Being in balance between work, rest and play is a goal for all in business.
The
balancing act between your weekly work schedule and leisure time is almost as
challenging as walking on a tight rope. Unless you enjoy a daily high wire act
of balance, you may want to consider breaking your work week into focus days to
work in your business and buffer days to work on your business. For many people,
there is strong desire to skip preparation and just tackle everything on the to
"do list" at once. As an alternative to this method, I tell the following story
to create a model for scheduling your time to be more productive in your workweek.
This past summer, the City of Lockport started a major reconstruction
project on Main Street where my office is located. The project called for new
lighting, additional traffic islands with green space, new pavement and attractive
new sidewalks.
I watched the sidewalk construction crew as I traveled
to and from my office. Like many crews, I saw three workers hard at work, two
workers on shovels and a supervisor who spent a good part of the day on a cell
phone. That's a familiar picture.
Old sidewalks were marked for demolition
and ripped from their resting places in precision attacks by a tracked excavator
and tossed into a waiting ten- wheeler for transport to the landfill. Physical
labor at removing the sidewalks was kept minimal while the machines did the work
with little effort.
Crews took their time spreading gravel, leveling,
and building forms for the concrete for the new sidewalks. They moved forward
with the task but had ample time to check the forms for elevation and size, have
coffee and conduct business on cell phones. There was time to tell jokes and stories
and retie slackened bootlaces.
The
workers' attitudes changed dramatically on the days that the concrete trucks arrived
early in the morning when it was time to pour concrete. The whirr of the concrete
mixer and the rattle of aggregate were sounds that signaled the crew for a focus
day.
Pouring concrete meant no time for jokes, coffee or
a cell phone call from home. It's an all focused business day. There was constant
movement with shovels and floats, quick decisions and sweat on the brow. All mental
and physical energy is directed towards the job at hand. It's not time to call
it a day until the last concrete truck is long gone and the last finishing trowel
is hosed clean.
If
you can set up three days in each of your work weeks in 2007 so that you are "pouring
concrete", you'll enjoy your best year ever. Plan, prepare and focus. It's
not a new formula, but is one that many resist trying. Every day can't be a pouring
concrete day, but if you schedule three days a week to have your concrete pouring
attitude in place, you will become amazingly productive. Try it and let me
know how it works for you.
