I like my routine in the morning. Most mornings, when the alarm goes, I get up, get the littlest one up and change his nappy, put on my running gear, go and get the paper, make breakfast for everyone, read the paper while I eat mine, hunt for the kids’ shoes, do the nursery/school run, go for a proper run, write this blog while cooling down, make a coffee, write my to-do list and then get on with what the day has in store for me.

I’m not that boring, I do like a variation now and again, but if I have to go for more than a few days outside the routine, I find myself craving the predictable start. It sets me up for the day.

I know I’m not alone – many if not most of us like to have our routines where we are almost sleepwalking for part of the day. This is why I react badly to the whole idea that sustainability has to be a continuous conscious effort – as promoted whole mindfulness, meditation, deep ecology movement. If it works for you, then fine, but we can’t expect everyone to be constantly in touch with Gaia, ‘cos it ain’t gonna happen.

Yes learning new habits and new routines takes effort, but we should be making embedding sustainability into our everyday routines as frictionless as possible whether that’s by providing top class cycling facilities so that colleagues can commute to work/exercise/fulfil their Tour de France fantasies as part of their daily routine. It should be easy to use teleconferencing, switch off lights/machines etc and recycle – preferably easier than doing the less-sustainable alternative.

Yes, make sustainability easy, routine, boring – in a good way!