Are Planning 'YOU' Time in 2019?

As the year is coming to a close many of us are in the midst of budgets and planning strategies for our business in the fast-approaching new year. It is easy to get caught up in that process for your store, district, or whatever level you are responsible for. The piece that is easy to forget during this busy time is what are you planning to do for yourself? Self-development is something that also requires forethought and planning. When we do not set specific objectives for ourselves, we tend to let them slide because no time is set aside for those activities.At this point, I am not talking about personal goal setting. I want to concentrate on setting up the time you will need for your own personal activities and what that might look like. This is an area that I too struggle in, so this is as much a reminder to myself as it is for others. We need to establish planned time for our own development and hobbies.

Schedule Quarterly Mini Breaks

I have recently read about and listened to several ideas from productivity experts on podcasts about the idea of taking a short break each quarter for just personal time. The conventional approach is to schedule a weekend away from everyone and everything. It is truly designed to be personal time to gather thoughts, reflect on the previous quarter, and look ahead at what you want to accomplish from a personal point of view.I think this is an excellent idea. My wife and I have talked about this several times over the past few years. However, as we all know, talking about something is a far cry from actually doing something. I can count the exact number of times I have done this in the past three years…0. Each year as I think about this idea, I believe it is a great thing to do, but I have never scheduled it. It does not make it to my calendar, and thus, it doesn’t get done.The reality is we all have busy lives. We all believe that something like that can wait and we will do it if we find the time. The problem is none of us have time to find; there is always something else that can fill those minutes, hours, or in this case days. What I am planning to do this year is to start slow and ease into it. I am going to get on my calendar one day in the first months of the year and a 2nd day in the following four months that I will escape everything and everyone. I am going to put it on the calendar, and I am going to make a hotel reservation, so I have a firm plan for where and what I am going to do this. Starting small may be a good way for you to get going as well. Just pick one day in the part of the new year and make the plan to spend time with just yourself.

Try a Training or Development Session

There are plenty of great options available for investing in your own development for partial and full-day training sessions. Take some time to search for topics that may be of interest to you and find a local course you can attend. I have always found these to be rewarding. The great thing about technology today is that in many cases these types of training sessions can be streamed for anyone across websites. Now you can sit in the comfort of your own home or office and participate in these learning opportunities. Just ensure you set aside the time to be fully present in the session if you are attending via live webcast. It can be easy to think you can manage something like email while attending the webinar. Resist that, just as you would if you were attending live.There are specific benefits to each of these types of sessions. The biggest advantage of attending in person is the ability to meet and speak to other people who are interested in the same thing. When you attend these types of events outside of a company planned training session you will encounter leaders from different backgrounds and industries which only increases the learning potential of the day. I attended a Franklin Covey session earlier in the year and met people from the restaurant industry, the call center industry, construction, and medical professions. Hearing their experiences and what was important to them in these different business types was fascinating. As different as we may think they are from our world of retail, many of the same challenges we face and believe to unique to stores are the same in those other areas.When looking at online options, the benefit is the ability to attend from anywhere. There is no travel involved, and the costs are usually much lower because the presenters can reach large audiences without the added expense of a venue and everything that goes with that. EntreLeadership from the Dave Ramsey Group does several of these types of sessions each year. I would recommend looking into their events. They are typically a half or full day live stream of an event they conduct live in Nashville. They bring in a good mix of speakers and cover multiple topics. The best of these sessions provide a workbook to utilize while you follow along from wherever you choose to watch. It also keeps you engaged in the program and less likely to jump into email or another task while sitting at your desk.These are just a couple of ideas for creating ‘YOU’ time for the coming year. As much as it seems like there is plenty of time to plan for and accomplish things for yourself in the next twelve months, I encourage you to begin NOW. Get specific dates and times on your calendar. Commit yourself to schedule and maintain those dates. Don’t view them as easily moveable or simple placeholders. I am confident when we all look back at this time next year and have kept our promise to ourselves we will be thankful for the time we dedicated to developing our own skills for the future.What are you planning for your ‘YOU’ time in the coming year? Do you have it on your calendar yet? Share your ideas in the comments section.Some resource ideas for leadership development events in 2019:Ignite Your Leadership - 1-day eventEntreLeadership SummitWhat Great Manager Do DifferentlyFind the Best Leadership WebinarsFranklin Covey - EventsJoin other retail leaders in continuing their development journey with Effective Retail Leader.com. SUBSCRIBE today to receive leadership tips directly to your inbox and monthly newsletters that provide many tools to help further develop your leadership skills. JOIN NOW!No spam ever - just leadership goodness.Photo by Ben Sweet on Unsplash