3 Keys to Managing a Six-Day Week

Photo: Dodgerton Skillhause via Morguefile

For a variety of reasons (mostly good), I've been out of my routine for several weeks now. Weekend trips, usually a rare occurrence, have been the norm. Even when they're great trips (going to the beach, visiting my daughter), they still take a bite out of weeks that are usually pretty tightly scheduled to begin with.

Some weeks are like that. No matter how valuable or enjoyable the activity, "losing" one day out of the week can put us behind schedule, leaving us feeling stressed out in the week that follows as we try to "catch up."

When this happens, it's helpful to remember to do a few things as we tackle a "six-day week":

Breathe. Tension and stress do absolutely nothing to help us accomplish our tasks or reach our goals. In fact, they often do just the opposite. Breathe, try to relax, and tackle one thing at a time.

Triage. I'm not a medical professional, so my understanding of this term is limited to my extensive experience watching television medical dramas. Fortunately task triage is much less intense than triage in the emergency room, and boils down to three questions: Who matters most? What matters most? and What has a deadline?

I know, I know -- they all matter. It all matters. But you know what? It doesn't. Some tasks and some people take precedence. To quote Stephen Covey, "Put first things first."

Take small steps. Though the list seems endless and the piles seem to be taking over, every little bit helps. Keep writing things down so they don't fall through the cracks and tackle each item as you can. Then, cross it off the list.

Pixabay

This past week, I added one more, stolen from the safety procedures on airplanes: put your own oxygen mask on first. At my house, it often turns out that these six-day weeks are the ones where everyone else suddenly needs me. Racing to meet other people's needs without taking care of my own leaves me ill-equipped to be helpful and patient.

So, yesterday, I asked myself what constituted putting on my own oxygen mask. Was it a nap? Forgiving myself for not getting through the list? Ordering takeout?

It was writing. If I'm not on a deadline, I find that six-day weeks are the ones where writing time falls to the bottom of the list while I catch up on everything else. So, I designated a chunk of the afternoon as writing time, and put everything else on hold for those few hours.

It was definitely the right decision. Spending that time doing something I loved was a major attitude adjuster. My evening was more productive and I was in a better mood today.

Sometimes, the thing we don't feel like we have time to do is the thing we need the most.