How I plan for time off

Hey there, and Happy Sunday!

I took more than half of this month off to do some traveling, be with friends, and fill my cup.

One of the challenges with running a business compared to working a full-time job is that I have more responsibilities than I did when I was working for someone else. As a software engineer, when I wanted to take off, I just took off and someone else would fill in for me. With the business, it’s just me, and I’m on the hook for keeping the thing running while I’m gone.

So I just wanted to share a few tools and tips that I lean on for keeping the engine running while I’m taking a break—

1. Parkinson’s Law

If you’ve never heard of Parkinson’s Law, it’s this idea that if we allot a certain amount of time for something, we will spend the entire time that we’ve allotted doing the thing. If you give yourself a week to finish a project, it’s going to take a week. And if you give yourself one day to complete that same project, guess what? You’ll find a way to complete it within the day.

I lean on this all the time in my business. In fact, I talked about doing this exact thing for my new shop in last week’s newsletter. Originally I had planned to spend a whole month building and launching it, but April was a busy month for me and I only had 6 days. So 6 days is what I spent and the thing got done.

2. Let things be imperfect

Now did the shop turn out to be as beautiful and perfect and magical as I wanted it to be?

No.

The trade-off with employing Parkinson’s Law is that sometimes you need to let things be a little imperfect.

During slower months like this one, my goal isn’t perfection, it’s sufficiency. I just do what’s required so that I can get some much needed rest. And then next month I can go back to meeting my super high standards for myself.

But it’s important that I remind myself that my super high standards are usually over the top for most people, and sufficiency is all they’re expecting.

3. Make a plan

The only reason I was able to get everything done in such a short amount of time is because I had a clear roadmap.

I knew exactly what “sufficiency” meant and was able to break down everything that needed to get done and cut out the things that didn’t.

If I had just said, “Okay, let’s get this thing done in 6 days” without making a plan, I probably would have failed. I needed to be very intentional about what I was doing, when I would do it, and how long I would allow it to take.

When I feel crunched for time, my brain wants to skip the planning stage. It’s thinking, “We barely have time to get the project done! There’s no time for planning!”

But the plan is what enables me to work quickly and efficiently. Never skip the plan!

Hopefully you can use some of these the next time you’re crunched for time and need to get things done!

Until next week,

~Rachel

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