Last year I went on the Today Show and talked about avoiding the Summer Slump… and here we are, once again, right around the start of summer and already routines and rhythms are flying out the window! That slump we experience in the summer is incredibly real.
There’s something about summer that makes you want to just do everything different –if you have kids, there’s no rush to hustle everyone out the door, which means you don’t have to be up quite as early and mornings are a little more loose. There’s a lot less structure…something we all crave as we step into the warmer season.
Lazy mornings, by the way, are not a bad thing.
But then, by about mid-summer, we are craving some sort of normalcy. And by the time we get to August? All we want is to get back to some routines, and we tend to put our drill sergeant hat back on and we overstructure our days! So, here’s the thing:
If you got to May and all you wanted to do is throw all your routines out the window and enjoy the freedom of summer, that’s a big sign that your routines are too strict.
You need to find some rhythm to your days that actually works for you… all year long.
Stop worrying about discipline. Don’t say it’s because you don’t have willpower. None of that is true. As I mentioned in my book, On Purpose:
Discipline and willpower are overrated. We place far too much weight on the idea of self- discipline, and we beat ourselves up for not having enough.
Discipline? Willpower? You don’t need any of that. You just need to give your routines a little refresh.
Mid-Year Refresh
Summer is the perfect time to refresh. As I mentioned on the podcast this week, this week marks our mid-point of the year, so it’s a great time to stop and do a quick check-in. On the podcast I went through a simple framework called the 3As–this is something I do 4x a year and it’s made all the difference.
Summer, though, is the perfect time to stop and do a quick check-in because you can ease into some simple routines with just a few tweaks:
Start with a Little “Routine Light”
The reason the fall hits us like a ton of bricks is because we go from absolutely no structure (basically your life feels like a circus act and the monkeys are running the show) to complete lock down. Every minute is hyper-scheduled and allotted for. Neither one is the solution.
I like to think of my routine as having “tentpoles” or key events that hold everything up. My morning routine is a tent pole, my afternoon learning time block is another.
When my kids were young, every afternoon of the summer we had family reading time. It was right after lunch (around the hottest part of the day), and everyone (and I mean everyone…including me!) had to stop and read for an hour. Before they could read, they looked at picture books, when they got older we always had chapter books lying around from library trips. Having this one main tentpole every day created good structure without too much fuss. Not to mention, it was fun!
Which brings me to:
Make It Feel Like a Treat
Life is supposed to be fun – not regimented. It’s easy in the summer to overdo the bucket list and end up overscheduling your days. Let’s avoid doing that in the summer… and basically all year long.
When we were in the throws of COVID lockdowns with nary a routine in sight, I decided to create a fun weekly event to add a little structure to our week. We did movie theme nights… one time we watched the movie Chicago (based off the musical), we listened to Chicago the band and then had Chicago style pizza for dinner. When we watched Les Misérables, we did a whole French meal… you get the idea.
I’ve talked about using themes for productivity several times in the past, so summer is a great time to introduce this concept in a fun way. Structure doesn’t have to be rigid, in fact it can be a highlight of your day.
Build In Motivation
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