I just had a wild realization! We are all just big kids pretending to be grownups - still running our lives on a school calendar we graduated from decades ago.
If you grew up in the U.S., you probably had summers off from school. June through August was for popsicles, bug spray, and being a free-range child. When September hit, it was back to structure, responsibility, and the thrill of a new Trapper Keeper or metal lunch box. Fast forward to adulthood, and here we are - still doing it. Most of us are, at least. It's as if we imprinted on that rhythm and never looked back.
In real estate (and a lot of other industries), this plays out like clockwork. Kids get out of school and everything slows down, while the adults scramble to remember how to entertain small humans on a full-time basis. Once mid-June hits, everyone collectively realizes they still need to move/buy/sell something before August. Cue the summer sales season. By the time August rolls around, everyone starts ghosting again - packing lunches and pretending to be organized. There is then a strangely reliable mini-burst of activity before Thanksgiving, after which business morphs into spreadsheets, planning sessions, and pretending holiday parties are networking events.
This whole thing isn't random. It is a seasonal cycle so deeply baked into American culture, it practically has its own scent. I know it's not just real estate - it's retail, travel, childcare, even productivity levels in corporate America tend to follow the same school-year-to-holiday swing. I should probably graph it for the best "wow" factor.
The most interesting thing about this is that this pattern isn't always the most effective. It is simply the one we inherited. We humans are loyal to our routines, even when they stop making sense.
Take daylight savings time, for example. Originally designed for farmers and wartime energy conservation (or something like that), it's now a universally loathed twice-a-year ritual. Yet, we keep doing it. Because...Tradition? Momentum? Peer pressure from the sun?
Truth is, humans are deeply predictable creatures - not only in schedules, but in our resistance to change. We are comforted by familiar rhythms, even when they don't serve us. Sooo we keep running our businesses, setting expectations, and building calendars around systems we adopted when we were single-digits old.
I see an opportunity here. If we know people are operating on this semi-unconscious cycle, we can meet them where they are. We can build products, services, and strategies that align with their actual behaviors.
More importantly, we can give ourselves permission to question old systems. Just because something is common, doesn't mean it is efficient. Just because it feels natural, doesn't mean it is the best way forward. Maybe it's time to pause and ask ourselves, "Are we doing this because it works, or because we've always done it this way?"
That's not to say every tradition needs to be thrown in the trash. Some things (like brunch, awkward holiday office parties, and posting embarrassing high school pictures of your little brother on social media) are sacred. If there's one thing we've learned from the eternal rhythm of "schools out, slow down / school's in, hustle up," it's this: patterns are powerful! When you recognize them, you have a choice - you can either keep blindly following them, or you can use them to your advantage, with your eyes wide open.
Either way, stock up on school supplies because the school year is now in session.
