Tips for dealing with periods of intensityHow do you stop the creep into the evening et cetera?

[chrisstribbs]

Hi there,
I hope my post finds you well.
I am a freelance contractor, and I'm expecting a very busy time both leading up to and after a two-week break.

As an independent business owner with disabilities, I am naturally concerned about my pacing and how best I can manage this. For example, I find I don't engage as fully with my end-of-week review when I'm more fatigued.

Daily, I need to prepare for appointments. And to keep on top of processing the inbox, as is often necessary, to enable me to be paid promptly and keep abreast of any cancellations, et cetera. I must also spend time sharing resources with clients to help them make the most of the work that we are doing together, create notes or other summaries and also reflect briefly to close my processing about the appointment and keep up with continuous improvement.

What do you do that reduces overspill in the evening?

I think I'm going to run out of time, as doing the things I do to pace myself and close the processing of sessions is going to have to go because of the reduced time.


Do you handle the busy period any differently to normal?

Many thanks,
Chris

 

[dtj]

Sounds like a good reason to lean on your calendar, in order to keep items contained and on track. If nothing else, it'll show you where your estimations are incorrect and need to be adjusted. Schedule 30 mins for a recurring task, but nearly always takes 45, then you need to schedule 45 mins instead. If you're just freelancing tasks, you're unlikely to lock it down so accurately (and efficiently).

 

[chrisstribbs]

Sounds like a good reason to lean on your calendar, in order to keep items contained and on track. If nothing else, it'll show you where your estimations are incorrect and need to be adjusted. Schedule 30 mins for a recurring task, but nearly always takes 45, then you need to schedule 45 mins instead. If you're just freelancing tasks, you're unlikely to lock it down so accurately (and efficiently).

Thanks.

 

[chrisstribbs]

Juggling a busy wave of clients changing appointments and more is exhausting. What do you always do to minimise stress?

 

[gtd solo-studente]

Hi there,
I hope my post finds you well.
I am a freelance contractor, and I'm expecting a very busy time both leading up to and after a two-week break.

As an independent business owner with disabilities, I am naturally concerned about my pacing and how best I can manage this. For example, I find I don't engage as fully with my end-of-week review when I'm more fatigued.

Daily, I need to prepare for appointments. And to keep on top of processing the inbox, as is often necessary, to enable me to be paid promptly and keep abreast of any cancellations, et cetera. I must also spend time sharing resources with clients to help them make the most of the work that we are doing together, create notes or other summaries and also reflect briefly to close my processing about the appointment and keep up with continuous improvement.

What do you do that reduces overspill in the evening?

I think I'm going to run out of time, as doing the things I do to pace myself and close the processing of sessions is going to have to go because of the reduced time.


Do you handle the busy period any differently to normal?

Many thanks,
Chris

@chrisstribbs


"As an independent business owner with disabilities, I am naturally concerned about my pacing and how best I can manage this. For example, I find I don't engage as fully with my end-of-week review when I'm more fatigued."

Worthy to design one's GTD with fulfilling all parameter being employed with the all critical elements in mind . . . , i.e., Weekly Review
For example, some GTDers forgo using a Tickler


"Daily, I need to prepare for appointments. And to keep on top of processing the inbox, as is often necessary, to enable me to be paid promptly and keep abreast of any cancellations, et cetera. "

Sounds good on this end


"I must also spend time sharing resources with clients to help them make the most of the work that we are doing together, create notes or other summaries and also reflect briefly to close my processing about the appointment and keep up with continuous improvement."

Sounds good on this end while making sure 'continuous improvement' isn't an expression of escapism, unless escapism is part of 'continuous improvement' . . . if escapism, as one misplaced possibility, is not part of 'continuous improvement' then more rigorous vetting for 'continuous improvement'?


"What do you do that reduces overspill in the evening?"
On this end, as difficult and as uncomfortable as it might be; do it immediately 'then' to complete the last part of the appointment/session . . . throughout the Day Mantra: "Do Now or add this to the undesired Evening Overspill?"

Hard Now, Easy Later . . . Easier Now, Harder Later


"I think I'm going to run out of time, as doing the things I do to pace myself and close the processing of sessions is going to have to go because of the reduced time."
Human capacities have limits; cull as much of the 'workflow' as possible by assessing everything's obligatory value?

As one sees GTD fit best. . . .

 

[dlearn]

Hi there,
I hope my post finds you well.
I am a freelance contractor, and I'm expecting a very busy time both leading up to and after a two-week break.

As an independent business owner with disabilities, I am naturally concerned about my pacing and how best I can manage this. For example, I find I don't engage as fully with my end-of-week review when I'm more fatigued.

Daily, I need to prepare for appointments. And to keep on top of processing the inbox, as is often necessary, to enable me to be paid promptly and keep abreast of any cancellations, et cetera. I must also spend time sharing resources with clients to help them make the most of the work that we are doing together, create notes or other summaries and also reflect briefly to close my processing about the appointment and keep up with continuous improvement.

What do you do that reduces overspill in the evening?

I think I'm going to run out of time, as doing the things I do to pace myself and close the processing of sessions is going to have to go because of the reduced time.


Do you handle the busy period any differently to normal?

Many thanks,
Chris

The work-life balance, drawing a line, and reducing that overspill is something that David Allen and his friend Edward hit at directly in their book Team Getting Things Done with others. They mentioned practical real life scenarios and discussed them along with suggestions. It makes our own shortcomings, imbalances, and lack of boundaries with clients and taking on more work than we can actually handle in a give time, easier to see and understand what we need to change. And it's easier to see because as they mention practical scenarios of some teams and people who do it, and as we read it, we sympathize with them and we are in disbelief at how someone can keep doing that over and over when it's stressful, exhausting, and so on. Reading those examples in the book and their comments on it, gives us a high level view of the things that we ourselves often do. There are parts of the book, that might not be relevant to what you are asking, and that might feel like reading through them just to finish them, but based on what you wrote, I am confident that reading that book will be very worth it.

 

[chrisstribbs]

I am trying to lighten my load and then have to deal with the NHS.

 

[Mrs-Polifax]

Hi, there @chrisstribbs,

You mention that the difficulties you are having arise as you are preparing for and returning from a two-week break.

What I am hearing is that before you leave for your break, you are attempting to wind down sessions with your clients in preparation for your absence, and to complete all the paperwork and documentation that entails, and to catch up on any work you would like to get done before you leave that would make your return easier.

Then, after you return from your break, your sessions with clients will resume. You will need to do your usual work, and at the same time, you will need to handle everything you did not get done before you left as well as everything that came up in the two weeks of your absence.

What you seem to want to do is to find a way to manage all this extra work, and you are thinking that by pacing yourself, you will be able to do this, but so far, this is not working well enough.

Am I seeing this picture correctly?

If so, is it realistic that you can do all this additional work at the level you believe is essential in the time you have available?

If not, and that seems to be the difficulty, is there anything you can put on your Someday-Maybe list during these periods of intense demand on your energies, so you have no commitments to them during these periods?

For instance, can you set aside the reports needed by the NHS?

You may already have eliminated all you can, so you may be in the position that there is nothing else you can set aside. If that is the case, you may need to consider reducing your workload to a more manageable level, at least during these intensely demanding periods, by increasing your resources.

For instance, you may need to outsource some of your work, hire a part-time intermittent person that you can educate in your methods to assist you, or refer some of your client base to others.

Another direction might be to find an AI resource to assist you with the documentation you need to complete, or to bring in an IT person to help you set up more efficient ways to use your technology to assist you.

Another possibility is to give yourself more resources by taking a three-week break instead of a two week break. You would take half of the extra week before your break and half of the extra week after your break to do all the work you need to do before you leave and after you return. This way, your attention is not divided, and you can get much more done with much less stress because you are not also attending to your clients during this period.

These measures are perhaps a last resort, since they could affect expenses and income, so they may seem counterintuitive, but they are legitimate ways to increase your resources in order to manage your commitments more effectively, which could make all the difference in your ability to deliver at your own standards with peace of mind.

Best wishes,
Emily