A man has scheduled the commencement of his new routine for Monday, a Monday that has now moved four times without the plan itself being altered.

The routine is complete. It is colour-coded. It has never been attempted.

“It starts Monday because Monday is clean,” said Rafferty Boon, 41. “You can’t start a routine on a Wednesday. Wednesday is already in progress.”

The Institute for Deferred Commencement reports that the plan itself provides most of the psychological benefit, at none of the cost.

“Writing the schedule delivers roughly seventy per cent of the satisfaction of completing it,” said Dr. Ottoline Sabbagh. “The remaining thirty per cent requires effort, which is why the schedule is frequently rewritten instead.”

Boon has rewritten the schedule three times, each version more detailed than the last. The current draft includes a wake time, a hydration protocol, and a fifteen-minute block labelled Reading (Real Books).

Institute data show that a routine beginning Monday has a 6 per cent survival rate to Wednesday, rising to 40 per cent if the first day is a Thursday, which nobody will do.

Boon remains confident. He has purchased a notebook for the routine, which is where routines are kept, and where they stay.