Read this week’s article on Medium:
How I Turn 3 Weeks of (Holiday-Induced) Personal Backlog into an Opportunity for Growth Using 5 Easy Steps
INSIGHTS behind the article
Is there any feeling better than an empty inbox?
An empty to-do list, you say?
I counter with Marissa Mayer’s (former CEO of Yahoo) wise words:
'Look, I just make a to-do list every day in priority order from most important to least important and celebrate the fact that I'd never get to the bottom of it, because if I did, I would have spent a bunch of time doing relatively unimportant things.' - Marissa Mayer
One of the best times to practice Prioritizing is after some time off from work. You can be confident that there will be many more messages and to-do’s than you can complete.
But prioritizing only works if you have a set schedule dictating when you will work through those priorities. We need boundaries to shepherd out the best in us.
This brings me to Step 5 of this week’s article: Pace Yourself.
The world is changing, and we do not applaud being a workaholic as much as we used to. It is all about results, and getting burnout before the end of the week is not the way to go.
Two ways to pace yourself:
Decide on the maximum of hours worked.
If your regular workweek is 50 hours, you should not work 60 hours to catch up on your backlog. You might feel great being up to speed, but those extra 10 hours will have been of low quality, meaning you might have to spend some spare time correcting mistakes that could have been prevented.
Secondly, the energy expended during those ten extra hours has to come from somewhere. You may start your second week at work not fully recovered or lose crucial quality time with family, friends, or me-time.
The goal is not to catch up on all the possible work imaginable but instead work through the most critical priorities to maximize your results.
If your regular workweek is 50 hours you should stick to that schedule.
Decide on the maximum energy expended.
Although deciding on a maximum of hours you will work during the week will provide you with a framework from which to start, managing your energy is even more critical.
Not all tasks are created equal. Writing a report might inspire you while confronting a crisis might wear you down.
Learning to feel your energy level might take some time, and it is easier to learn if you already have experience exercising. Working out in a depleted state is not only a waste of time but might put you even back in your progress. You might get injured or commit to a vicious cycle of burnout.
Results are about long-term steady progress, which is best achieved with a specific schedule you commit to and adjust based on your energy levels.
In this week’s article, I discuss four more steps you can take to optimize your first week back at work: