Nudged: Do something backwards

Backstory: This could be fun. 🙂 This nudge was inspired all those self-help articles that encourage us to do things differently, rewire our brains, and break out of our ruts. We might take a different route home. If you always put your left shoe on first, this week start with the right.

Maybe I’ll have dessert first or serve scrambled eggs and waffles for dinner. Or…? I don’t know what I’ll do yet, but I hope to have fun mixing things up.

What Happened: I wish I could tell you I did something wildly creative this week. But the truth is I’m still recovering from a nasty sinus-cold bug I picked up early in the year. As a result, I dragged through the week, getting done whatever I could, but not having much energy left over for wild creativity.

So…I worked with what I had. One morning, instead of jumping out of bed, dashing to the gym, pulling myself together, and focusing on my to dos till I could rest in the evening, I reversed that list. For just the third time in my long career, I got up and stayed in my PJs. I worked for a couple hours, then I went back to bed and got some of the rest I really needed.

The Ah-Hahs: I could be really disappointed about the story of this nudge, but I’m actually kind of proud of myself for coming up with something appropriate–and much needed. And I will say that I was more aware of how I do things during the week. I didn’t just blindly go through the motions of work, household chores, and errands. I thought about each and how I might change things up. I didn’t find any great new way to do things (yet), but it was fun to consider. (By the way, I nixed the idea of starting my grocery shopping in the freezer section and ending in produce. That would have been so messy!)

Meanwhile, for inspiration, here’s a little “Upside Down” from Diana Ross. 🙂

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