When we are in the position of doing it all and are always the one to answer the questions, solve the problems or handle the decisions, we rarely have an opportunity to take a break and rejuvenate. When we don’t delegate or take a break, we are well positioned for a continual place of overwhelm. While there are tons of reasons to delegate related to growing your coalition, enhancing the skills of your team members and creating sustainability, another important reason to delegate is so that you can truly rejuvenate. While it may be difficult to step away for a weekend or a week, when you practice delegating and setting clear expectations for others, you are creating space to truly rejuvenate. Even though you may love your work – and I do too – taking time away from work is important for your future work productivity and other domains of life. Join me this week for three practices to help you delegate so that you can rejuvenate.
Schedule a vacation.
One of the best ways to get you ready for delegation is to schedule a vacation. When you schedule a vacation, you are setting expectations for you and for others that you will not be available during this time. Once this is scheduled, block your calendar and can consider what needs to be delegated so that the work continues even when you are not present. You may have one person or several people who are handling different aspects of the work. Make a plan for who needs to do what while you are away and set your out of office to let others know what to expect. When on the vacation, let the delegation truly work! Do not check email – at all! While this may be difficult and your coalition or team may be nervous about you actually taking a vacation, this is one of the best ways you can support your coalition and yourself. You need to rejuvenate and rest in order to be the best you can be with your coalition – and the other important people in your life! While on vacation, if you find yourself thinking about your coalition and the relationships, practice letting go of that for the time. If needed, write it down on a piece of paper and put it away so that you can get back to rest and play.
Protect your weekends (or your non-work time).
One of the challenges of our work lives is that they can easily creep into other parts of our lives. Since we are so connected to technology and can essentially work from anywhere, we often think we should keep working. Rather than continuing to allow your work to be part of non-work time, consider what you can delegate so that you can truly rest and rejuvenate on your non-work time. When you practice setting boundaries for yourself on when you will work, you can recognize areas that are not realistic for you to continue to do. Particularly consider those work areas that are not part of your strengths or skills. Which of those can you delegate so that you can regularly rejuvenate?
Prioritize.
There is usually more to do than there is time to do in any given week, month, quarter or year! While many people may want us to pay attention to their priorities (aka, email!), we need to pause and consider what our priorities are. I recently looked at a list of priorities that had 5 main headings and 20 subheadings. Although those were all worthwhile areas, by selecting all, the group was selecting none. One of the best ways to consider your priorities is to reflect on your goals and what is most important to both you and your coalition, workgroup or team right now. Work on narrowing to three main priorities each week and then three priorities each day. As you probably know, one of my favorite tools is the Full Focus Planner system. This system creates guidance on prioritizing and selecting your “big 3” each day and each week. As you consider your priorities, then consider what aspects of those priorities could be delegated to someone else on your team. If you are about to take a vacation or it’s almost the weekend, review your priorities and align them with your delegation plan. This helps you maintain your rejuvenation plan and set expectations on what you can – and cannot do.
So what about you? What are you going to do over the next few weeks to delegate and rejuvenate?
As you reflect on these questions, if you would like more support in this area, check out my free masterclass recording, Escape the Overwhelm.
