Strategic Recovery – Planning Your Breaks

Hi there, I'm Ben Morton and welcome to another episode of the Leaders Kit Bag. It's the weekly micro edition of my podcast. Each episode is just six minutes long and is designed to provide you with tips, tools and tactics around specific aspects.

Of leadership and management.

It addresses some of the most common challenges you will face as a leader or manager. They are all recorded unscripted whilst I'm out walking in the countryside. So you'll probably hear birds tweeting in the background or just ambient noise as the people around me are going about their day to day life. That's all I'm going to say by way of an introduction. So let's dive straight in to this week's episode.

If you have just returned from a break over the Christmas period and are back at work, and if you've hit the ground running at pace, full of energy and inspiration and motivation, then today's episode of the Leaders Kit Bag is for you. And yes, you might just be back from some holiday or vacation, but now absolutely is the best time to be planning your next break, or even better than that, is planning your breaks for the entire year ahead. And that's what we're going to be talking about in today's episode of the Leaders Kit Bag. Before I talk to you about strategic recovery, which is how we can maintain our energy, motivation and inspiration throughout the year, let's just think about how the year unfolds. For many people, this will vary depending on where you're based in the world and which religious calendar you might follow or your nation state particularly follows. But for many of us, for me in the uk, many of my clients return after the Christmas break and hit the ground running at pace, trying to get everything done. They then work solidly through until Easter, which is when the religious national calendar mandates the first break and we're forced to take a break. And then, particularly if you've got children, you come back from the Easter break, work intensely through the to the summer holidays where you take some time off, short break, back to work, working at pace all the way through till Christmas again, where suddenly we stop and the adrenaline that's been keeping us going dissipates and we're exhausted. Oftentimes we sometimes get sick because the body suddenly knows it can stop and it can shut down. I'm guessing that sounds vaguely familiar. The alternative to that, because it doesn't have to be that way, is to apply the approach that I call strategic recovery. In order to do that, there's a very simple process, as in the last Episode of the Leader's Kit Bag. I want you to do this very intentionally. So block out some time in your diary, get rid of all of your distractions and then get some sort of annual calendar or planner so you can look at the entire 12 months ahead. Step one, this involves plotting onto that 12 month calendar all of the big known events. Most businesses cyclical to some degree, so plot on all of the busy times for you, your team function or business. It could be quarter, end, year end conference seasons, all of those sorts of things. Get them blocked in so you can visually see them. Step two, once you've done that is to block in all of the key project milestones or deliverables onto the calendar. What we're really trying to do here is see all of the spikes, the pinch points and busy periods over the coming year. Once you've done that, step three is to block onto that calendar all of the important personal and family events. If you've got any personal challenges like running a marathon or whatever, block those on any important family events. This coming year. It's my 20th wedding anniversary, so that will be on my 12 month planner. If you've got kids at exam age or going to university, block those on parents wedding anniversaries if you're fortunate to still have your parents. And then step four, the crucial step, this is where strategic recovery starts to become really useful is to look at your entire 12 months and plan in your breaks, your rest periods and your time off. Very strategically look at when those busy periods are. Do you need to take some time off in advance so you are fresh and fully charged, ready to deliver? When are you going to take some time off after those busy periods to rest and recover so you can come back and go straight in to the next project? And when do you want and need to take time off for yourself and to be there for your family? It's a really simple approach, yet it's one that is incredibly powerful and it has proved its value time and time again with my one to one coaching and mentoring clients. That's it for this episode of Leaders Kit Bag. As always, hope it's been useful. Look after yourself, look after those you've got the privilege and responsibility to lead. And until next time, lead on.