Is my dog thirsty?
Do you ever find yourself putting off what is most important?
Why is it difficult to re-establish tried and tested routines?
I decided to hit the pause button over the summer and prioritise a few other life activities. That included having a break from writing my weekly blog!
The time off allowed me to re-charge my batteries, have a holiday and really think about my focus for the next 12 months.
It feels good to be back in the work groove but I must admit it has taken me a while and a bit of a wrench to get going again. Having talked to other self-employed friends, they said it’s not uncommon to feel worried after the summer break - would there be any work, will your network have forgotten about you etc etc. But they also said that the worries are usually unfounded. Fortunately for me they were right on both counts but I have found it interesting to reflect on how difficult I’ve found it to re-group and get started again. Here’s what I observed about myself:
It seemed essential to tidy my office and sort out my customer files, clear away a bit of clutter and start a new ‘to do list’. That felt like a good 5S activity (the lean short hand for getting your work space spic and span - sort, set in order, shine, standardize and sustain). All good until I found myself looking for more areas to tidy when my workspace was actually fine and certainly good enough to sit down and get on with some work.
I took a bit of time to reflect on what had gone well over the past 12 months and what I wanted to do more of/less of in the coming year. That also seemed like a worthwhile investment of time. Any coach or guru would say it’s important to take time out to think about what is important.
I thought I better take a look at my sales and marketing plan - where should I focus my efforts, where were my most likely prospects. Again, I don’t think anyone would argue that refining a sales strategy was anything other than a good use of my time.
But then I found myself straying off doing other tasks which seemed important - laundry, ironing, clearing out cupboards - before going into my office to start ‘work’.
I knew I needed to buckle down when, one morning, I put off going into my office yet again because it was essential that I (double)-checked that the dog had enough water in his bowl. Clearly the dog needs to have water in his bowl, but I realised I was in the standard mode of putting off what I really needed to do which was to get back into my pre-summer work routine where I had clear plans for the day, week and months ahead.
The learning for me is that when you break your routine, good things can happen. I definitely needed to take time off over the summer and felt the benefit of time away from the computer, but I hadn’t anticipated how hard it would be to re-establish the good work habits that I’d been using in the preceding year. So how have I done my re-set:
I set clear objectives for each week and use a daily to do list
I acknowledge that there are non-business tasks that need to be done and plan them in at the end of the day
I don’t beat myself up if I occasionally check that the dog has enough water in his bowl!
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