Season of lists and Trello fruitfulness
August is a month largely characterised by the number of Out of Office auto replies you receive on a daily basis. For those of us not taking the kids to rainy Cornwall, it can feel a little like you’re the only one still in the office. But beyond patting ourselves on the back and popping out for a self-congratulatory frozen yoghurt mid-afternoon, what can we do to make use of this eerily quiet season for business?
We recently held our annual away day — the timing of which was honestly was not a result of careful planning so much as the first date we could all make when we booked it back in May. But, on reflection, the end of July was the perfect time for our day away from the business-as-usual — coming just prior to our quietest month for client events, we ended the day by assigning each other a bunch of actions that we felt we might actually have some chance of achieving in the month that followed. Just for good measure, we also threw an office move and a new hire into July. So it was a full month, yes, but full of decisions and activities we normally struggle to find time for.
Our plan now is to use August to work hard on making those things happen, before the usual pace of life catches up with us again in September. We have a shiny new Trello board called “Summer Away Day 2016” and have a whole heap of actions in there, made clear and achievable (we hope) by the fact we broke them all down and assigned them on the day we spent together. We do this process with our clients, so it makes sense to follow our own methods and use Trello the future of our own business. It’s a great way of not only lifting something out of our brains or a hastily scrawled an undecipherable to-do list, but it’s also essential for holding ourselves accountable — which will be critical when we inevitably run into silly-busy-season in about three weeks’ time.
I’ve always felt that the school term calendar stays with you much longer than you feel it should in adult life. September and January are still seen by many as times for fresh starts — whether that means looking for a new job, moving house or just buying yourself a new pencil case and notebook (never underestimate the invigorating power of a stationery refresh). And whilst, looking at my diary right now, September definitely has that back-to-school feeling about it, perhaps August is the real month of a fresh start: a time to reflect on what’s gone before and plan what happens next.
