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August, the eye of the hurricane: 5 Tips for taking advantage of the truce

Suddenly everything stops, the phone stops ringing so regularly, the email seems to have broken down and even the pressure to deliver proposals for yesterday has disappeared. Until the end of July, there was an immeasurable pressure with the need to leave projects closed or on the way, proposals were asked for in September, projects were awarded for the return of vacations and everything had to be ready immediately. Suddenly, everything calmed down. The projects that came in have to be done and what seemed like a calm week sometimes becomes very intense given the reduction of the team that also went on vacation. But for those who stay, for those who have to make decisions about the direction of the company, how can we take advantage of this time?

Here are 5 suggestions:

1 – Let yourself wander.
When was the last time you were able to pursue a curiosity or explore a topic that is only slightly work related? This is an excellent time to do this, to let the mind look for what excites and motivates it. By letting the mind wander, we were able to make unlikely connections and discover that some solutions we were looking for were already within us ready to leave. It is common that the inspiration gathered in these moments afterwards takes on a great added value when the frenetic pace returns.
2- Create new habits
With less ongoing pressure, allow yourself to analyze how you organize your day and week. Identify the pitfalls that cause you to lose time and concentration that are then reflected in productivity. Take the opportunity to get into the habit of reviewing and prioritizing tasks, identifying the times you feel most productive to develop what kind of tasks, according to your concentration and need to pay attention to clients and colleagues. A habit much talked about in terms of management is: “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” (Mark Twain) If you start the day with what you least like to do, you have the guarantee that you will always be improving and, thus, you can finish on a more positive note.
3 – Attack the tasks you have systematically postponed
With the normal day-to-day rhythm, some tasks are systematically left undone. This is an opportunity to approach them with time and without distractions. Typically, and according to experts, the Important and Non-Urgent tasks are being neglected in function of the Urgent and Non-Important ones. This replacement has a tendency to create tricky-to-do management situations. At this time of greater availability, take the opportunity to tackle these tasks that are not always short-lived and almost always require a lot of attention.
4 – What you haven’t read in the last 4 months will probably no longer read
Do you have 2000 emails in your inbox and two stacks of paper on your desk? we often save everything we want to have time to read, either on paper, in terms of bookmarks or even emails. The truth is that a lot of the information after a while is out of date and we don’t even remember why we keep it. You have to gain courage and clean the desk. Emails, in a hurry to respond and present solutions, often end up in the inbox or in a folder originally called “tidy up”. This is a good time to organize the mailbox, identify the important points that may have missed it, and define a method for organizing the information as it arrives. The use of rules in the email application, allows automatically sorting messages by project or by client, facilitating the search when we need to find “that specific information”.
5- Quit Early
How many times during the year do we see the departure time as just another pressure factor? Let’s take advantage of this brief period to leave early and be with family and friends. When August ends and we return to the normal rhythm, the opportunities are rare again, the head is often at work when we return home and the cell phone is checked every 30 seconds to see if that important email has arrived. When you realize it’s September and the city’s rhythm is back to normal. With it, our work pace accelerates and availability becomes scarce. We believe that with these tips, the return will be accompanied by new ideas and greater productivity that generate an environment more conducive to a better quality of life.