WHEN THE ROUTINE ROUTE ROCKS

I READ ONCE - MANY YEARS AGO, when people still read things - that a simple trick to keep the mind sharp and help stave off maladies such as dementia is to mix up your daily commute to and from the office.

- DAVID MOSELEY

As I recall, the article said that changing your route every so often keeps the mind active and engaged. Essentially, when you change your daily routine, your mind ticks over instead of going to sleep.

As anyone who has driven the same way to the same office every day can tell you, some mornings you leave home and the next minute you're at your desk already replying to emails (or checking TikTok), with no idea of how you got there. This is the brain disengaging, to help you complete your daily tasks without expending too much mental energy.

Anyway, not wanting to get dementia at the age of 25, I tried this trick for a while; until I realised that actually, I'm a creature of habit. I know what I like, and I like what I know. (And in fact there were only two routes I could take to the office back then, and one of them added 20 minutes to the trip, so...)