Pause • Plan • Do

Welcome to the final days of summer. Sure, the Gregorian calendar tells us that summer runs until the third week of September, but in my mind it's not the fall equinox that demarcates the season — for me the end of summer has always simply been the end of August. Labor Day marks a turning point as I pivot into the fall sprint that will lead me into Christmas and the end of the year.

I know that most schools start this week, if they haven't started already, but the relatively few appointments on my calendar tells me that many others are stretching out the dog days of summer for one more week. I have the rare opportunity to do some deep thinking and a bit of research on some new material I am developing for the fall. I may also get in a bit of pre-reading for our book club that starts next week. 

Seize the day … and the week.

How about you? How is your week shaping up? As we launch into these final days of summer, let’s do our usual planning and visioning for the week ahead. 

1. Take a moment to review and ponder your calendar
   • What meetings do you have? How will you prepare for each day?
   • How much time do you have left to work on what is important to you? (Add up the hours of meetings and subtract the total from 45. This is the total time you have to work on everything else.)
2. What opportunities is the week presenting to you?
   • What must be done by Friday? How will you get it done? Block time on your calendar for the big things.
   • Give the total remaining hours you have available this week (after meetings), what's possible?
3. How will you take care of yourself?
   • What can you do to make sure you get enough sleep?
   • How can you ensure that you eat healthy?
   • What are your exercise goals?
4. Finally, how was your summer?
   Take a moment to look back over your whole summer.
   • What's different for you now compared to who and where you were at the beginning of June?
   • What did you learn this summer?

Please drop my a line and let me know what you are working on and what you are learning. I'd love to hear how it is going.

Join the Club!

Don't forget to sign up for our book club. We are up to 10 members and there's no upper limit on how many can participate (oh, the wonders of modern technology).

We are reading Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. Tom Peters believes this is one of the most important books in the last 25 years. See the post on the blog for full details.

How to Participate

1. Join the LinkedIn group where we’ll be holding our online discussions.
2. Buy the book. I'll be reading the Kindle version.
3. Download the Reading Schedule.
4. Start reading along with us the week of September 1.

I am so thankful to have you each along for this journey. Thanks for engaging with me in an effort to make our lives more satisfying and the world a better place to work — one week at a time.

Carpe diem.