There’s something distinct about these final days of August.

The pace is a little slower. Calendars still have gaps. Vacation messages are still popping up in our inboxes. Some people are squeezing in one last trip to the cottage, an afternoon on the patio, or a few extra hours outside before summer begins to slip away.

We’re in what people often call the “dog days of summer.” 

The expression actually comes from Sirius—the “Dog Star”—and its connection to the hottest days of summer. Today, we tend to use it to describe those long, hot, sometimes sluggish days when everything seems to move just a little more slowly.

And maybe that’s exactly what we need before September arrives.

Because September has a very different energy.

Why Does September Feel Like a New Year?

We’ve written about this before, and there’s something about September that feels like a second New Year.

Perhaps it’s years of conditioning from back-to-school season. New notebooks. New schedules. New routines. A...