How Ritual Can Take Your Work to the Next Level
If you know me even a little, you probably know that I love talking about Ritual*. So much so that I always have the desire to capitalize the word in the middle of the sentence, even though that’s not punctually correct. But it feels like it deserves a capital R, doesn’t it? A fixed set of actions, words and cues that generates something beyond itself, simply by intention and repetition.
Though the word Ritual often has religious connotations (or cult connotations, if you’re as fascinated by all of this as I am, no shame!) we each have rituals that guide our daily lives, even they’re as simple as walking the dog every morning at 6am or reading for 20 minutes each night before bed.
Ritual is less about the thing itself and a lot more about the intention behind the thing, and the meaning you make of it. Walking the dog isn’t just walking the dog, it’s a way to breathe fresh air and wake up quietly. Reading before bed isn’t just to fall asleep. If I wanted to just fall asleep, I’d read the dictionary. Instead, I read to remember that I love language, to get lost in new worlds and to learn new things. My reading practice reminds me of who I am and what I love. Intention drives meaning. And then I fall asleep. Bonus!
But where do work rituals fit in? I’d venture that many of us do weekly goal setting, monthly planning, fortnightly team meetings and more, but we do them because we need to, and less because we’re attempting to create meaning. This week, here are a few ideas to add more meaning to your work day using the power of ritual:
Design your openings and closings. As a facilitator, it’s vital to carefully open and close the container to make experiences feel intentional for your participants. Ditto to opening and closing your work day: do you respond to email while you’re still in bed or sit down at your desk already behind? Consider opening your day by mapping it out on paper (I love this simple daily agenda), creating playlists that cue different modes of focus, like pop music for invoicing and film scores for creating slide decks, or even just lighting a candle or turning on a specific light when you’re “at work” and then blowing it out when you’re officially done for the day.
Let ritual drive focus and good habits. Are you constantly checking Slack and getting distracted? Letting texts pull you away from a project? Think about what rituals might help you begin peacefully and stay focused throughout? Consider checking slack/email at specific times during the day, making time for a walk as a reset instead of getting sucked into the social media hole, or putting on do not disturb for texts (yes, you can do that!) Not only will this help you stay focused, it becomes easier to habit stack. If you have created three dedicated times per day to check Slack, you might also use those three breaks to re-fill your water bottle, too!
Use ritual to ease decision fatigue. Prioritization is hard, especially when you have lots of projects, lots of stakeholders and lots of urgency to go ‘round. Having rituals in place can ease the fatigue in small yet important ways! Steve Jobs did this with ritualized dressing, we do this with ritualized eating (which is how you fancy up a simple thing like Taco Tuesday). If you close your day with intention each day, you’re more likely to keep good boundaries around working hours. If your standing weekly meeting is important for you and your team, design that meeting to be fun and meaningful, and then you (and others) won’t have to decide each week if that meeting is worth attending. Creating some “this is how we do it” core moments in your week is an easy tool to stop deciding and start doing.
What are daily, weekly, even monthly rituals that make your work life easier? Tell us in the comments!
*If you missed the newsletter where we shared how to create a Ritual Gathering, you can read it right here. Sign up for our newsletters here so you don’t miss out!
