Do you want to be more focused in the summer?
Is your family outside playing and your friends are having fabulous summer fun while you feel stuck in the office?
Here’s a tip. If you want to increase your productivity this summer, consider booking in play time — just for you. That means, not working sometimes on a weekend. It means leaving your smartphone turned off over a weekend (or at least not checking work-related information). Use the time for those you care about for true recovery time. Recovery time is vital for every leader. That way when you are at the office you work really hard.
Sometimes when I work with clients in the summer, I feel they would rather be outside than inside. Can you consider closing the office earlier on a Friday or establish a flexible summer schedule (we begin summer hours in June… that means we leave at 2 pm … or at least we can if we want to)? Maybe leaving a little earlier if you work in an office with others? Try this throughout the summer and encourage others to do the same. Everyone’s productivity will increase as a result of the extra time off to pay attention to fun, friends, and family. You’d be ah-mazed to see how morale increases and focus skyrockets.
When you are home, on vacation, or simply away from your office enjoying summer weather, don’t contaminate your relaxation. Put away distractions and encourage your team to do the same. Discourage leaders, peers, and employees from emailing, or messaging after hours; allow everyone to step away, both physically and mentally from work.
Lastly, when you’re out of the office, reduce the anticipatory anxiety that comes with returning to so many emails. Often my clients complain they have way too much email and it discourages them from unplugging and truly stepping away from work. The reality is, email is part of doing your job. It’s not your job. During the summer, if you want to increase the productivity of your email, use the ‘Out of Office’ function. If you are going to be out of your office for summer hours or if you are going to a conference or if you have long meetings for the day, I encourage you to put an ‘Out of Office’ message on. This will increase your productivity is it will manage the expectations of people who get a bounce back from you. You can even make your ‘Out of Office’ message really fun (sometimes clients email me … even when they know I am on vacation just to see what will write, I change it frequently), this is just another way to show your clients you are paying attention to them (even when you aren’t there).
Need ideas for how you can enjoy summer fun while maximizing productivity and focus in your office? Give me a call! I’d be happy to help.
Happy Summer!
