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I don’t want to call them “OCDs”. Instead, I’ll just say rituals.

I’m talking about the little preordained routines we go through every day, whether there’s any logic to it or not. The things I’m referring to are usually matters of order. Some people keep checking to be sure they’ve unplugged the iron after ironing. Others have to walk a certain amount of steps.

Here are a few of my daily rituals.

1. Key check- When I’m getting out of my car, I immediately check my pocket for my keys. Even if I feel the keys in my pocket, I’ll do it again before locking the door and shutting it. I realize it’s just paranoia about locking myself out of the car, but I do it every time nevertheless.

2. Stopping the microwave early- I don’t know why I’ve always done this, but I never allow the microwave to count all the way down to zero. I’ll stop it at four seconds. Or even one second. But I almost never let it get to zero. I’d like to think I do this because my microwave is particularly annoying when it announces the food is done, but I’ve done this for a long time…so that isn’t it.

3. Always having money ready- If I’m about to go over the Tobin bridge into Boston, I’ll have three dollars in my shirt pocket ready to go before I even get in the car. Same thing when I’m going to park at a T station. I always have the money ready to go.

4. Socks off- If I’m sitting on the couch relaxing, the first thing I have to do is take off my socks. I do not feel fully relaxed when I’m wearing socks.

5. Computer startup- When I get to work in the morning, I always do the same thing when my computer starts up. I check my gmail, then see if I’ve got any new blog comments. I’ll then check my RSS feeds and read the same sites in the same order. After about 10-15 minutes when I’m properly caffeinated and ready to go, I start work.

So, logical or not, what are five of your daily rituals?