Routines: Good or Bad?

Routines. Whether it’s your morning method of checking emails while brushing your teeth or your nightly ritual of getting your toddler to bed, routines play a key role in getting us through the day.

Routines can improve productivity, help us multi-task, and can even reduce stress. But not every routine is helping us put our best foot forward. Sometimes, they can be narrowing in how we look and react to a given situation.

We are creatures of habit. Because of this inclination to fall into our routines, it’s important to change things up. Challenge yourself to take a step back and look at your problem at hand. Are you responding in a particular way because that’s how it’s always been done, or are you taking a specific action because it’s the best possible solution?

Recently, we came together as a group and tried to finish this sentence, “It would be cool if ________.” We answered this question with regards to both our internal processes and to our clients.

It was an open-floor discussion that led to a wall of ideas, from ways to deliver our gameday shirts (yes, it’s already that time again) to out-of-the-box campaign concepts for clients. This laid-back, group session allowed the team to step away from our normal routines and to challenge how we can be doing things differently.

Routines are powerful things that establish the acceptable norms and behaviors in the workplace, in turn shaping the culture of a company. But changing them up once in a while can breathe new life into the day to day and allow people to see things from a new perspective.

Do you feel stuck at work? Is it just another Wednesday? Try breaking away from your normal routine and see what comes out of it.