One of the things that may be easy to overlook or take for granted is the benefit of a diverse group of training partners. If you train at a school or gym that offers a variety of class times, it would be worth it to switch up your routine from time to time and train during some of the sessions you don't usually attend.
I recently changed my work schedule and that impacted my entire routine. One positive that's emerged from this change is that I can occasionally hit the afternoon session. This gives me a whole new group of people to train with. They're folks that I've rolled with before, but they're not necessarily body types, personalities, or technical styles that I'm forced to match up against in my normal sessions.
This occasional mix in training partners (even if it's a rare one), along with some time away from training, has also allowed for some introspection. When you have a very well established routine's easy to just blindly follow it. But when you're not working towards your next belt or training for that next tournament / fight, how often are you creating goals and evaluating the current state of your game?
Personally, a break in my routine has allowed me to stare (daily... unblinkingly... omfg, why I'm I doing this) at some of the other habits I've allowed to creep back into my life. Yes, I'm looking at you, 14-hour video gaming sessions (what can I say, I do it for work... honest).
For me, sometimes I need to binge and purge, but I can honestly say that BJJ is something that feels like a natural thing to come back to.
The fact that a normal weekly routine gets broken doesn't seem like a bad thing given the potential long-term nature of this type of training. If you plan on doing this for 10-15 years of your life (or longer), don't beat yourself up over 6-months of less than optimal training.
Being a slackass for a small percentage of your overall commitment to your training and then using that time to refocus, is much better than getting discouraged and stopping altogether.
