rotina* caminho já sabido ou habitualmente trilhado; hábito de fazer as coisas sempre da mesma maneira; prática constante; aversão às inovações

in Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa da Porto Editora

Ontem de tarde no comboio decidi que o tema deste mês seria a rotina, de noite estava a ler um pouco antes de dormir e lá pelo meio do capítulo estava este parágrafo:

It was a pleasure when mid-October came at last and it was time to walk the noisy route to Whitehall once more, collar turned up, umbrella held high. The air was keen and dust-free, the rush-hour crowd pushed forward quickly, purposefully; the year was hurrying to its end faster than ever before, having skipped a season, and there was an anticipatory sense of fresh beginnings. Stephen strode out, stepping in the gutter where necessary to overtake. To have a destination, a place where you were expected, a shred of identify, was such a relief after a month of game shows and Scotch. To show his pass to the familiar, taciturn guard, to saunter across the marble hall among well-dressed, self-important people, to penetrate deep into building, knowing without giving a thought which staircases and corridors to take, to arrive at just the room and make small talk with colleagues, to sip coffee from the plastic cups bearing the Ministry's stamp, bought from a machine in the corridor which dispensed onion soup down the same nozzle - it was for little repetitions like these that people kept their jobs, however dull, and it was all Stephen could do to refrain from bursting into song. Instead, he jingled his house keys in his pockets.

in The Child in time, de Ian McEwan

O meu mês de Abril não foi passado a beber, nem a ver televisão. Foram dias bons cheios de experiências novas, lugares novos, pessoas desconhecidas, centenas de quilómetros percorridos. Nada de mau e no entanto em certos dias o cansaço foi tão grande que cheguei à conclusão de que mais do que um sítio onde viver, preciso de uma rotina, mesmo que pequena, para manter a sanidade.