When my vacation was wrapping up last month, it hit me pretty hard that it had not been nearly long enough. It took me about 4 days just to chill out, and then we only had a couple of days left. This is not a major life problem, but it became clear to me that more down time was in order.
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It shouldn’t have come as a surprise.
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I coach on boundaries all the time because, well, we teach what we need. I had a major backslide on my own boundary setting this past spring, and I paid in lost time, lost rest, and lost focus, all of which amounted to me being majorly depleted. This is to be expected when you lose track of setting healthy limits.
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What I learned? All that lost time and energy in Q2 was because I didn’t listen to my intuition, didn’t honor my boundaries, and allowed the scope of a big work project to creep. Oops, I definitely ought to have known better! This is normal—missteps in life and business (and the way one affects the other) happen to the *best* of us 🙂 .
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On vacation, I found myself happily recovering my energy and enthusiasm, but it was slow going, and ultimately a week off just wasn’t enough. Noted for next time. So instead of bouncing back to work full throttle after returning home, I paced myself to get back up to speed without additional vacation time. I found these steps super helpful for getting back on track:

1. 1. I reconnected to my 2022 goals and my word of the year–ALIGNMENT. I’m getting strategic and focused. 
   2. I spent the first 2 weeks after vacation focused exclusively on servicing clients, rather than catching up on inboxes and the piles that inevitably grow when one is out-of-office. Sure, it made my inbox(es) a bit messy, but it’s been ok. I’m being judicious with my energy and putting first things first, which feels empowering and frankly, responsible. 
   3. I have been crossing A LOT off my list. Speaking of alignment, I’m paring to-do’s down to only the things that serve my most important goals. Not to say that this is easy to do, it’s hard to say no to projects that sound fun! But I’m committed to taking it step by step (ha ha “steps” was last year’s word of the year)

All of this focus on focus has helped me get back into flow. I’m feeling way more productive and also having fun (including wrangling inboxes a bit!)
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Another by-product of really homing in on what matters? I’m finding myself enjoying an easy breezy summer vibe while being even more productive in my work, and that feels satisfying. Because of this, I was able to book more time off for the end of summer, something to look forward to. How are you finding your flow these days?