Forbes Coaches Council Post: Seven Ways To Bring The Back-To-School Mindset Back To Work
Rand Braun is a member of the Forbes Coaches Council, where this post was first published on Forbes.com.
Nothing says goodbye summer and hello fall like the back-to-school season. As children, back to school was a relaunch: a fresh start to our routines, goals and relationships. Yet, for too many of us working professionals, fall has become a no-man’s land when it comes to our goals: a season stuffed between the vacations and relaxation of summer and winter’s flurry of budget meetings, performance reviews and holidays. We've lost this valuable reset as adults. So, as a new school year starts, let's tap back into that powerful relaunch.
Here are seven ways every professional can bring that back-to-school energy to their work lives this fall:
1. Get your new schedule. While nobody is there to assign your classes, fall is the perfect time to set a new schedule and evaluate what priorities will drive it. Specifically, look at your calendar and ask yourself: Are there times each day that could be reorganized? How about blocking out time for deep work, thinking time, meetings, vacation, stretch breaks or lunch? What do you want to calendar into your schedule when you’re not at work?
2. Don't skip homeroom. Remember how you had that time in homeroom when you first got to school to get settled, finish your homework and take attendance? In a work world where many of us are checking email before we’ve even brushed our teeth, it’s essential this back-to-school season that we find our new homeroom. Consider creating a morning routine that gets you going before work gets going: walk the dog without your phone, work out without checking email, read the news before scrolling social media or practice meditation or journaling.
3. Make new friends. Remember that nervous butterflies feeling you’d get as you walked into school and sat down next to somebody new in first period? After three years of working from home, many of us are rusty at best when it comes to our networking and relationship-building skills. As you head into the fall, think about making new friends by brushing up on your networking. This could mean attending an in-person networking event, reaching out to somebody new on LinkedIn or reconnecting with an old colleague over virtual coffee.
4. Get a new outfit. After many of us have spent the last few years in every variation of elastic, the athleisure of lockdown times just isn’t always the right fit for our work wardrobe. Nor is the workwear of years past. Just like you used to do for back to school, the fall is the perfect time to get a new outfit or two, embracing the new “power casual” style that is the emerging trend for the fall—think joggers with a tailored blazer for women or a chic tee and dress sneakers for men. Those sales aren't just for the kids, right?
5. Stock up on school supplies. Most of us moved into remote work nearly three years ago with practically zero warning. While over time we’ve accumulated odds and ends, most of our offices could use a spruce up as we enter the long haul of our remote and hybrid work lives. Consider refreshing your home office setup with practical additions like a great chair, a lumbar support pillow or blue light glasses. Also consider additions that bring you joy like fresh flowers, pictures, a new paint color or just a great pen.
6. Get a good night's rest. It was always key to get a good night of shut-eye before the first day of school, so why do so many of us show up tired to work when the stakes are just as high, if not higher? According to Harvard Medical School, showing up to work chronically exhausted can have the same cognitive impairment as showing up drunk. Yikes. Still, think burning the midnight oil is going to get you ahead at work? New research in the field of sleep psychology shows that sleep isn’t just “rest” for our body; it's also a form of “active recovery” for our brains. So consider prioritizing sleep hygiene this back-to-school season by having a wind-down routine, like reading, journaling or putting your devices away at least an hour before bed (even if that means buying an alarm that’s not your phone).
7. Don’t forget to pack lunch. Who among us hasn't looked at their desk at the end of the day to see a Kind Bar graveyard? Wrappers and grab-and-go packaging littering our desks is evidence of the fact that most of us go so back-to-back in meetings that we don’t even have time to eat lunch. That’s why we need to think about the new way to pack lunch for ourselves: carving time out on the calendar to step away from our computers, eat something nutritious and sustaining, and give our brains a break. Think your work will suffer? According to Dr. Ashley Whillans of Harvard Business School, taking just 30-second “micro-moments” of self-care during the workday can significantly increase both our performance and our job satisfaction. If that's what 30 seconds can do between calls, imagine what 30 minutes of a lunch break could do.
We don’t need a playground, lunch box or a yellow bus to get into the back-to-school mindset. Let's bring back to school back to work with us.
Randi Braun is a certified executive coach, consultant, speaker, and the CEO of Something Major. Get in touch with Randi via email or social (below). Copyright 2022. All rights reserved.