Come January, it always takes me a couple weeks to get used to writing the new year when I’m signing something, writing a check or dating a letter. I know it’s not 2016 anymore, but by habit there I’ll scribble it, then cross it out and correct it. 

We do a lot of things by habit or routine in work and at home. It makes us efficient and frees up brain space to think about other non-rote things. We don’t need to process how to accomplish a task; the steps have already been mapped out, memorized and engaged.

Pulling together an issue of Modern Casting is the result of routines. Weekly editorial meetings. Daily check-ins. Standard deadlines, copyediting processes, and page design procedures. Before each issue, the magazine team does not have to answer the question, “How do we go about making a magazine? The template has been established.

But as helpful as habit and routine are, like 2016, eventually they become outdated. When that happens, quality—of life or product—suffers.

Because it’s the first month of a new year, January is when many of us think about a fresh start, as trite as that sounds. Fresh starts are needed. The last 12 months have some baggage and they will continue to load us down until we remember to flip to the next year. Perhaps it was the sale that took forever to close or position that could never stay filled or a bottleneck that was perpetually delaying delivery.

This is a good time to examine what continues to work well and what doesn’t. Sometimes, difficult projects are one-offs and just need to be let go. Other times they are signs that the current routine needs to be re-evaluated. So either move on or start figuring out a new way of accomplishing your goal. Don’t keep writing 2016 when it is 2017.

I invite you to share ways you or your company has created an improved routine by emailing me at swetzel@afsinc.org. And because Modern Casting is always looking for a fresh perspective, please send along your thoughts on what you’d like to see in the magazine.

Have a happy New Year.

Click here to see this story as it appears in MODERN CASTING.