Don't Overwhelm Yourself - "Human load balancing"

  Human load balancing

Now that's a very fancy 21st-century term, that in reality simply means "Don't Overwhelm Yourself." This can happen very easily especially if you are creative and like (dare I say love) to assist people in what you see as productive or positive outcomes.

I am a prime example, I have a habit in the last few years of saying "Sure, I would love to be on that committee" or "I can fix that for you.". Things can get a little bit crazy because if you follow through with those good intentions, your happy patrons will spread the word and the next thing you know "the weekend" has turned into an abstract concept. Now I'm not saying you shouldn't do those things, I am saying that there needs to be timing and a limit involved. What I have discovered is a lot of people will leave you alone on the weekdays because they don't want to disrupt your work but come the weekend, usually around 3 PM Friday, text messages start appearing or there's a knock at the door.

If you observe carefully though, you will notice something… Some wise people seem to have a mystical power to at least outwardly manage all this activity. Is it a potion, or some agreement they have with an arcane thousand-year-old society?… Nope. It's common sense these people are using. When they take a holiday they really disconnect. And frequently the holiday or "space" if you prefer the term, is of considerable length. I have a friend who just took a month off. They let all the clients know it and they just went. They also don't answer business calls under any circumstances. If there is something mission-critical they preassigned some individual ahead of time.

The rest of us mortals can learn something here.

1. Enforce your holidays as sacred events. Make sure the people you are providing a service for, Know ahead of time that this is how you run your affairs.
   
   
2. Make sure someone else can step in if need be, and select them ahead of time.

Now, "Are We Listening Patrick?"

Yes this idea is beginning to sink in, slowly but surely we will all get better at this.

Take care Patrick