How To Step Back and Switch Off

Happy Friday!

Further to my blog last week on the importance of Leaders switching off and taking time out, here are my top 5 tips to help Leaders step away and achieve this.

💡Remove temptations and distractions – log out of work apps and e-mails, turn off notifications, (as a rule I have no notification pop ups for emails, what’s apps or any other apps – I learnt this from reading Nir Eyal’s book - Indistractable). It was transformational for me personally and broke a decade plus long habit I had of watching the blackberry 'red-light' or hearing the iPhone buzz.

💡Replace – fill the space you have with something specific that will absorb you – exercise, social time, an interest – this decreases the risk of drifting back to work and keeps you focused on something for you.

💡Reflect on how you end each working day – spend 10 minutes reflecting on what you achieved - I call this '3 key wins' and identify the key priorities for the next working day - '3 key actions'. Capture these so you remove them from your head and distil them into your calendar/to do list/task list.

💡Realise Rome wasn't built in a day and reframe if required – if switching off feels too unnatural to start, begin with something smaller – protect one evening a week for example and commit to it. Less is more in the early days and when you start to see the benefits it will drive you to do more.

💡Role-model the boundaries that you put in place for others (and yourself) – many Leaders want their teams to achieve balance and set healthy boundaries. As the Leader you have the responsibility to do this – you set the tone and the example.

If you want to find out more about how I work with individuals, teams and organisations to help them to achieve balance both personally and professionally, please get in touch. I’d love to chat with you.

I love this image by Liz Fosslien - a brilliant metaphor - we often convince ourselves we are indispensable. The reality is quite different when we challenge ourselves to change.

Have a super weekend ahead!