Travel Tips - How To Stay Caught Up on the Road

Business travel - why does it take so long to "catch up" at the office when returning from a business trip?   Try tips in these three areas to avoid buildup of workload:


1) Delegate Email:

Delegate emails to one or more subordinates or peers in your "away from office" wizard so that routine issues can be resolved in your absence.  Studies show that up to 60% of emails can be delegated and dealt with by staff at home while you are on the road.  

Don't be afraid to delegate.  Sometimes the biggest hurdle is giving up control to others, or taking the time to train others to handle your work.  Try delegating on shorter trips and in smaller amounts at first if you are wary of giving up too much too soon.

2) Clean your office/ in-basket before you travel:

If you can clear your in-basket before traveling, you will reduce the odds of being overloaded upon your return.  

Where possible, schedule several hours in the week before leaving to clear up outstanding items and clutter in your office.

Delegate currently outstanding issues to peers or subordinates (before you leave) to ensure that work continues without interruption in your absence.  Think about it: what a great way to clean up your office!

Assign staff to review your in-basket while you are away, with instructions to pass through routine items to appropriate personnel for handling in your absence.

3) Bring work with you when traveling: 

Sometimes road trips are the most productive - it's easier to complete projects without constant interruptions.  Mix up the work  you bring; take easier reading as well as more complex items.  Then, when you need a break from intense work concentration, you will have a variety of items to choose from.

4) Schedule exercise while on the road:

If you can plan just 30 minutes daily at the hotel gym, or plan a brisk walk in your locale, you will keep your energy up and your mind fresh.  Find the time that works best for you - I prefer early morning or just before dinner because changes in meeting times can tend to override priorities by middle of the day.

5) Strategize to deal with jetlag:

Key tips to manage your body clock while traveling include avoiding alcohol on travel days, making sure your body stays hydrated, using melatonin to support sleep as needed, and taking short catnaps in early days in a new time zone.  

 

If you are sleepless in Timbuktu, catch up on some of the work you brought with you until the melatonin kicks in.

Above all, use your common sense - plan ahead, delegate before and during your travels and maintain a healthy lifestyle while on the road.  These are your tools to keep ahead of the business travel exhaustion vortex! 

Work problems? The answer = just be a Duck!

Feel overwhelmed with work, pressure, politics, hassle at work?  Sometimes life or work is akin to a storm that continues whirling around you and there is no way to escape. 

My advice to my peers and colleagues:  "Just be a duck.  Let the rain from the storm wash over your back and off your feathers.  You will survive this and the craziness will pass."  


Nature has designed the duck's feathers to repel water, and sometimes we ourselves need to mentally repel the negativity or chaos of our own situations.  The goal is find ways to "center" our focus and remain calm - that enables us to think more clearly to deal with the problems at hand.


Use this mental "self defense" strategy next time you are in the middle of a stormy situation - repel the external negativity and refocus yourself on what is important!

How to make progress - even when overwhelmed with stress

"You eat the elephant one bite at a time" -- sounds a bit yucky, eating elephants, but that saying has been a strategy to maintain solid progress at work during times of crazy overload and stress.

When there are 15 projects going on simultaneously, hundreds of emails and calls piled up (unanswered) and a constant lineup of people in the office doorway (where's the "take a number" system when you need it!?) it's easy to want to shrivel up and crawl under the floor.  Progress seems overwhelming and impossible!

How to make real progress, then?

1)  Pick one task that is relatively easy to accomplish and JUST DO IT.  It doesn't matter how small the task is, doing something is progress.  Progress, however small, is success.  

2)  Once you have gained momentum by finishing one task, pick another one and JUST DO IT again.... and again.   After many tiny steps, you will eventually see noticeable progress. 

3)  Break very large projects down into smaller steps.  Create several "milestones" or mini-accomplishments, maybe 5 to 10 of them.   Then put milestones in sequential order and start working on the first one.  Viewing big projects in smaller chunks makes them seem more feasible and less overwhelming. 

4)  If you are still feeling overwhelmed, try offloading strategies:
          - delegate smaller parts of the job to others
          - create a list and sort into A, B, C priority (always do A priorities first)
          - apply the 30-second rule:  if you can finish something in 30 seconds, JUST DO IT

5)  Find and maintain support systems:
          - utilize a work buddy where you can ask for help or with whom you can bounce ideas around,

          - find someone to help review/reprioritize your total workload strategically at the "50,000 foot level"

          - exercise regularly (walk, run, do yoga, play sports) to offload the mental stress

Progress will come in waves -- it will seem like nothing happens for days or weeks, but you may be surprised at the traction and progress when you look back over a period of time.  

Don't forget what you have already accomplished -- shift your expectations to smaller chunks of achievement, and you will be more positively motivated toward future success! 



Career Acceleration: 4 Essential Elements (pt 3, the 4-eye'd employee)

The following is based on a presentation made to the UBCO (University of British Columbia Okanagan) female business students affiliated with the Sauder School of Business on January 28, 2011. (Presenters: Meryle Corbett, CMA,FCMA CFO of Kelowna Flightcraft Group of Companies; and Paulette Rennie, President of ValleyFirst Credit Union)

What strategies will make YOU successful in business? A group of C-suite executives agreed that the key to a rising business career includes four main characteristics. They are described below in our series, "The 4-eyed employee" :

So what are we talking about? The first "eye" or "I" attribute is the underlying foundation for business success:
INTELLIGENCE
The second "eye" or "I" attribute is the key to career longevity:
INTEGRITY
The third "eye" or "I" attribute is the secret to how far your career will rise:
INITIATIVE
1) Stand out from the pack:  Produce  at least 10% more than your competitors
You need to position yourself above the crowd in order to accelerate your career.  This means getting noticed by management for producing results superior to your competitors.
     - quantity of work is higher - find scalable improvements, efficiencies that save time
     - quality of work is superior - what makes a boss notice you and your work?
     - deliver more than is expected - anticipate what your boss will ask or need
If you can find a way to be seen as "above the crowd", you are on your way to winning promotions and moving up the career ladder.

2) "Results" are more valued by management than just "Effort"
Think about it:  if one employee puts in 50% more effort but delivers the same results as the average employee, he/she is inefficient compared to the others.  In fact, this inefficiency is probably even costing the company overtime.  RESULTS are what count in the long run and what get you noticed in the workplace.  

Worklife Balance: 6 Tips to ease the workload

If you are one of those type "A" personalities that always has a dozen projects on the go, your spouse is on your case to reprioritize in favor of your family, here are some ways to "ease the load" and regain control:

     
         Do you feel like the candle with both ends burned down to the core?

 1) Set aside 1/2 hour at the beginning of each day to plan and prioritize.

This may mean getting up a half hour earlier, but make yourself a nice cup of coffee and give yourself the gift of "reflection time".   This will allow you to plan and organize more efficiently, saving you stress the rest of the day.

 2) Set up new habits that save you time or hassle:

- Use a crock pot and prepare meals ahead of time.

You will have one less task to compete with your other priorities at the end of the work day.

The internet has great ideas for pre-cooked meals that use cheap cuts of meat (save $$) for home-cooked dinners ("comfort food").

Http://www.a-crock-cook.com/slow-cooker-recipe.html

-Assign more chores to your kids - ease your burden of doing it all

-Hire out or hire in support where you can afford it

-Use a cleaning lady, hire a neighbour kid to cut the grass

-use drycleaning pickup and delivery (many stores offer this service right to the workplace)

 -consider on-line shopping and direct-to-door delivery (this is an increasing trend:  everything from groceries to all kinds of consumer items -- on numerous websites)