As the weather hots up (ever the optimist) our workloads often cool down. If you’re seeing light at the end of a huge to do list, how are you going to use your downtime to best effect? Summer affords us an opportunity to take a breath, take a break and tackle some items on the not so urgent list. Quiet times can be brilliant for finally getting down to a few of those things that get pushed back when we’re busy. Here are 3 ways to make the most of a quieter period.
- Engage in some work based or other learning
Whether it’s learning a skill, beefing up your knowledge, chasing a new experience or attending an event, summer is a great time to bring yourself up to date or take yourself a bit further in the subject of your choice. Busyness can be bad news for learning and if you’re coming out of a frantic period, it may have struck you that you’re falling behind or just feel a bit stale, so freshen up with some learning. I’m doing just that this week by investing in time to develop my thinking and listening skills. As a coach, trainer and facilitator, you would think I’m an excellent listener and a deep thinker, right? Wrong. I’m as susceptible as the next person to gaps in skill, distractions and suffering from “clever clogs” syndrome where I try to show my worth instead of shutting up and listening. So that’s what I’ll be doing – brushing up on those skills central to my job and getting better at stuff my clients value. That’s me – what about you?
- Improve a system or tidy up a process
This could be something big that benefits your team, department and organisation or it could just be for you. We all tolerate processes that slow us down and systems that aren’t fit for purpose. But we don’t have time to do anything about them. So we limp along and develop work arounds. With a bit more time and headspace we can create something better. And afterwards you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it years ago. Maybe AI can be of some assistance here and if that’s a brave new world for you, you’ll be ticking the box on point one above, engaging in some learning as well as improving a set up.
- Renew contacts/widen your networks
There’s this assumption that everyone disappears in July and August but lots of us don’t. After 23 years shackled to school holidays, I’m finally discovering the delights of travel in the quieter months. For many of us, this period can be a great one for having that coffee, finally getting round to meeting, arranging a get together or whatever. Summertime isn’t known for its big conferences but stuff still happens and it feels more relaxed. Get some dates in the diary and enjoy sharing and comparing with sector mates and new contacts.
There you have it – 3 ways to make the summer period work for you and if summer isn’t your quiet time – save this for later and pull it out when your cool down comes around. And if you see no down time on the horizon – a miserable thought – give yourself a break and read our blog Peaks Need Troughs for some inspiration.