Re-Evaluate Your Routine

How similar is your yesterday to your today? What about last week to next week? If your days are like a playlist on repeat, you are set into a routine. While exciting lives can be fun and fulfilling, having a routine lets your body know what to expect (good or bad). This can result in a healthier sleep schedule, controlled appetite and organized schedule. If the routine is not any of these from the beginning, then you’re practically scheduling a crash and burn.

Moving can really shake up this routine. Whether moving to a new house, changing jobs or getting a new car, you only realize how much everything is muscle memory and how you’re living on autopilot if something changes.

Take advantage of this otherwise inconvenient situation to re-prioritize your life and maximize your time.

1. Allow for extra time

It’s always that darn snooze button that gets me. Does it really even make a difference? No. It might feel like it at the moment you’re pushing the button, but 9 minutes later, you’re worse than before. Use those 9 minutes to be attentive to your morning routine. Slow down, think positive thoughts and enjoy preparing for the day ahead.

2. Environment

How can this new environment serve you better? How can you use this new routine to be more efficient, organized or fulfilled? Think about the things that feel unnatural as you adjust your routine to be different. Do you have more organization in a new apartment? Maybe your new car has a remote-starter. Observe the environment and use it to your benefit.

3. Awareness

You spend time doing things you don’t even realize. How often do you reach for your phone out of habit? A friend of mine recently forgot her phone at home and after the anxiety of forgetting it subsided, the peace she felt during her day was unusual and surprising. (In her words: Two glorious hours where no one could find her.) During that time, she found herself reaching for her phone. The frequency of which was alarming and disappointing to her. Being hyper-aware of your habits can help you to be more intentional of what should and shouldn’t be habitual.

So are you in a transitional time? Or are you in the middle of a long playlist on repeat? Either way, re-evaluate your routine. Is it healthy, happy and realistic? If not, adjust accordingly for a happier playlist of life.

Stop to Celebrate

Too often, we find ourselves working day-to-day, finishing to-do lists, completing a difficult task or wrapping up a huge project just to move quickly on to the next item on our list. Being busy, non-stop, hyper-productive, it feels good right?

When you think about the word “busy,” what comes to mind? Do you often use it to describe your schedule? Your workload? Your entire lifestyle? Think of using the word “busy” as the equivalent to purposely giving someone the busy signal. Describing yourself as busy can make you seem inaccessible. Instead, challenge yourself to use more accurate and positive synonyms. Below are a few examples:

- Blessed with many projects

- Fortunate to have numerous ongoing clients

- Not boring (that’s my favorite!)

Not only does it have an optimistic spin on the term “busy,” it also serves as a conversation starter. Busy feels like a door being shut; a positive phrase seems like an invitation to hear about the on-going excitement!

Within these bursts of productivity, make sure you find time (schedule it if you have to) to celebrate an accomplishment and/or milestone. Just stop for a few minutes to reflect on the success of the project. What worked? What didn’t work? What are the strengths of the project and what did you learn in the process? What will you do differently next time? What goals will it help you ultimately reach, and what recognition could this bring to you and your company?

Acknowledging your accomplishment and, ultimately, progress in your personal and career goals will help to re-motivate you to keep going. That confidence will increase your productivity so that you can continue to improve and succeed during your exciting and fulfilling schedule!

Midnight Means Good Morning

“There’s no such thing as midnight because after 12 it’s a new day already.”

When a six-year-old tells you something so profound, you listen. And whenever 12am obnoxiously flashes across any digital devices, or the hour and minute hand perfectly overlay each other in a vertical position, these words will be sparked.

At that moment, however, I shook my head in wonder at how a mind so young could look at a world so large and complex and come to that conclusion. For him, 12am is an exciting time. For him it’s the promise that whenever mom said tomorrow, 12:01am marked a whole new journey. A clean slate. New possibilities. Endless possibilities

Meanwhile, we try to wrestle with the 24-hour time zone, going so far as to bargain with it through inventions such as fast-food, dishwashers, microwaves. All in an effort to speed up productivity rate while we can slow down our routine.

All it has done, however, is allowed for us to fill more hours with more fast-food mentality productivity. And we’re fried, no pun intended. See, time is one of the most coveted and yet casually treated commodities we can claim. Time has become a billable asset.

But to one little six-year-old kid, it was a discovery. He could recognize Sunday-Saturday, knew what yesterday, tomorrow and before or after meant. For a young guy, his reminiscing was sharp, but for as much as he lived in the now, he was always eager to live in the what’s next.

So much so, that that when trying to get him to sleep throughout the night he asked half-asleep and 100% disgruntled, “Why is it taking so long to wake up?” In other words, why wasn’t it time to get up?

All he wanted was for the morning to come so he could punch the possibilities in the face and conquer yet another day.

The only thing I want to punch in the morning is my alarm clock. (Did you know there’s actually a national holiday for this?) Regardless, we all have different schedules. We all live different lifestyles. But we all have developed a unique relationship with our bed that is hard to sever come wakey-wake time. But wouldn’t it be nice to develop some element of sentiment in which we look forward to getting up? 

Wouldn’t it be nicer if we got up in the morning and half the work was already done?

A Few Simple Ways to Kick-Start Your Day Wisely:

• Don’t Be an “I Have Nothing to Wear” Victim

Lay it all out…Our mom’s did this for us for years; it’s time we adopted the habit. This task includes more than matching an argyle vest with a checkered shirt. It’s about checking the weather to verify whether our clothing will be compatible with adverse weather conditions.

• Plan an Emergency Exit Strategy

Don’t get mad, get even? Yes, that doesn’t really work when you’re behind schedule, stuck in traffic or are still at home and unintentionally tried to give yourself a double shot of espresso via osmosis by spilling it down your front. No, don’t get mad, get up even earlier. Plan an exit strategy that will give you plenty of time to make your real entrance right on time.

• Block Time for Breakfast

For some of you that may not be food. But we all need to begin our day by digesting what energizes us. Maybe it’s exercise, maybe it’s reading, spending a few minutes with your children before they head off to school - maybe it is physical food. But what is the first portion of your day?

When we get up in the morning, we far too often see just another hour, another number and the endless tasks. I challenge you to see endless possibilities and that no matter what, 12:01am marks a whole new journey. A clean slate. New possibilities. Endless possibilities.

The Better You Know Yourself, The Better You Can Be

As I proceed on to officially approach the “late 20’s” age range, I have come to realize (hindsight bias, of course) that I love how much more I know myself.  Understanding ME has been extremely helpful. Most teenagers are figuring it out, and even into the early 20’s as you’re graduating college and/or entering your professional career, looking, searching and hoping to figure out what kind of adult you will become. While I give credit to the great company I keep myself surrounded with, it still eventually comes back to being aware and paying attention to who I really am.

Understanding your own habits, including your schedule, is beneficial because our bodies crave regularity. As we grow older, we become more adaptive to spontaneous interruptions and activities, which is great. If you stick to a regular waking and sleeping schedule, your body will thank you and will start to work with you instead of against you, because it knows what to expect.

Working with your strengths and weaknesses is probably the hardest fun-thing to do. Understanding your strengths and embracing them can build confidence and help create a system to achieve success on a regular basis. Recently I was designing a few logo concepts, and I just wasn’t “there” yet. The next day, I realized what was missing. As silly as it seems, I have realized that I have the best creativity for logo creation while listening to a specific music album on repeat. Creating that setting and environment for success in any area of your life will start to train your brain to cooperate. Repeat and Enjoy!

Lastly, understanding how you feel. What are your body’s most natural levels of Pain? Energy? Hunger? Etc. Once you become aware of what feels right, when something is off, it will be much more obvious when you need to adjust your habits.

If you can create a consistent environment to function well on a daily basis, succeed in your personal and professional life and feel your upmost best; to create internal cooperation, why wouldn’t you? Keep trying, keep learning and keep living. Pay attention to yourself, as an adult, only YOU can make sure YOU are taken care of.

Happy Birthday America!

We here at Worx just celebrated a birthday, so we’re in a very festive mood - and there may have been cupcakes involved. Now we are getting ready to break out the stars, the stripes and the red, white and blue.

The sparklers, the fireworks, the glamour, the picnics from sun-up to sundown and beyond; this is the beauty of our nation’s festivities.

Celebrating a birthday doesn’t have to be a public event but every birthday is a milestone and a blessing and should be a cause for inner merriment. Yes, merriment.

So even if you’re busy, are scared at the potential sound of popping balloons, perhaps feeling like a bah-humbug or are not a big spender on yourself, fear extravagance or fear the spotlight, here are a few ways you can stop to reflect on a birthday – be it an anniversary event or your own special day:

-       Eat a cupcake - as aficionado’s of this delectable, we know a lot about this topic.

-       Buy a present - it doesn’t have to be for yourself; you’ve been given life, and the momentum of giving should continue.

-       Dress up – dress in your best sweats if that’s your fashion statement, just enjoy primping even if you’re lounging around the house.

-       Spend time outdoors - no matter the season, the cycle of life continues

-       Intentionally schedule a few minutes for self-reflection – It’s as simple as prayer, journaling, absently staring at the ceiling, sketching a scene from memory or perusing old photography.

-       Accept invitations - appreciate those who throw you a party, host a dinner and picnic or invite you to celebrate in a national holiday (hint, hint)

No matter how much we like to take time to wander it’s true when J.R.R. Tolkien writes; it doesn’t mean we are lost. However many of us will find that celebrating a birthday, our nation’s birthday and enjoying the sparkle, the hotdogs the ketchup stains; all is heightened because of friend and family.

Be safe, be responsible and don’t forget the glory behind the red, white and blue!

Happy Birthday America and thank you for inviting us to participate in your celebration.

Let the festivities begin!