What do you do in case of emergency?
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Tomorrow it’s Labor Day in the United States, a federal holiday. It’s the unofficial end of summer. School holidays are over and people are getting back to work. Even if you don’t live in the States, statistically speaking you probably live in the northern hemisphere. A new season is starting. A season of more work and less play. That makes this a good time to refresh some work skills. Why? Let me illustrate with one of my favorite activities: skydiving. Skydiving is an expensive sport that you can’t just do anywhere, anytime. Many people, myself included, don’t jump every week. Instead, we go for a skydiving trip a couple of times a year, so we jump in bursts. But if it’s been months since you last jumped out of a plane, you really want to refresh your skills. At the very least, you should review your emergency procedures: which handles do you pull if your main parachute doesn’t deploy? You really don’t want to mess these procedures up.
And what’s the best time to review your procedures and refresh your skills? Right before your next jump, of course. Let’s think about this next season of the year again. More work, less play. More productivity, less relaxing by the beach or in a park. Clarify what you’re planning to achieve in these coming months. Say, between now and the end-of-year holidays. Allow yourself 10 minutes to sort out your priorities. Make a little list, just like this:
Do this and you can spend the next few months without second-guessing yourself every day. Without feeling guilty about everything you didn’t get around to. This long weekend is the perfect time to do this, as we’re transitioning from leisure to work. And just like the right time to review your skydiving emergency procedures is the day before your next jump… Now is the right time to refresh your productivity skills. |
Peter Akkies
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