Why I start my day with Wordle (and why you should too)

As the Content Marketing Specialist at Karbon, you’d think my days are full of coffee, writing content for Karbon Magazine in warm corners of my home office, inspired by everything I see and bursting with creativity.

The truth is, being creative is hard. 

But it’s also important. Even if your day-to-day is led by numbers and data—say, as an accounting professional—it still takes a creative mind to problem solve for your clients. Creativity is needed in finding the best service and solutions to match their needs and deliver on the promises you make as their financial (and sometimes personal) support system.

But what’s all that got to do with Wordle?

If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, Wordle is a once-a-day word game. Each day, a new five-letter word is selected, and with six tries, your challenge is to guess the word. You’re helped along the way with colors indicating if each letter you select is in the right position, wrong position, or in the word at all.

Its popularity has exploded. And I mean it. In two months alone, daily player numbers grew more than 300,000%. And there's good reason why (even The NY Times has noticed its potential).

For me, Wordle sparks my creativity. It wakes up my brain. It helps me kick-start my ability to focus on a single task, setting me up for a solid work day. 

Whether my day is full of writing and editing, or knee-deep in Karbon managing our content production, it’s one of the tools in my kit I use to set me up for success.

Not only that, but it’s a manifestation of our culture at Karbon. It’s one of the many social Slack channels we use to stay connected. In #offtopic-wordle, we share our results (and sometimes our surprise at how well or badly we went each day).

Perhaps one of the most beloved parts of Wordle, for me at least, is the freedom it gives players. We only get one word per day, so there’s no chance players will get stuck in an addiction pattern we’re so used to seeing with social media and technology use (you can read about my own experience with this).

Just like most internet trends, its popularity will fade. People will move onto the next game or challenge. But for me, Wordle’s effect is ever-lasting.

If you’re struggling to prepare client tax information, try it out. If you need to get your creative juices flowing to solve a tricky client problem, try it out. If you find yourself struggling to focus during the day, or if you’re just curious, try it out. 

And if you ever manage to guess the word on your first turn, please reach out to me on Twitter or LinkedIn—you’ll forever be my hero.