Give yourself a break!

As some of you may know, I joined a coaching program for entrepreneurs a couple of years ago. One of the great insights I’ve gained from this program is the “entrepreneurial time system,” which encourages us to allocate our days into three types: Free, Focus and Buffer.

The Focus Days are exactly that: focusing on strategic projects, away from the distractions of day-to-day work. Think about the Focus Day as being ‘game day’ for an athlete, or ‘performance day’ for an actor.

The Buffer days are filled with activities to get ready for the Focus Days: emails, meetings, prep – basically, the training and rehearsing. It took me a while to figure out what my ‘Focus Day’ activities should be, but now that I’m there, I’ll never turn back. You may have noticed that I try to go offline on Fridays, and the RDs also carve out some time when they are not online. This is just our way of protecting our Focus Days, to ensure that we actually work on the important projects that aren’t always so urgent as to demand our daily attention.

The Free Days were also a revelation for me. I always thought I had my free time dialled in pretty well – I’ve learned by watching my parents that I needed to take time off every week, which I usually do on Saturdays and Sundays. However, the coaching program insisted that it wasn’t a Free Day unless we left work completely – which I realized, I had never actually done. I was guilty of checking emails (oh, it doesn’t count as ‘work’ if I don’t respond), or answering the phone (it will only be a few minutes), or looking at Skype (I’ll just mark it as unread and come back to it on Monday). What I didn’t realize is that I was not only lacking balance in my life, but I was also kidding myself about it.

So, for the first time in my life, I took off an entire month from work, with a series of Free Days that provided that much-needed rest and focus. For most of the month of December, my priorities were: my kids, my personal relationships, and my health. Christmas took up a lot of time too, but instead of being a burden, it was a lot of fun. The month flew past and I wondered several times how on earth I manage to do everything I want to do in a given day, AND work a full-time job. I came back to work in January feeling excited, refreshed, and happy. Magic!

In disconnecting completely from work, I learned that “free days” are not a reward for hard work, but a necessary precondition for achieving success and optimum productivity.

Too often, we get bogged down in the work, without any break from the routine. Free Days allow us to get re-energized, find new ways to get stuff done, and focus on our strengths. They allow us to put our lives in perspective and lay the grounds for creativity and resilience. They are rejuvenating.

When’s the last time you took a 24-hour period completely free from work-related problem-solving, communication, and action?  With a focus on “families first”, relationship managers should (and are expected to) be able step away from their roles over the weekend (and during their vacation periods), and enjoy this break to re-energize and refresh. The on call rotation is in place to handle emergencies so that this kind of work-life balance is protected for you.  What a great example of collaborating optimistically!  Take the time to take care of yourself – this will help you in guiding your hosts and students with compassion.

-contributed by Jennifer Wilson, Managing Director

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