Today is Monday and hopefully you have a plan for the week – with your goal and To Dos all laid out for what you need to accomplish. Now the only thing in the way…is EVERYTHING! Know what I mean? You plan, make lists, have the best of intentions…and then STUFF happens! Suddenly it’s Thursday and you need to act quickly and efficiently.
Last week was one of those weeks for me. I had AWESOME plans – all getting ready to finish up a lot of items before I leave for an 11 day vacation. Kayla, my awesome intern, was on fire too – we were crossing off To Do items and happy!
Then….stuff happened! A great new opportunity with a short timeline, my 17 year-old sustained a MAJOR burn at work which led to hours in ER and doctor’s offices, Kayla had an awesome offer from her Dad for a long father-daughter weekend…and before you know it Friday morning was here and the thought of leaving for vacation on Wednesday afternoon with no ‘work baggage’ was not looking good.
What did I do? I looked for a different path to the result and goal – being able to ‘check out’ of the work world for 11 whole days! Here’s what I did:
- Reprioritized the whole list.
- Identified alternate ways to get certain things done. Asked for help from a person or two 🙂 , used a different format, picked up the phone instead of writing out a long explanation in an email, etc.
- Removed several items that can wait – they aren’t revenue producing and another 11 days won’t hurt.
- And most important of all….I ACTED – I put on my Get It Done mode and cranked through phone calls, follow-up emails, a proposal.
Now I’m pretty much back on track and feeling good about the progress!
How about you? What do you need to DO this week to end Friday with a clear desk and conscience so you can enjoy your weekend? When ‘stuff’ happens, don’t give up – look for the different path to get you there!
