April is my birthday month and a great time for me to be reminded each year that I’m not as young as I once was.
I think this fact hits me the hardest each spring. As we get back to our peak head count and onboard new team members, we’re knocking the rust off and getting back to full steam. Our sales team is working on securing new maintenance contracts and booking design-build work for later in the summer, our production team is training new additions for the season and fine-tuning routes, and our administrative team is doing lots of setup to keep the business rolling.
As the work piles up, we’re hopefully going to plan ahead and manage our workload to avoid any all-nighters. What works for us? Here are my best tips to help.
Spend time planning ahead
Look at the next 30, 60 and 90 days to see what’s coming down the pipeline. What projects are sold and will be scheduled? What type of training can you do now to prepare your team for what the new season brings? What systems can you spend time setting up to make your days easier this summer?
When we plan ahead, we can reduce the “noise” that comes from all the little emergencies and distractions. You’ll never eliminate all of them, but focus on getting and staying organized, and it’ll serve you well.
All planning is good; the more you plan, the more control you have of the outcome. The more control you have, the less stress you’ll have.
Take care of yourself
Sticking to a routine can help immensely in a busy spring. For me, that means making time for a daily walk and sticking to my bedtime, even if I’m in another time zone. Some other ideas include:
⦁ Getting away from your desk to eat lunch.
⦁ Waking up earlier so you can sit and enjoy a cup of coffee.
⦁ Committing to going home at 5, even if it means you work from home after the kids are in bed.
⦁ Flexing your schedule so you can make it to your child’s game or recital.
⦁ Treating yourself to a piece of candy after you finish a big task.
We can only be our best selves at work if we’re also taking care of ourselves, and burnout will catch up to you eventually. If you have to schedule time on your calendar to decompress, do it.
Remember that as a leader — and a leader in my book is anyone who makes things better — you should always be asking, “Would I want to work with me?” and then taking steps to make sure the answer to that is “yes.”
Spend time on what’s important
We can’t fix issues if we aren’t spending time on them. What’s your biggest challenge this season? Put time on your calendar weekly to work on addressing that, whether it’s through brainstorming solutions, doing outreach (for sales or recruiting, for example) or implementing something you know will help. If your biggest challenge is labor, but you’re spending zero hours each week working on that, you can’t expect to see improvements.
I know these spring months can be taxing, and today I know something that I didn’t know when I was younger — you can only tolerate chaos for so long. Work to get into fire-prevention mode instead of firefighting mode. It’ll help you and your team’s days to be smoother, and it’ll improve morale, too.
Best of luck this month, I’ll talk to you again soon!
