D-Day Veteran Bryson William Verdun Hayes, known as Verdun, shows us how to have fun – he’s the oldest British skydiver at 101 years and 38 days. He broke the record by completing a tandem skydive with three generations of his family in Devon in May 2017 in a sponsored jump for the Royal British Legion.
You need to take time off to unwind and recharge if you want to be a high performer.
There’s no prizes for being a martyr and not using up your holiday entitlement.
Ernst and Young conducted research on its employees and found that for every extra ten hours spent on vacation, yearly performance reviews went up by eight per cent.*
Look around you – do people doing better than you seem to make a greater contribution in less hours?
I’d place a bet that they leave work before you do. They get more important work done in less time and they make sure everyone knows about it. They take more time off to unwind.
They restore their energy so that the standard of their work becomes even higher.
Successful people prioritise ruthlessly. They stick to the work that has the greatest impact. They are smart about where they focus their resources: higher value, lower hanging. They delegate or just drop tasks that don’t contribute to their objectives.
They let you pick up the grunt work instead.
In between, they unwind and enjoy life. They are effective, successful and interesting.
They have a life and tales to tell. Their energy is infectious: other team members and clients want to work with them and that’s how they get to the top.
People who regularly stay late and don’t take their holidays are the ones who make the most errors. They are tired, snappy, put-upon. It does them no favours. Do you know anyone like this? Don’t be that person!
Promotion doesn’t depend on presenteeism any more. (If it still does in your organisation, then change the culture or move!). Some judicious hanging around the office after hours can be useful, but doing visibly great work and using your charm will get you much further.
Crazy Busyness does your career no favours. Chill out, restore your energy and renegotiate your workload if you are doing a job and a half.
Learn to look like you’ve got the capability to take on more responsibility: not like you are already at breaking point.
I’m encouraging my clients to be more like Verdun. What would you aim for if you were fearless?
Do you want your teams to be more productive?
I’m Crazy Busy running Crazy Busy lunchtime/away day sessions, helping people to get more done in a day than they do now in a week. We are busting the productivity deficit and increasing wellbeing at the same time. What’s not to like?
Click here for more information: https://www.zenaeverett.com/speaking/crazy-busy-masterclass or better still: pick up the phone.
Here’s the Crazy Busy short book that goes with the session: http://amzn.to/2GKQQTa
Please feel free to share this with anyone in your network who might find it helpful – or needs to take a break and recharge.
*Cal Newport (2016), Deep work, Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, Hachette