Summer: Don’t Let One Moment Slip By

 

 

 

Training for Speakers, Entertainers & Entrepreneurs ~

Summer has begun!

If you are feeling the pressure to do absolutely nothing in your home office then you are not alone.  85% of homebound business owners can’t hide from their kids in their own office, while the other 15% install blinds and door locks strong enough to keep them out (I made those figures up).

The lure of summer can be both a welcome respite and equally set you far behind in your business goals for the calendar year.  Here are a few tips to making this a summer of success in both home and work:

• Commit to your Work Schedule: If you must, wake up an hour or two earlier. Get everything done before the kids get up.  You can plow out more work in those few hours than you would the entire day when kids are in school.
• Push all Calls, Appointments, Gigs to certain Days of the Week: Where possible this is an amazingly effective strategy.  I prefer calls with clients to be Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons and say those are my only openings; I don’t accept in-person appointments in the summer and stick to this religiously; and as gigs fall where they may I work around it.
• The Daily TO-DO List: Treat this as if you are going out of town that afternoon, you will crank and accomplish huge amounts.
• The Dave Crenshaw proven TO-DON’T List: If you’ve trained with me you’ve heard me refer to Dave’s “To-Don’t” List.  Figure out what this is for you, such as why are you editing videos when someone else can?  Why are you doing social media where no one is looking?  Figure out, and then hire out, the to-don’t list.
• Have a photo of your children on your desk from last year:  This will remind you they are not getting younger and you must work to get everything done in time to enjoy every moment with them you can before the day ends.  Look at the photos to begin this post and how we have changed through the years – the present is precious time!
• IF and when possible, either cut your work day hours in half and end by noon, or block off days of the week to be with family only (not just weekends).
• June, July, August can be the most special months of the year, create something within each month for family: In our lives we have JUNE where I’m at scout camp with my oldest son for an entire week, JULY we go to NSA Influence in Dallas, TX as a whole family and to our family ranch, AUGUST we keep the RV moving.  Block these times off NOW.

You may know of our summer odysseys in the RV crossing the country with our kids the past few years.  I am grateful we did that when we did, as our oldest children have now crossed over into not necessarily wanting to spend 2 months in an RV all summer – they want to hang around the neighborhood with friends – all I’m saying is I’m glad we chose to do certain things at specific times of our lives.

We can never get that time back, and while it breaks my heart to see them grow out of that, it also drives me to anticipate the next move in the stage of life we now enter and embrace it fully.

I hope some of these tips help you, and if you have some for me I appreciate knowing what works for you.  If you don’t have kids, grandkids, and it’s just you and partner, or you are solo, create an open space for those important in your life as often as possible, even if that means financially things are tight so you can only go for a walk every evening at dusk.

Breathe.  Love.  Serve.

Push yourself but not to any detriment.

And have an ice cream, I mean, come on, it’s summer.