3 Tips For Returning To Work With a Bang

Average reading time: 2 minutes 10 seconds

Many of us will be returning to work from the summer holiday season with renewed focus and energy.

Perhaps you had a series of great ideas whilst sitting by the pool that you feel certain will lead to better results and improved morale within your business or team?

Or perhaps you’re feeling slightly less positive and have a dose of the post-holiday blues?

Whichever camp you fall into, here are three of my top tips for achieving and maintaining momentum in September and ensuring that we end 2019 on a high.

 

Thinking time

Many of us will hit the ground running at pace as we return to work and we’ll keep running until the next pre-determined holiday forces us to stop. The reality of this approach is that we gradually slow-down and tire, limping over the line as a worn-out, ineffective mess at Christmas.

Alternatively, we can:

• Plan in a series of micro-breaks or long weekends to rest, recover and re-charge.
• Schedule personal reviews and ‘thinking time’ in our diary.
• Schedule team offsites and retreats for the team to pause, plan and reset.

By slowing down, we can actually speed up.

 

Meetings

Meetings are one of the biggest time drains in any organisation. Most of us attend way too many of them whilst failing to prepare and follow up properly. And those are just a few of the common issues with meetings!

Research suggests that of the 23 hours most executives spend in meetings each week, only eight are productive. What does that cost in terms of wasted effort and salary costs?

Alternatively, we can:

• Invest a few minutes in better planning and preparation for meetings.
• Re-focus on the basics of brilliant meetings and ensure we execute those principles with ruthless consistency.
• Lead by example and follow up brilliantly well. (Email me at ben@ben-morton.com to find out how I do it.)

Download my High Performance Meeting Toolkit here.

 

Emails

Stop playing email whack-attack and pause before you click send on every email. Make it your goal to edit every email that you send, halving its length and making it twice as clear.

Shorter emails are more likely to be read, are easier to understand and generate shorter replies which ultimately saves you time – no need to play whack-attack.

Before clicking send, ask the following then edit appropriately:

• How can I reduce the length of this email?
• How can I ensure the recipient is 100% clear on what I am saying or asking for?
• Is this sufficiently clear to ensure that I do not get a reply seeking clarification?

 

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