Short weeks can be stressful
Short weeks can be stressful – Over the next 4 weeks, we in Australia experience 4 working weeks each containing a public holiday. That’s awesome some would say… “I’ll give Davo a call and we’ll all head to the beach for a swim and BBQ”. What they don’t realise is that Davo has had to work on the weekend and until 11pm the night before to be able to have that day off due to continued deadlines and pressure from head office… this is real, stressful and all too common.
The Bureau of Statistics says 5 million of Australia’s 7.7 million full-time workers put in more than 40 hours per week. Of them, 1.4 million put in more than 50 hours per week and around 270,000 put in more than 70 hours per week.
So what’s my point?
When we get busy and face pressure from deadlines, it’s far too easy to become ineffective with the time we spend at work or in our business so we spend more time there. We slip from being organised and structured to “Chicken Little State” where the sky seems to be falling in around us…. bringing more stressful situations, overwhelm and extra hours.
When looking at the way you structure your working day, there are a number of things that you can do to become more effective:
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Plan your week – start with an idea of what activities you have on this week (work meetings and deadlines, children’s school events, birthdays etc)
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Delegate – give those in your team/business the ability to grow and develop their skills by giving them responsibility. Take the time to train them, allowing them to take on higher level work and give you time to grow the business
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Take a moment – during each day step back from all that is going on to ask are you being effective or is BUSY kicking in and actually slowing us down
This week we remember the ANZAC spirit and the sacrifice so many have made, and continue to make, so we can live in this wonderful country. By being effective and learning to love what we do, we give ourselves the opportunity to enjoy what they so unselfishly fought for.
Have an awesome week!
Cheers
Paul