TOW#515 — Break the routine!
Tip of the Week is a collection of texts written by various authors, dealing with everyday topics, that can help you to make improvements in both your personal and professional life. New tips are sent out every single Thursday, and you can comment on them at: www.facebook.com/tipoftheweekPriracnik. A selection of the first 100 tips have been published as handbooks on personal and professional development.
If I don’t drink coffee first thing, my day’s a disaster!
If I change my route home, something bad will definitely happen!
A cigarette at the end of a meal is a must, since I didn’t like the food!
Each of our days is filled with some kind of a routine that in some way or another makes our day better or worse. Whether or not we have a good day depends only on ourselves, nobody else. Of course, there are always external factors that in one way or another influence your day, but it’s up to you/us whether or not to allow those factors to have an effect on us.
Our routine has an effect, but only if we allow it to do so. The fact that we need to change our routines is a given, if not for any other reason than to understand that it’s not the routine itself that affects us. Now, since changing our routines entails getting out of our comfort zone, the question is how can we change them, especially at work?
- List of routines — the first thing to do is make a list of things you routinely do. You’ll be surprised by the list. Once the shock has passed, make a list of routines that you’d like to change (you should probably choose all of them) and begin;
- Task management — reorganise the things you do during the workday. Rearrange your priorities, schedule, and the time you devote to them;
- Break — try to take it at a different time each day, of course only if your work allows for it. In addition, spend your breaks with different people, not just with your best friend at work. Get to know different people, network a little…;
- Coffee/tea — practically all of us drink one of these, and each one of us knows best how to prepare it the way we like. Well then, from now on let somebody else make your favourite drink;
- Workspace — if you have the opportunity, make a change. If you work from home, take your laptop to a cafe or library and work from there. At work, change chairs or desks with your colleagues. If it’s a fixed workspace, then change your immediate surroundings somehow;
- Meetings — if you can, have meetings in nature, perhaps accompanied by a walk. Whatever you do, make sure each meeting is different, from its length and seating arrangement, to who’ll take the minutes and so on;
- Before and after work — change the route you take to work and back. Have a look around, maybe some new places have opened up since the last time you were there.
There are countless everyday routines that we routinely do and aren’t even aware of. Just know that one small change can lead to many other changes, but instead of me telling you, just make at least one, and then tell me yourselves!
Wishing you success with the changes to come,
@kalinbabusku
Member of the Team
MACEDONIA-EXPORT Consulting
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