My parents-in-law came over from Japan to stay with us for two weeks. It seemed like yesterday that I had received them at the airport, but now, I’m accompanying them to the airport.

However, I’m not gonna resort to the cliche that time flies. If I were to objectively think back on these two weeks, I would say that the first week passed by slower than the second. The novelty of them coming over, the thrill and stress involved in living under one roof, the excitement generated from taking them to new places - all this kept the first week fresh. Every day was unique as we set out to do different things.

The second week, which is this week, is a blurry mish-mash of stuff. Several reasons contributed to this blob of time. My son caught a fever and coughed badly this Monday. As a result of his illness, he didn’t attend school for the whole of this week, which directly impacted the family’s schedule. Instead of venturing to further places, we took turns to have lunch and buy groceries at the shopping mall near our home so that my son wouldn’t be left alone.

So, I think that time is relative. It isn’t about how recent something happened, but rather, how distinctive the experience was. The greater the imprint it left on the human heart, the sharper its associated memories would be in the mind. I guess the key is to maintain a balance between routine and novelty.

You wanna switch things up so that your days don’t merge mindlessly into each other. At the same time, you wanna keep the core things in your routine constant so that you don’t waste cognitive energy making decisions.

The new school term will start next week, so I wanna inject new things into my schedule without feeling overwhelmed by the planning. I’m not gonna try the often-cited suggestion of going home from work via another route because I’m not in the mood to try that out. I have two kids to pick up at the child care centre before the closing time, so efficiency is of the essence.

I haven’t had time to dwell on my quest yet, but I’m thinking the surest way I could differentiate one day from another is to take things slower at the workplace and invest the time to have one deep conversation with either one student or colleague every day. Choosing to deepen relationships may help me feel that the passing of time is more within my (limited) control.

How do you maintain a balance between routine and novelty?