Some times the hardest thing is knowing when to slow down. These past two weeks at work were hectic. We were trying to close out our Q4 goals, prepare for a board meeting, wrap up our 2008 planning, wrap up our product development for the year and on top of all that I had a new employee start. I had more meetings than I could possibly attend, not to mention more work than could possibly be done. Most of the time, when I’m in this situation, I take a step back and look at what I absolutely must do, prioritize around those, and ignore the rest. It’s the only way I keep my sanity. But this time, nothing could be cut from the list. So my only option was to put my nose to the grind stone and crank through the work.
As the week came to a close and things started to wrap up at work, I started to feel more overwhelmed instead of relieved. It took me a little while to figure out why. I had a flight scheduled for Friday afternoon to fly home for the holidays. This left me no down time between my crazy work week and the beginning of my holiday festivities. I knew this was a recipe for disaster.
Instead of battling holiday travelers, the discomforts of sleeping in other people’s homes and the chaos of large family holidays, I decided to delay my trip for a couple of days to allow myself some much needed down time. I moved my flight to Monday morning, giving me 2 days of rest. 24 hours in, I’m feeling excited for the holidays instead of dread. Sometimes knowing when to slow down is all you need.