Tips & Insights for Top Performance

As summer gets going – it can be a challenge to balance the on-going demands of work and the pulls of kids, family and warm weather calling you to summer activities.
Here are 4 or 5 tips on how to have a healthy work/life balance this summer:
• Have a FROG time in the AM – which is a one hour, power hour that you do the important things that otherwise get forgotten as you attend to urgent matters. The FROG time helps you feel more prepared, more focused and more on top of your game so you can have a productive work day and then get on with some summer fun!
• Make sure to take at least ONE full day off – no work. It allows your brain to shut off and really recharge. This is very important. Resist the urge to crawl back to your computer/office!
• Enlist some help. There are often a few tasks you can delegate or outsource. If you don’t have money to pay someone, consider other methods – i.e. can you barter or find a summer intern? Get some support to get on top of your work (summer projects).
• Set work hours. If summer means shorter work hours or an extra day off, plan for it and set summer hours. It will help you plan and work efficiently in the time you have rather than working hard and then leaving something important left undone.
• Have a summer game plan. What do you NEED and WANT to get done this summer? Do a brain dump of everything that is a priority this summer and draft out which projects you could do each week.
Summer is a great time to recharge and have fun. You can do both if you have focus and a plan!

Christy Geiger, Executive Business Coach & Trainer, Minneapolis, MN

Many people feel so busy they think they just don’t have time for a day off. They keep working hard, day after day. Motivational speaker, Brian Tracy, encourages people to take a FULL day off where they do not think about work at all. The benefit of this allows your brain to rest and recharge. After time off you will be more productive than if you keep trying to push it. If you do not take a break, your brain will move slower and not be efficient. This slow time and mistakes will eat up relaxation time you could have enjoyed.

Do not only take a day off, but engage in a fun hobby or downtime activity. When people take time to do their hobbies, they are even more energized, fulfilled and motivated to work hard. There is a new energy and life when people are doing things that they are passionate about and love. They seem to work faster in the job so they can be rewarded with a little spare time for a prized hobby. Has it been so long since you had a hobby, you don’t feel like you have one?

Action:

• Decide what day you can take off 100%. (This will not be perfect, but aim for this).
• Clear your calendar; tell people you are booked (appointment with yourself or family) and only put personal things on that day.
• Determine a hobby that you would like to do that you really enjoy. Often this is something that you have not done in years (play instrument, woodworking, etc.) Dust off the old tools and use that skill.
• Make time to do this hobby at least 2 hours a week.
• Watch how your energy is renewed.