A New Routine: Boost Productivity This Fall

Fall is here and it’s time to “fall back” into a new routine. As school begins, sports teams start practicing, new classes and projects ramp up, and it becomes time to set your schedule up for success. Many strategies exist for this. Having a well-organized plan during the fall is the key to your productivity going into the winter months.

It is important to create a new routine that is simple and rejuvenating, and provides some fun. Start by deleting busy work and focusing on the most important aspects of your fall schedule. Busy work is all those time-wasting and energy-depleting tasks that keep you from doing what you love.

Busy work is defined differently by every individual and may include a project, class or event. In contrast, productive work moves you forward and keeps you focused on what you are most passionate about. You can have fun creating a list of busy work and another list of productive work.

After you define and delete the busy work, refer to your list of productive work to focus on all the things that get you up in the morning with a smile on your face. Productive work might look like eating breakfast with your children, participating in a Zoom yoga class, reading for ten minutes, teaching a class, developing a new program or working on a project. Use this list to create your daily and weekly schedule in a notebook, planner or digital organizer—whatever tool works best for you.

            Put your plan into action daily to create a successful new routine.

When you delete busy work that depletes your energy and derails your focus, you will have more room for productive work, which will create momentum for your daily and weekly tasks. Turning your daily and weekly behaviors into habits that generate motivation will establish a successful fall routine.