by Caroline Leach | Jul 21, 2023 | Careers, Leadership, Work/Life
How do you use a time windfall? ⌚
Today my client appointments all rescheduled for future dates. I find myself with a day free of calendar commitments. There’s a lot on my to-do list.
What’s the best use of the time?
The temptation is to focus on what I call “administrivia.” These are tasks that sorta, kinda, haveta (?) get done. Respond to routine emails, reconcile QuickBooks, enter coaching hours into the log, and so on.
It feels good to check them off the list. Like I’m making progress.
Yes, they may need to get done. But they are not the tasks that are going to move me forward in a big way.
What are better uses of time?
👉 Thinking about business strategy
👉 Connecting with people in a meaningful way
👉 Choosing one of the most important tasks to complete
How do you know if a task is important?
Ask: what’s the ONE thing, if you focused on it today, that would make the biggest difference in your career or business?
Not something that’s urgent or that represents other people’s priorities.
What’s YOUR priority?
Singular, as in ONE priority.
(Fun fact: the word “priority” began only in the singular form. Meaning that only one priority could exist at a time. Not the multiple priorities we now attempt to juggle daily and hourly. As if we ever could.)
My priority for today is creating a new program for our most loyal guests at our family restaurant Pacific Standard Prime. This is a team-focused effort, involving collaboration and iteration. The administrivia will wait until that’s done.
What’s YOUR priority today?
by Caroline Leach | Jul 20, 2023 | Careers, Work/Life
Has the American July 🇺🇲 become the European August 🇪🇺 ?
Meaning: is everyone in the U.S. on vacation this July? Europeans are a great role model for vacationing in August. Maybe we’re learning an important lesson about how to best live our lives.
From a business perspective, however, everything feels slow right now:
1. Email replies take a while if they come at all
2. New client work has slowed down considerably
3. Reservations have dipped at our family owned restaurant
Why could this be? Maybe …
1. People are taking longer summer vacations (a great thing!)
2. More intense heatwaves across the U.S. are tiring us out (not so great)
3. The quality of my outreach and content is lacking (feedback welcome!)
More importantly, what to do? Or not do?
Author Dorie Clark inspires me with the concept of “strategic patience.” Meaning: doing the work, day after day, without any guarantee of success. Showing up, every day, and taking action. And while you’re waiting, taking daily steps toward creating the future you want, independent of whether anyone else responds.
My July experiment of posting every day to LinkedIn is an exercise in strategic patience. I’m collecting data to see what happens when I share content daily. Some days people engage with my content. Other days, not so much.
That’s okay. Because I’m testing and learning for the future. And I’m sharing what I learn with my network. Hopefully I can help others with their own content strategy to fuel their unique goals.
Someone else who inspires me is Zoey Zheng. She is a 2023 MS grad of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Zoey recently posted a very real look at the challenges of the job search. Her post was authentic and vulnerable, addressing the anxiety, the doubt, and the toxic positivity. She also took a powerful stance in her post. She generously shared the many resources she’s found helpful during her job search. In the hopes that she can serve others.
The lesson I take away? No matter how difficult things may be for us personally, there is always something we can do to help ourselves and to help others in the process. Thank you, Zoey! And with her talent and tenacity, I can’t wait to see what lucky employer makes her an offer.
Lastly, sometimes the best action is no action. Timing really is everything. It’s best to reach people when and where they want to engage. If business is slow and if people are on vacation, those are signs. It may be time to ease up on the outreach, relax ourselves, and enjoy each moment as it comes.
What do you think about life and work in July?
by Caroline Leach | Jul 9, 2023 | Leadership, Work/Life
How can your Sunday routine help you enjoy today and make the most of the week ahead? 🌻
Being intentional. Being present. Being curious.
These mindsets are especially important on Sunday, so the day isn’t frittered away.
And if you can practice them on Sunday, you can bring them to every other day of the week.
Sunday is traditionally a day of rest. This is ever important in our faster and faster world, where so much is coming at us. (Looking at you, ChatGPT, Threads, and the never-ending news cycle.)
It’s also a day to get centered and focused. To enjoy life, and to lay the foundation for the work week ahead.
Here are concepts to consider …
🌻 SLOWING DOWN. Under schedule, do less, and create space. Yes, this can be hard for the hyper achievers here on LinkedIn. But what if you listened to what your body, mind, and soul are telling you? This morning I work up, without an alarm, at the usual 4:30-ish a.m. (Annoying, I know.) But I was still tired. So I let myself sleep a little more.
🌻 SAVORING. Intentionally noticing what you are doing and enjoying it in the moment heightens the experience. What are the sights, sounds, and smells around you? What are the feelings you are having? What else and who else are there? Observing, pondering, and being curious in the moment will also help savor, and remember, the time.
🌻 SPIRITUALITY. This can have many interpretations. Here it’s about seeing yourself in life as part of something much bigger than yourself. You get to define what that means to you. What are your values? What and who are important to you? How can you be a force for good in this vast, interdependent, and complex world?
It seems like work has taken on spiritual proportions. In the United States, we often “live to work” rather than “work to live.” But work doesn’t love us back, no matter how many hours we put in. And there is always more, more, more work to do. At the end of our lives, and every day until then, it’s the relationships and the experiences that we will remember and cherish.
Being a more whole and balanced person also makes us better leaders, employees, and parents. We’re better rested and fulfilled, with more wisdom and perspective to navigate through problems, reach our goals, and contribute to a better world.
What are your Sunday routines? And how much more satisfying could life be with a little Sunday energy, every day of the week?
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