The September Reset!

A New Year without the winter

Recently, I’ve been hearing people talk about this being their favourite time of year – even their favourite month. There’s the change in the leaves, the respite from the heat (this year, the heatwaves) and the freshness of the breeze, the conkers, the squirrels…but I think there’s something else: I think it’s a form of New Year that doesn’t suffer from being in the middle of winter!

I’ve spent most of my life working to the academic year cycle, and there’s no doubt that for anyone involved in education, September is all about new beginnings. Educators, students and parents all know it, but it’s true in all walks of life. September can be crazy-busy as everyone comes back from the August break and meetings abound and projects launch; politics kicks off again, and it’s time for party conferences; even TV gets in on the idea of new-starts, with new series of tentpole titles like Ted Lasso and Slow Horses!

Why we need routines

August is an odd, unstructured time, and it’s brilliant that it exists like that. We need unstructured time.

But we also need routine. Routines enable day-to-day existence: without them, we would feel overloaded with the decisions that we have to make, minute by minute! The downside of routines is getting stuck in a rut.

Time to reset

The wonderful thing about September is that we plunge back into the realities of focussed work. It’s the perfect opportunity to reset routines: your pre-sleep routine, your mealtimes, your breakfast choices, and so on.

It’s the ideal time to update your exercise routine, of course – or, indeed, to start one! So much easier than in the dark and cold of January, when your mind and body are telling you to hunker down until the sun re-emerges.

Right now there’s still some light in the mornings and evenings, the temperature is neither too hot nor too cold, and everything around us is resetting.

The perfect time for an Active Choice!