The Beauty in Doing the Work Over and Over and Over Again

It’s the same kind of video both teams create each year to play on the scoreboard at the start of each game at Cameron, always featuring intimidating images of players, dramatic music and inspiring highlights – but this time it includes a subtle nod to Duke’s Gothic architecture with the arched, neon lighting.

These videos are something familiar, but totally new. Creating them is a task Bradley and the creative teams for both squads pull off each year, but one they somehow find new inspiration and fresh tweaks for each time. It’s their “Groundhog Day.”

In the classic movie “Groundhog Day,” a cynical TV weatherman played by Bill Murray is stuck in an infinite time loop. Each morning, his radio alarm awakens him blaring Sonny & Cher’s “I Got You Babe.” Each day, the same annoying insurance salesman stops him on the street just before he steps in the same slushy puddle.

“What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same and nothing that you did mattered?” Murray’s character asks in one scene.

Everyone has their own “Groundhog Day” routines associated with their profession – things we do every day or each year, over and over.

In recognition of Groundhog Day this week, Working@Duke is taking a fresh look at how we can approach repetitive tasks with renewed creativity. Research shows that habits provide stability, but they can also spark creativity when approached with openness and curiosity.

That might be welcome news for Punxsutawney Phil, who saw his shadow again Monday, predicting six more weeks of winter for the seventh time in the 10 years. If anyone knows what it means to relive the same moment year after year, it’s Phil. Maybe even a groundhog could benefit from seeing things a little differently.

During the men's basketball hype video shoot in September 2025, members of the Athletics' creative team used neon arches to mimic Duke's Gothic architecture. Photos by Travis Stanley

New team, new ideas

For Meg Lee, Team Photographer for Duke’s Men’s Basketball, brainstorming how to shoot photos this season began with a simple axiom: Get to know the team. Each year, the players are different, Lee said, and that spurs fresh ideas.

“It starts with getting to know the players and seeing where their head's at in terms of content and maybe what they vibe to and what they don't,” Lee said.

In the era of Name, Image and Likeness deals, Bradley added, understanding how to show players’ personalities through something as simple as a pre-game video is vital.

This year, Cameron and Cayden Boozer joined the Blue Devils as two of the most heralded freshmen in the country. Rather than each trying to find their own places in the spotlight individually, the Boozer twins asked to be photographed together.

“I know some twins don't want to be put together with their twin, but Cameron and Cayden seem to love each other, and I think they want to be seen as siblings, as a unit,” Lee said.

She set up photos of each Boozer beneath one of the neon arches, dribbling at the same time.

“Nothing super twin-heavy, but just having the two of them there so you can see them together,” she said.

Embracing the little things

Before Josh Sosin began teaching Greek history at Duke as an Associate Professor of Classical Studies, he worked jobs in construction, in roofing, in a greenhouse and as a cook.

“It was all repetitive,” he said. “But I found myself embracing all the little things and wanting to do each of them better.”

Finding joy in the details is something Sosin learned from his parents, he said.

“Getting interested in all the little things – that’s the enemy of boredom,” he said, “and boredom can be the downside of repetition.”

Just like the Duke basketball creative team working with new players each year, Sosin finds invigoration with each semester of new students and different ways to bring Greek history to life through current events.

“The examples you pick to illustrate something may be completely different every single semester,” Sosin said.

There are ways Sosin finds routine enjoyable, too. When he’s enjoying one of his favorite pastimes of bike riding, he knows that “no individual pedal stroke is very interesting but after a day, you know you’ve crossed from one state into another and that's a big deal.”

And recently, after he took up blacksmithing on weekends, he realized the enjoyable serenity he found in the routine.

“What I like most about it is the slow accumulation of a bazillion, tiny incremental improvements,” Sosin said. “If you look at the finished product, there’s a ton of complexity. But the making of the product involves 28,000 not-very-complex steps.

“Everything great that you've ever loved was built by the slow accumulation of repetitive things.”

Treat every caller like they’re your mother

Every time Chandra Wilson answers the phone for her work as an Access Specialist who helps patients schedule and reschedule procedure appointments with Duke University Health System, she smiles. The physical act helps her connect with her inner joy – and the caller.

“You can hear it when somebody smiles,” she said.

Then, she imagines she’s speaking to her 88-year-old mother, Ruby.

“I want to give them the same type of call quality that I would expect my mother to have,” Wilson said.

Wilson has worked at Duke for about 20 years, with the last 10 years as an Access Specialist for Duke Health Access Services who has a script that includes key points she must highlight in every call. But Wilson personalizes each conversation by truly listening to every caller and incorporating her own personality when she can.

Every call is a new opportunity for her embrace the interaction as if it’s an improvisational sketch.

“Everybody’s different and you have to be able to adapt on the fly,” Wilson said. “Because they can call in for something and you can hear something else going on, too. It’s all about listening to the people and showing the empathy that we are listening.”

Sarah P. Duke Gardens' flower displays are meticulously planned -- and different -- each year. Photos courtesy of Duke University Marketing and Communications

Same beautiful blooms, fresh designs

Mike Owens has been working at Sarah P. Duke Gardens for 32 years, where he’s now the Historic Gardens Curator who works with a small team of horticulturalists to design and plant three seasonal displays in the Terrace Gardens. Every design is a bright arrangement of colorful flowers. But every design is different.

“Every design is unique so there is always something new to see year after year,” Owens said.

He and his team selected a color or plant theme each year and then settle on a color palette.

“Do we want to use hot colors, cool colors, contrasting colors or complementary colors?” he asks.

In the spring, Owens and his team plant about 60,000 bulbs in the terraces, using daffodils, alliums and crocus around the centerpiece tulips.

The secret to keeping it all fresh and inviting, according to Owens, is simply finding the joy in his craft.

“I still look forward to coming to work every day,” he said. “I always wish I had a few more hours to work on things. But if you want to come to work every day and you want extra hours to do the work that you're doing, it's more than work. It's part of your soul. It's your life. It’s creating something and leaving a legacy of really beautiful things that inspire other people to do beautiful and great things, as well.”

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