done. We mindlessly run through our daily tasks just to maintain the house.

We may get indulged in preparing food, cleaning the house, cleaning ourselves, arranging things at home, and buying groceries. Our day ends just like that.

This type of lifestyle over a period of time may leave you feeling dull, unmotivated, and unhappy in life. It may also lead to anxiety as you may also get the feeling of stagnancy when you have nothing new in your life.

I too had the same problem in the year 2022. My work life was becoming hectic day by day and monotony was setting in slowly but surely.

But I understand now that monotony is not only boredom. It is more than that. Monotony has a huge impact on your physical as well as mental health.

It decreases the quality of your life and also your working efficiency.

Also, a minimalist lifestyle has helped me with anxiety. if you want to know how you can check here.

Why break the monotony?

You will no longer ask this question after you read all the negative impacts of monotony in your life.

As I have stated earlier, monotony is beyond just getting bored. It has several negative impacts on your mental and emotional being.

Below I have listed some of the major bad effects of leading a monotonous life.

Monotony kills motivation: Repetition of the same thing daily can become tedious and uninteresting. This can leave you feeling unmotivated and uninterested in life.

Monotony causes stress and burnout: Monotonous routine can be stressful especially if your work requires you to work long hours.

This may leave you feeling mentally as well as physically exhausted. In some cases, it causes burnout where you find yourself incapable of getting anything as simple as washing your dishes done.

Monotony reduces your creativity and problem-solving skills: when we do the same thing repeatedly, our brain goes into autopilot mode. We no longer need to think actively to get things done.

“ Your brain is a muscle- the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets and the more it expands.”

When we don’t actively use our brain it becomes weak and dull. It loses its ability to solve problems and work efficiently.

Monotony deteriorates your physical health: Due to a lack of motivation because of redundancy, you may lose interest in yourself.

Actively exercising for maintaining your physical health becomes the least of your priority. This leads to poor health.

Monotony also leads to mental issues: As mentioned earlier, monotony leads to a sense of stagnancy.

When you mindlessly follow the same routine every day you fail to appreciate the little accomplishments in your life.

You fail to see yourself moving forward in life. You feel stagnant.

And Stagnancy often leaves a person feeling left out, depressed, and anxious.

Monotony makes you feel isolated: if your work does not involve you interacting actively with people then you may face this issue.

Having a heavy and monotonous workload will make it challenging for you to meet new people and engage in social activities. This can lead to isolation and a feeling of loneliness.

Overall, we can say that a monotonous life has a very negative impact on our mental, physical as well as emotional well-being.

So now the main question is how can we get rid of monotony in our life?

Steps to get rid of monotony or monotonous life

1. Practicing SELF-CARE reduces monotony

Taking care of yourself can help to break the monotony of everyday life by providing you with a sense of purpose and focus.

This step is my personal favorite. I work 5 days a week actively and each day is filled with a high workload. By the end of the day, I am usually exhausted and on worse days I may feel cranky.

So I make sure that I take out some time from the day for my self-care. I spend roughly 1.5 hours daily on this.

What self-care habits do I practice to break the monotony

Morning, I spend 1 hour reading, exercising, and praying.

In the evening I try to sit in silence for at least 10 minutes without thinking of anything (it’s tough sometimes but I do my best). I light a candle, turn off the lights and just sit there with my eyes closed doing nothing.

The energy and calmness that I feel after doing this exercise is what makes me stick to it

Then I reflect upon my day. I don’t write pages every day in my journal. My diary has got small writing spaces allotted for each day.

I separate the space into two columns. On one side of the column, I write the things that I got done. This gives me a sense of achievement.

In the other column, I write about anything that made me happy or just random stuff I may be feeling at that moment.

And if the event is a bit special I write in one sentence in my monthly calendar included in the journal.

This way when I reflect back on the month or week or year I get a sense of achievement and also get a sense of gratitude.

It is an excellent way to get a sense of control in your life. I love it!!

On Saturdays, I may get some grocery or house chores done or I go to meet my friends. On Sundays, I spend the day at home (which is my new year’s resolution for 2023).

I spend quality time with my mother, enjoy my hot water bath, clean my room, wash my clothes, and indulge in a good movie or book or go for a nature walk nearby.

All the above actions give me a sense of control in my life. It breaks me from my monotonous work life and rejuvenates me to tackle my coming week with my renewed energy.

You may also like Self-care habits that upgrade your life

2. Break the monotony by CHANGING your environment

If you are feeling bored or unenergetic try changing the environment around you.

“your environment reflects you and vice-versa”

Try making small changes to your environment like shifting your furniture, reading or working in a different part of your house, buying some flowers for your room, etc.

Doing these small changes will give you a sense of renewal and help you break your monotony.

You can also change up your routine a bit. I like to change my workout routine from time to time.

When I have a tough day at work I take a different route back home (I ride a scooter to work). This route is usually longer but it passes through a forest kinda area. I enjoy my ride back home whenever I take this route.

You can also visit nearby places for a day or two (on the weekends.)

My family and friends sometimes book a cab for a day and go to visit nearby tourist destinations. Sometimes we may go for a picnic to the riverside. This change in the environment helps you not feel monotonous.

Also, I believe new places like riverside or a place of natural beauty have some kind of positive energy to offer us. We should all soak in these energies from time to time.

Here are some of the things that you can try to change your environment

Listen to different music. Listen to some jazz or radio or trending songs to level up your mood.
Move your work location or change its look by adding a new flower pot or new theme for your computer.
Take a different route back home.
You can also do some random things outside your routine like drink coffee in a new cafe etc.
You can also take a series of breaks in between your work. Just stretch or sit outside in the open for some time.

3. CONNECT with others from time to time

Connecting with others can help to add some excitement and variety to your life.

I don’t usually party and but when I feel that my life is getting monotonous with work I get together with some of my friends.

I take extra effort to dress nicely that day, try some new styles, and go out for a lunch or maybe a drink.

This offers me a chance to catch up with my friends. Talking and laughing with them on silly topics makes me jolly and happy every time. ( I genuinely love spending time with my friends.)

If you don’t have friends to hang out with you can also try joining a social group or some club of your interest. This will give you a chance to have a look at the other side of life that people are living.

Chatting with some people and knowing about their lives also gives you a new and fresh perspective on life.

4. CHALLENGE yourself

When we get too comfortable with our everyday tasks and repeat the same routine every day, our life gets monotonous. The work becomes too easy for us, hence don’t feel challenged or thrilled with our work.

In addition to your daily work, you can add some small challenges for your self-growth. For example, you may try to learn how to dance, or sing. You can learn a new language, or learn to cook a new dish every week.

You can go a step further a create small challenges like

One new dish every month.
Learn one song every month.
Read ten pages every day
Visit one new place (near or far) once every 3 months.

These small challenges will give you something to look forward to. It will bring some excitement into your mundane life.

And the joy that learning new things brings into your life is something that will help you keep going.

This year, I too am challenging myself to cook one dish every Sunday (I fail to do it sometimes), and go to visit someplace at least once in two months (I have already visited two new places!)

5. Finally monotony can be broken by doing SELFLESS good deeds

The work that we do may feel monotonous when we do it keeping a certain goal in mind.

We, humans, are sometimes very goal oriented. Burning ourselves out following some rigorous routine all the time dreading or dreaming about the result can lead monotony to set in quick.

We do most of the tasks with the aim to reach somewhere, to gain something.

Stress and monotony set in quickly when you do not enjoy the process and are always thinking of the end result.

Try to enjoy the process of this evolution instead of always fretting about the result.

It is what has been said in the holy book Bhagavad gita the highest book of teaching in Hindu literature.

“karmanyevādhikāraste mā phalesu kadācana mā karmaphalaheturbhūrmā te saṅgo’stvakarmaṇi “

which literally translates to

“Thy right is to work only, but never to its fruits; let not the fruit-of-action be thy motive, nor let thy attachment be to inaction.”

The same deed when done selflessly with no expectation of any fruit can help you feel much lighter. And it will free you from the monotony that you experience.

Here are some small acts of kindness that can help you BREAK monotony

Help some stranger for no reason at all.

feed some stray dogs or visit the animal shelter.

Distribute food or clothes to the poor(you can also join an NGO that works on such issues).

Buy some chocolates for the kids in your neighborhood.

Doing these things will boost your energy and will make you feel so much better. Giving joy to others will multiply your joy ten folds.

Only by giving are you able to receive more than what you already have.

That was all for this post. I hope you will try the points mentioned above to break the monotony. Even if you try one of the points mentioned above you can feel the difference.

Also, I would like to mention that my life got much more sorted when I adopted minimalism. You can check out how in the following posts