The dawning of a new school year creates a shift in rhythms for us all – even those who don’t have kids to shuffle out the door. Your morning commute adapts to accommodate pauses at bus stops. Your usual coffee shop is a little busier at different times as staff, students, and parents dropping off kids are adjusting their timeframes around the start of the school day. Your morning walk includes a few more pauses to catch up with neighbors or navigate groups gathered at bus stops. The pace of the day is shifting from summer’s slow, sunny leisure to fall’s return to routine and purpose.
For some, the shift is more subtle. Maybe your commute is simply moving from the coffee pot in your kitchen to the desk in your home office. Maybe there are no children in your home to wrangle this year. Maybe your own schedule remains fairly predictable throughout the calendar year. This is just another day, albeit cooler and with more smiling photos of children in their back-to-school gear on your social media feeds. You don’t think this autumn reset is YOUR reset, but it is.
Whether directly or indirectly, the pace of work and life will ripple in different ways than it did before. And that’s a good thing.
Whether your fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30 or with the traditional calendar year, the finish line for your business’s books is coming into view. This is the home stretch. From your revenue targets to the goals you set in January, now is a good time to assess where you are and what shifts you need to make to cross the finish line.
Some of your goals may need to be amended. What targets are still attainable and what shifts do you need to make in order to get there? What goals have you completed? Celebrate those wins. What targets are simply no longer aligned with your organization based on the way your market has grown in the months between when you set them and now? What adjustments are needed? Now is the time to assess, adjust, and renew efforts to get it done.
There’s something about summer that shifts the pace of our lives – personally and professionally. According to SSRS, nearly 75% of US workers planned some travel during the summer of 2025. Whether you’re one of those 3 in 4 workers that took time off and hit the beaches and trails, or you’re the one that is holding on to your PTO for another stretch of time, your work time was impacted by the height of vacation season. You picked up some extra tasks for a team member that was away. You had meetings rescheduled with vendors who were off or with clients who took time away from their work.
As we approach autumn, the travel bug abates. We get back to routine, at home and at work. Now is a good time to evaluate whether your regular daily rhythms suit you. Is the pacing of your morning causing undue stress? Would a change to the time you greet the day or the routine you follow in that space make it easier for you to focus and step out with confidence? Are there other adaptations that might make you more relaxed and more productive?
Those that live in coastal communities and other hot summer destinations have their own unique season this time of year. They call it “local summer.” At the Jersey Shore, for example, the weather is still blissfully perfect for sunny days on the beach. There are lifeguards on duty a few weekends beyond Labor Day. The crowds are smaller. This is their time to spread the blankets out on sand and enjoy the beauty of their hometown in between shuffling kids to soccer practice and tending to the errands and other bits of our normal lives.
You don’t need to be a resident of a tourist community to enjoy your own bit of local summer. That stretch of time between the last days of one school year and the start of another tends to invite space for taking deeper breathes, enjoying the moments together, finding opportunities to relax and refresh. Just because the softer, slower season has come to a close doesn’t mean we need to give up those spaces of rejuvenation.
Carve out space in your regular routines to reconnect with the quieter moments and refresh your spirit. Your work life will benefit. Your personal life will blossom. You will be happier and healthier. You will be able to focus more on the things you need to focus when it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get busy. You will have more energy and more creativity. Your stress and anxiety will be controlled. Don’t sweep away self-care with the change of seasons. Hold on to that bit of summer normalcy even as the seasons shift.
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