This week marks five years since I started writing this weekly blog. I still get asked how I find time to write each week. That’s a great question. There are weeks when I don’t know how I will find the time.  At industry conferences, people often come up to me and tell me how much they appreciate my blog. I was recently asked how long I’m going to keep writing. My answer was I’ll write as long as I have something to say that’s useful to others.

This is week three of my new interim management engagement. I have many new topics to cover based on all the best practices I’m seeing (PMO, Service Management, and effective meetings to name a few) but very little time to write.

My days are what you’d expect in an operations role while being in a learning mode. My nights are full reviewing documents balanced with addressing the highest priority follow-up work as a principal in StarBridge Advisors.

While I’m trying to keep up some level of exercise routine, gym workouts have fallen by the wayside. When we get busy, we have to prioritize and re-prioritize and be willing to let some things go. And we need to take care of ourselves.

Thursday night is when I usually finalize my blog and get it ready to publish first thing Friday morning. Many weeks, it’s when I finally write what I’ve been percolating on for a few days.

But this week Thursday night was a “date night”. A few years back when my husband and I first discussed the idea of me doing interim engagements, we thought that it could also mean having an adventure in another city if he came with me at times. We decided this was a good week for him to be in Burlington with me. We acted on that adventure goal and bought tickets for the Thursday night performance at the Burlington Jazz Festival. It seemed like a great idea at the time.

But how often have you planned something well in advance and when the day finally comes you wonder how you can make the time? You have so much to do and you’re feeling behind. If you take that to the extreme, you would plan vacations, book trips and then when the week finally comes decide you’re too busy to go on vacation.

I’ve learned over a long career that you have to take care of yourself because no one else will. That means eating right, exercising regularly, getting enough sleep, having fun, and spending time with family and friends.

Summer is here. It’s prime vacation time. It’s a great time to make sure you have your priorities straight and the balance in life you need. And yes, we did go to the jazz festival and had a great time!

Related Posts:

Family first

Taking control of your life

Balancing career and family

If not now, when?

One of those weeks…