Land Your Plane

The Benefits of Slowing Your Pace

Every plane that takes off has to land at some point in time.  Your week represents the time you spend in the air or in this case working.

Each Friday, I end my team meeting by placing my hand in the air and saying… It’s time to land your plane.  You took off Monday and have been cruising through your entire week at over 30K feet.  It’s time to bring it in for a landing.  We want to make sure we begin our descent.  We aren’t going to bring it in too quickly, but slowly for a smooth landing.

I don’t want the team to leave anything in the air.  So I help them by reviewing our team’s priorities list.  BTW – You need a list.  I’ll get to that in a minute.  I change all the due dates and checkpoint dates to Monday for the items that can wait.  By the time we finish discussing, there are only a handful of mission critical, manageable items that remain.

You need a list.
You need a list.  Your team needs a list.  Your family. Your church.  Even your friends.  If you want to accomplish great things.  You need a list.  Your list can be personalized and doesn’t have to be like anyone else’s.  You need it to keep track of the things that need to get done as well as to save time when you decide to work.  You don’t have to continually think of all the things you must get done.  I think I’ll save more of this for a later date.  Moving on…

Must this be done today?
You can implement this process for any team (family, relationships, company, sports team, study groups, etc.).
The one question you should ask for each item on your list is must this be done today?  If not, move it.  BTW – everything on your list never gets done anyway. Get used to it.  That’s why you have a list.  You wouldn’t need a list if you could get it all done.  Save yourself added stress.  Move it if it can be moved and only focus on the 1 thing that can’t.

Remember these are tips to help you slow the pace in order to bring an end to work and give your life the balance you need to “recreate”.  As added motivation, here’s a thought.  You get 5 days to work and only 2 days for recreation.  Do you want to give more of your downtime to work? Or would you like to take full advantage of the rest and relaxation you’re due and need to be more productive?

The benefits.
My team loves Fridays.  I help take their stresses away.
My family, especially my wife, loves the fact that she can now plan my weekends for whatever she wants (within reason).  After implementing this process, I was able to give her control of planning our weekends without work interfering.
The benefits can be endless; what can you dream of doing that work gets in the way.  Land your plane.