Do you always do the same thing, day in and day out? If so, change it up a bit! You don’t have to do something different, but you can do the same thing in a different way, or a different place.

You don’t have to do like I did yesterday and completely change my schedule. I went to class, ate out for lunch, headed to the movies with my wife, met up with a friend, had supper, went to the basketball game. As opposed to going to class, brown-bagging lunch, going to class, quickly visiting with my wife as I changed for work, work, homework. While this made for quite the exciting day, I wasn’t quite productive.

Pay Attention!

Instead, just be conscious of your daily routine. It’s easy to fall into habits, always doing the same thing in the same way; one thing leads automatically to the next.

I have a hard time with this during my lunches. The majority of my day is pre-scheduled for me. I have places to be and times to be there. In-between those times, however, I have some flexibility. Because of my routines, I normally leave one place, go to a waiting area to eat my lunch and read, then head to the next place I have to be at. When I think about it, though, I have more than enough time to eat somewhere else.

Weather permitting, I eat outside, instead of inside the dusty room I normally break in. I’ve almost missed some beautiful days because of my habits. When the weather isn’t so nice, I still try to find new places to eat, or find a friend to eat with.

What habits could you examine and tweak to break the routines?