Thursday Sucked and Friday Didn’t

How can two days back to back feel so different?

MY THURSDAY

8:30 am – 2-hour meeting with two colleagues in a different department and a consultant I had hired.

10:30 am – Stop in for tail end of quarterly staff chapel and chat with staff I don’t see very often

11:30 am– Rush off to a 2-hour awards luncheon where I did not know anyone

Afternoon – back-to-back meetings with no time to even check email

4:30 pm – crash

MY FRIDAY

7:15 am — 3.5-hour breakfast and presentations for a leadership program I’m in where I have gotten to know some of the people who were at the event (and I got to get on stage for 5 minutes to talk)

11:30 am – lunch with someone trying to figure out what to do with his life

Afternoon – working back and forth with my staff on projects

5:30 pm – catch up on emails

7 pm – leave work with energy to go to dinner with a friend

How is it that I worked a longer day Friday and left feeling good? If you looked at my calendar on Outlook, the schedules would not appear that different. When we think about working in our strengths, it’s the nuances that really matter.

On both Thursday and Friday, I went to a long breakfast/lunch. The difference was that I knew people at one and that I got to be up on stage, which I love!

On Thursday, I was in meetings all day. As an introvert, that killed me. (For a colleague of mine, this would have been her dream day!) On Friday, I was around people all day, but it was people close to me like my staff (I didn’t have to “be on”).

How can you shift your schedule just slightly to make sure you are not ready to crash at the end of the day?  Look closely at how you book your calendar, and book some slots for things that make you feel strong and energized every day. Don’t book the draining activities back to back in one day. It’s pretty simple, but easy to overlook if you are not paying attention.