I’ve had a busy year. Who hasn’t? As I have long espoused, we all have the same 24 hours in a day… we simply choose how we fill them up; plus, I don’t know too many people who would say they have a lot of extra time in their lives.
Personally, the way that “busy-ness” has manifested itself has taken me away from some of my standard operating procedures that help me to maintain order and discipline in my business and life in general. These activities include things like regularly blogging (used to be weekly as if by religious doctrine… realized that today’s post is the first since mid-February… YIKES!), proactive networking outreach (yes, I’m still maintaining a coffee-lunch-coffee lifestyle, but I’m not doing a great job of relationship base expansion), and new client prospecting (I’m probably relying too heavily on word of mouth and sheer dumb luck!). It’s getting me down!
In fact, my current circumstances smacked me square in the face not long ago when I discovered that someone to whom I had provided advice on the writing and publication of her book a few years ago had published that book earlier this year, but had neglected to invite me to her launch event. Bummer. It made me feel left out and got me thinking, has my insularly-focused schedule – busy as it is – taken me too far away from being visible to those around me? Do others suffer similar woes?
In talking with my husband about the situation, he reminded me of the old adage, “plan your work and work your plan.” He suggested that I do a reset on my business, building-in time for myself, my company (that means networking!) and my family, to better address the things that are important to me. It was great advice.
So, the moral of this story? Even when things feel overly-busy, even when you must retreat into your narrowly-focused world due to a current project load or obligation, be sure that you maintain some visibility from a networking-perspective so as to not be forgotten by your community. Nobody wants to be outta sight, outta mind.
NOTE: In the spirit of this post and by tradition, I’ll be back in November for my annual National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) blitz! We’ll cover the ABCs of Networking together. Until then…
Happy Networking!
What you said and how you feel is exactly what I (and many others) feel. Our lives have become very disruptive and distracted by the world around us. So, our down time seems to have disappeared. It’s time to make the changes that can make us happier and more productive.
Worried about three factors
– the lack of down time is making us strangers in the same space.
We are loosing track of time, and getting tired too early.
We are over achieving but feeling empty.
We need to be exposed to the exchange of energy from each others presence, and more eye contact perhaps?