September is calling: and so are routines.

One week after back-to-school, I already saw it: the push and urgency to “get back to it”, to ensure we are “ready for the busy fall”, and to ensure we are “catching up” from all the time off over the summer.

I must admit, at first I was guilty of this too. The kids are in school and I had the initial instinct to pack my days with back-to-back meetings and ensure my workload is full as we head into the fall.

But something didn’t feel right this year. After taking most of August off, spending time savoring quiet moments and triaging emails and to-dos, I thought, “there has to be a better way”. Even among our clients, we were feeling the urge to become hyper-busy once again.

What if we took some of the slowness of summer and encouraged our routines to be intentional, not just busy?

Today, I’d like to encourage you to take 5–10 minutes to bring intentionality ahead of busyness. Here’s a quick game plan:

1. Review your calendar, especially if you time block, and see where most of your time is being spent. Is this efficient? Are there meetings coming up in your calendar that make you feel dread? Can these be shifted, cancelled, or switched to asynchronous work?
2. Make space to think, create, walk, and be in nature. Block off time now, before things get busy, to add a quick morning walk, afternoon brainstorm session, or build in walking meetings. Building these habits now will help you as you dive back into your routines.
3. Set a fun monthly goal, whether this is to try a new dinner routine, incorporate a walking pad into your day-to-day work, or start a colouring or doodle pad beside your workspace to help calm down moments of busyness. Trying something that is a bit new, or even out of your comfort zone, will help break the feeling of getting back into the “same old routine”.
4. Block a couple of days off in your calendar now that are dispersed through the fall. This doesn’t mean you need to take these off, but it does allow you to avoid overbooking and helps you create focused workdays as a fallback when things start to feel busy.

When it comes to being intentional with your time, there is no “that was easy” button, but taking a few moments now as you head into the fall might just be enough to shift your perspective and allow you to enjoy the new routines fall brings.