Fall leaf clean up is the true definition of insanity

Albert Einstein once famously defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results. There are things we do in life that seem like such futile tasks. With the fall on our heels, raking leaves is one of those things I'm just DREADING. Those bastards never seem to stop falling. One minute you have a nice clean lawn, the next it looks like those brown and yellow jerks have a hidden agenda against you. The same can be said about work and our professional life as well.

Ever feel like you are becoming so stagnant in your work you start to get bored with the mundane tasks you do each day and want to bang your head against a wall simply to experience something different? No? Just me?... It doesn’t have to be like that. There are many things you can do in order to make your day less repetitive and keep your productivity up.

There is a reason it is called the rat race. Wake up, bury ourselves in electronics, have lunch, back to the electronics, head home, keep buried in electronics, rinse and repeat, until we either decide that isn’t for us, or we burn ourselves out. We get so used to this type of schedule it is a hard habit to break, much like other addictive things, but way less fun. It may sound ridiculous, but one of the ways to help alleviate this feeling of being caught on a schedule...is to schedule a time to not be on a schedule... I told you it sounded crazy.

Since we are so ingrained into your scheduled life, much like pavlovian dogs, making sure to incorporate these little breaks into that same schedule is the perfect way to retrain your mind that it is okay to take time for yourself. Doing things like saying you will only check emails at certain times, you will put your phone down for a determined point of time, or even as commonsensical as only doing work-related tasks during work hours, can help you take your time back. 

This fall, I challenge you to put up your out office, time block your calendar to avoid disruptive meetings, ignore your phone once in a while, and carve out 20 minutes a day for nap time, a hobby, or a walk.

What are you going to do with your extra time?