Approach routine tasks from a different angle

I have a pre-defined route for my 45-minute commute to and from my office in downtown Cleveland.  Because of traffic patterns, in the morning I exit the highway quite far from my parking lot and drive through city streets to get there.  But in the evening, because traffic flow is a lot different and I'm usually leaving the office late, I hop on the highway ramp that's closest to my lot.  I've found it's quickest to follow that pattern.

This morning I tried something different.  Today when coming into work, I passed up my normal exit and got off at the place I normally enter the highway in the evening.  Both common sense and my knowledge of the traffic patterns around downtown tell me that this morning's unusual route would take longer...and sure enough, it did take a little longer.

But when I gained was quite interesting.  Since I'm used to driving that road when I leave work every day, I figured everything would seem the same -- since I was on the same road, just going in a different direction than usual.  But I was wrong.  I can't even begin to tell you how many new things I saw this morning.  It's a short drive -- probably only a mile -- but while driving westbound on this road I saw at least a half dozen buildings, signs and businesses that I've never seen in my normal evening eastbound commute on the same street.  It was a completely different experience.  And I learned some things I didn't know before.

I guess all I'm trying to say is this:  Try doing some of your routine tasks a little differently today.  Come at them with fresh eyes, from a different angle, looking for different things.  Don't treat them as normal.  They might take you a little longer -- like my drive this morning took a little longer than it could have -- but I'll bet you'll get a whole new perspective on them.  And who knows, maybe you'll discover a new way to do things, a process improvement, or maybe you'll gain a new appreciation for those routine tasks.