“Quotidian – occurring every day; daily”

Each morning, Jason leads our team through a meeting we call “The Quotidian”. It’s a word Rob introduced to us earlier this year after he picked it up in one of the dozens if not hundreds of books he reads annually. The sign above our whiteboard says “The Daily Quotidian”, which is like calling it The Daily Daily. This sign emanated from our Department of Redundancy Department.

The meeting covers the commitments from each department for what they will complete that day. Jason reviews the status of the previous day’s commitments and then writes the new ones on a whiteboard that sits in the middle of our office. During the day, team members put a check next to the items they completed to facilitate the next day’s review. It’s a great way to keep the team on track.

What National Day Is It?

We like to keep it light. First, we choose from among multiple options for what “National Day” we plan to observe. Most days there is a surprising number of choices available. For example, here’s a shot of Jason at the whiteboard on August 8th, when we celebrated “National Sneak Some Zucchini Into Your Neighbor’s Porch Day”.

You might think we made that up. But it’s real, as you can see here.

Just this week, the National Days that made it onto our whiteboard included Apple Dumpling Day, Cheeseburger Day, and Talk Like a Pirate Day.

“National Hug Your Boss Day” was last Friday, September 13th. We figured that if anyone was bold or stupid enough to observe it, Monday, September 16th would be forever known as “National Beg Your Boss for Your Job Back Day”. We chose instead to celebrate “National Bald is Beautiful Day”, fully corroborated by the stunning beautifulness of Gary’s and Mike’s shiny pates.

Here are some other “National” days we enjoyed recently:

• Ants on a Log Day – September 10th
• Be Late for Something Day – September 5th
• Chop Suey Day – August 29th (this one had the day all to itself)
• Tell a Joke Day – August 16th
• Water Balloon Day – August 9th
• Raspberry Cream Pie Day – August 1st (popular with the programmers because of this)

Your Turn

If you want to start your own custom of observing National Days, you have a lot to look forward to.  Just next week, you can appreciate elephants, think about hobbits, enjoy some snack sticks, be careful about your use of punctuation, and that’s just by Tuesday. It will be good practice, because you’re about to have the entire month of October to, among many choices, celebrate American Cheese, increase your Awareness of Sarcasm, and Appreciate Squirrels.

We can hardly wait to see what next week’s Quotidians have to offer.

I’d like to see my project on your Quotidian whiteboard