How does one define sane?

Like running?

Not one of my problems :)

You might like the full, unsummarized answer. 

Breaking your routine from time to time can be surprisingly good for your brain, mood, relationships, and even your sense of purpose. Routine is useful—it reduces decision-making and creates stability—but too much of it can make life feel like you’re on autopilot.

Here are some of the biggest benefits:

🧠 1. It stimulates your brain

Doing something differently forces your brain to pay attention rather than relying on automatic habits. New experiences create more mental engagement and can improve learning, creativity, and problem-solving.

Even small changes—taking a different route, eating somewhere new, learning a new skill—can have this effect.

💡 2. It can increase creativity

Novel experiences give your brain new information to connect. That’s one reason people sometimes have good ideas when they’re traveling, walking somewhere unfamiliar, or doing something outside their normal environment.

A little disruption can produce new perspectives.

😊 3. It can improve your mood

Predictability is comforting, but excessive sameness can contribute to boredom. Doing something unexpected can create anticipation, excitement, and a sense of novelty.

You don’t necessarily need a big vacation. An unplanned lunch, spontaneous drive, new restaurant, or afternoon doing something you’ve never tried can provide a psychological reset.

⏳ 4. It can make time feel less like it’s flying by

This is an interesting one.

When days are highly repetitive, your brain tends to encode fewer distinct memories. Looking back, an entire month of similar days can seem to have disappeared.

Novel experiences create memory landmarks, making periods of your life feel richer and more substantial in retrospect.

🧭 5. It helps prevent “autopilot”

Routines can become so automatic that you stop consciously evaluating whether they’re still serving you.

Breaking them occasionally gives you a chance to ask:

“Do I actually enjoy doing this, or do I just always do it?”

That can be particularly valuable during major life transitions.

💪 6. It builds adaptability

When you deliberately become comfortable with being uncomfortable or uncertain, unexpected changes become less disruptive.

You’re essentially practicing:

“I can handle things being different.”

That can make you more resilient when circumstances change outside your control.

👥 7. It can strengthen relationships

Couples and friends can fall into routines just as individuals do. Trying something unfamiliar together creates shared experiences and gives you something new to talk about.

In long-term relationships, novelty can be particularly valuable because it counteracts the tendency for interactions to become predictable.

🌱 8. It can help you discover things about yourself

You may discover that you love something you never would have chosen as part of your normal routine—or that something you’ve been doing for years isn’t particularly important to you.

That’s one of the underrated benefits of experimentation: you learn what you actually like.

The key is

controlled disruption

You don’t want to eliminate routine. Routine provides stability, saves time, and makes good habits easier to maintain.

A good approach is:

Keep the important routines; periodically disrupt the unimportant ones.

For example, keep your exercise, sleep, financial, and other productive habits consistent—but deliberately change where you go, what you do, who you spend time with, what you learn, or how you spend an afternoon.

A useful rule might be:

Don’t make your life chaotic. Just make it occasionally surprising.

That can give you many of the psychological benefits of novelty without sacrificing the benefits of a stable routine.

Requirement is the problem!