Intentional Summer: Planning, Playing, and Progressing in Your Own Time

I am going to start with the ending highlights.  Here's what I will cover today:

• Time is weird.  Summer is here.  Mostly.

• Let's intentionally enjoy the relaxed schedule of summer.

• Understand the difference between a task and a project.

• Also intentionally, let's choose or not to still make progress on projects, even within the summer schedule.

• And consider gamifying the process, if you'd like, because that is a strategy that helps some of us stay motivated.

We traveled over the weekend - again - to Michigan for a family function. I grew up in Michigan though I have lived in Illinois now for 32 years. My parents live in Michigan, both of my siblings and their families live in Michigan. My cousins from Ohio and Tennessee have come up to visit during the month for all of the events. Thankfully, though my husband's family does not live in Michigan full time, they do vacation there, so we have been able to see most of the immediate family at least some time in the last month. Except for my middle son who is in Alaska for 4 months on a gig, but that is another story for another article and episode.

We are blessed, my friends. Blessed to have a family that we want to spend time with and who wants to spend time with us. Blessed to have graduations and birthdays and milestones to celebrate. We are blessed.  And we're also a little tired.  I can admit to being tired and still be supremely grateful for all the goodness in my life. 

It started to feel like summer for me back in May, when my college student came home for the summer. But that wasn't really the start of summer. And we've been celebrating graduations and birthdays and Mother's Day and Father's Day and all the good things. Yesterday, we attended the last graduation party we had on the calendar and we are also not traveling next weekend, and NOW, now, now I feel like summer is here.

I know, time is weird. 

The start of summer is arbitrary. Was it back in May? Was it Memorial Day weekend? Was it when the local school kids finished their school year for the summer (last Thursday)?  Is it the first stretch of really warm and sunny weather?  Yes, it's arbitrary. But I am saying out loud for myself, I think it's here.  And... What does that mean?

For me, and I invite you to consider these ideas, too, it means that: this time of year, like any time of transition, is a great opportunity to review our routines, goals, projects and tasks, both personally and professionally.

When my kids were little, we had an adventure plan for summer.  We would list 10 things we wanted to do over the summer like “go to the Aquarium, Lincoln Park Zoo, Brookfield Zoo, Downtown on the Train for lunch with Dad, Plush Horse for ice cream, see ‘Insert Name for Summer Blockbuster Movie’ here”, etc. I would have my own summer projects with the kids, too, like reviewing their school papers from the previous year and purging almost all, and reviewing their clothes and closets, and I would spread those projects over the occasional rainy days and then go do something fun after.

We would make the plan and leave it posted on the fridge to ensure a balance of getting things done (for me), going to camp and such (for the kids) and also adventures and family fun. 

I recently worked with a coaching client on her Summer Plan. We considered her goals for the entire family: more activity like riding bikes and walking to friends' houses; more family activities like going to the community pool together in the evenings and one outing a week like the zoo or park; and also her own professional goals like setting up activities for her school age kids so she can still get some client work done during the day.

My husband and I spent time in April plotting the big projects and milestones for the summer. Including all the graduations and parties I started this article talking about, an upcoming adventure to see the Alaska son, medical follow up for some chronic issues, days blocked in late July and early August to get one son back to college and help another son get ready for Grad School. We have an annual trip to Massachusetts in August for a concert weekend.  A house project that will now wait until two sons (and their stuff) are back at school so that there is less stuff in the house to move around.

I love Summer and the feeling of expansion in my calendar, fewer evening meetings and responsibilities, more fun with friends and family, the quiet mornings on my deck. I feel proud of all that I have accomplished in the last few months and I also look forward to a less hectic pace for a bit. But I also like that balance that I mentioned from our summers long ago.  Productivity and purpose and adventures and fun.

What I am thinking about this week and I'm inviting you to do the same, is how to plan what I want to accomplish personally and professionally this summer.  Even in summer, I always feel better with a plan, I still want a plan.  I still want to make progress on projects and goals even in the midst of relaxing and having fun. So I need to get intentional, and set the plan so I can start tackling the tasks.

I was talking to a loved one recently, and they are excited about starting a new job. They gave their current employer a full month notice, and as a responsible director-level team member, they sat down with the CEO and crafted together a list of tasks they needed to complete by the end of the 30 days. They ended up with about 50.  After I chatted with this loved one, applauded them on the new job and marveled at the productivity shown in finishing the last month strong, my brain could not let go of the idea of 50 tasks in 30 days.  Wow. So specific, so action oriented, so motivating because there is an obvious deadline. 

Since I've been thinking about what I want to accomplish this summer, my next thought after the ‘50 tasks in 30 days’ conversation, for myself, was "How to craft this list for me?!"  I don't need 50 tasks, I will just see how many I come up with. And I think I will look at it for more than 30 days. (I have the Phineas and Ferb theme going through my head right now, 104 days of summer vacation).

But today and this week, I am challenging myself to get really specific, break down projects into tasks, and still make progress this summer even while protecting and respecting the slower pace, the peaceful mornings, the relaxing evenings, the adventures we will take?

A quick vocab lesson: per Casey Moore in her book The Productivity Chain, who was the instructor for my recent Productivity Coaching class, 

• A task is a "one step action or activity", usually one small piece of a project, role, responsibility or function, but can also stand alone; and 

• A project is "any desired result that requires more than one action step to achieve" (quoting Casey quoting David Allen's Getting Things Done").

• Those projects move us towards our goals. But we need to break down the big stuff into small tasks so we can actually take action. 

• Ahead of the action, we determine our goals, the projects we need to complete to achieve the goals and then identify the tasks that make up the project.

As I worked through the coursework for the Productivity Coaching class, I realized that I need to get better at distinguishing between tasks and projects.  I regularly take on far more than I can feasibly accomplish in a day when I put a single line item on my to-do list that is a project "Publish this week's Content" instead of the tasks, "Write article, edit article, record as a podcast, publish the article, write this week's newsletter in constant contact, send this week's newsletter in constant contact", etc.

A real world example from my to-do list is "set up the weekly schedule for membership circle".  

Yes, that is an admirable idea. But it is a PROJECT with many moving parts!  Which is most likely why it has not happened yet.  Tasks attached are "list product offerings, determine frequency of  product offerings (daily, weekly?), attach topics to product offerings (monthly goal setting sessions), choose and add an additional finish line friday type accountability group but on a different day, start a document and stock pile of self care, positivity and productivity posts so I can be at least a week or two ahead on my content, etc."

I can also gamify the planning process, which is a motivator in and of itself!

Here's the deal - I don't yet know what the tasks will be.  But I am excited at the prospect of identifying the projects I want to complete in the next few months, and breaking those larger projects into little tiny actionable steps.  At one point, in my class notes, I asked myself how much overwhelm I could avoid if all the tasks on my to-do list were ridiculously simple, "send email to so and so", and took 20 minutes or less to complete. Yes, getting to those broken down tasks and actions takes more time in the planning stages, but implementation success would be almost guaranteed!

Recapping today's highlights:

• Time is weird.  Summer is here.  Mostly.

• Intentionally enjoy the relaxed schedule of summer.

• Understand the difference between a task and a project.

• Gamify the process, if you'd like, because that is a strategy that helps some of us stay motivated.

• Also intentionally, choose or not to still make progress on projects, even within the summer schedule.