On The Go

Don’t drown in your change of schedule

I’m currently not at my desk, neither am I in a quiet place with my computer on my lap, going through my inbox and thinking about the next subject of my Sunday note… I’m at a music festival.

So I know what you’re thinking: what the fuck are you doing on your phone instead of enjoying the music ?! If you didn’t want to go, why didn’t you stay home ?! Well, I enjoyed diner with friends and family first, and I am happy to be outside after a very hot day that kind of forced us to stay home. So hold that thought :)

But the point of this post is not about what you should do with your days, but how you can handle a change of plan, a travel, an unexpected busy week that put you behind schedule.

If you think about a given week, it’s always split around the same topics: time for meetings, time for production, time for yourself, time with friends and family, time to rest.

Let’s talk about the latter because it’s the most critical of all. If you don’t manage to sleep well or enough, if your level of exhaustion increase too much during the week, not only it impacts everything you do in terms of focus and quality, but by the time you reach Saturday or Sunday, you’ll need an entire day to recover and that sucks… if you take an early train or flight, if you have a diner in the evening, something to celebrate, don’t forget to find some time to recover, whether it’s power naps or waking up slightly later but rested.

About your usual routines being disturbed. It’s easy to get lost when we travel or go through an intense week. But it’s also quite simple to work this out by being more aware and intentional about that schedule. All you need is discipline.

Take your agenda for the days to come, check the intensity of each day and how you think this will play out in regards to all the things you usually do during a normal week. Now get rid of the noise: the additional meeting you accepted that can be postponed, this drink you agreed to that just adds more strain to your day, shorten that diner before it’s getting too late, cut that meeting in half to go the point. Now, block a couple of short slots, from 30 min to 1 hour just to go through your emails and deal with your to-do list, the goal being to avoid the accumulation of pending things.

Finally, because on the go, we tend to forget about our healthy habits, try not to and get into a routine during your travel, whether it’s running early, not drinking at night, setting room temperature to the right level, setting clear slots during certain week-ends or holidays…etc.

It’s easy to get lost on the go while in reality it’s just another mode to deal with. Just build that discipline of dealing early with the unexpected.

A busy week is often just a poorly handled one ;)