How to Get Through Busy Season with a Smile

Feeling like busy season is going to overtake you?  We are right there with you...

Fall is an amazing time of the year - all cute with changing leaves, hot cider and pumpkin patches - but if you live in the marketing world, you know that this is the time of year you are always one late night client email away from waking up on your phone... 

We’ve all experienced the message: “urgent” (no context), “need this by EOD please”, “hey just circling back here”, and the dreaded “are we pushing the deadline back? because we have to.”  It is easy to get sucked into the whirlwind of client facing activity. It’s what makes you great - an ever present commitment to maintaining great relationships and delivering the highest level of quality in your products and services… but it doesn’t make it easy!  So, we’ve come up with a few ideas to share for how to bring balance and deliver on that promise - to your clients and yourself.

You Know it’s Coming. Over Prepare.

The beauty of the busy season is that it’s consistent. Months of running chaos, full of unpredictable and new high stack initiatives  - followed by miscommunication due to rushing to get something done before the deadline - creates roadblocks for creativity and decreases the fulfillment that should come with each professional accomplishment. In order to properly handle this high stress environment and still love what you do, being overly prepared + organized is everything. 

Advanced planning and strategy gives us the ability to create a path that is clear, months in advance. This allows us to get ahead of potential stressors by providing time to assess risks for new campaigns and anticipate potential industry-specific market shifts during the holiday season. Proactively thinking through issues and resolutions creates the space we need to respond to these situations in the moment with a clear and objective mindset. This approach also creates more time for the type of show stopping innovation that sets us above.

We get it, this planning cycle can seem redundant or a waste of time when there is implementation and execution to be done. It can also appear futile, as plans go out the window in the moment. While we’ve all seen this play out, the effort is always rewarded - a plan not only serves to be your response mechanism when “it” hits the fan. Planning helps to build the frameworks or “tools in the chest” to act as guides when times get tough. These frameworks act as guides so when your work throws you a curveball, you can maintain perspective and keep your eye on the end goal. They are highways in your mind that serve as guides in an ever changing environment. Nirvana is stepping back, watching your plan in action - having busy season mostly run itself - slightly tweaking here and there.  It is not only more productive, it is much more rewarding!

Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable. - Dwight D. Eisenhower

I’m Tired. You’re Tired. Let’s Focus on the Real Stuff. 

So, planning is great and all, but when it comes to methods of execution, many times it spirals and becomes all about making lists to complete off, only to see your efforts rewarded with a larger list stacking up into the next day… so what else can you do?

First, no one has time to do it all - you must accept in many ways you aren’t always in control, and that is okay.  Fretting about the small tasks you didn’t get to or the email you missed (that will eventually get taken care of) is a focus on the things that won’t actually move the needle in your business. Anxiety can be useful, but unchecked it can actually taking you away from your true potential. So good news: you can stop worrying! 

Once you have released yourself from the burden of complete control, it frees you to focus on what truly matters - to you and your business.  Remember those guiding strategic thoughts that come from planning? Prioritize within those using a simplified, succinct approach with a focus on those things that get you out of bed.  Those inspiring levers that drive you and the things you touch. Sure, the to-do list is always there and you must fold in execution to your business, but you are first and foremost a leader.  You are the vision and the mission behind what you do. Spend time with those things, and you will unlock the future you are seeking.

Give Yourself Some Credit. 

All of this is hard work!  This is the time of year that can lead to emotional drainage  and burn out. The trendy approach to solve for this is self-love and self-care, which is a very healthy objective we completely endorse, but you should also be taking the time to reflect on the professional achievements and thanking your team members throughout the season.  A simple thank you or moment of recognition can be all it takes to keep fuel on the fire. We all need to hear and believe that we are pushing the standard. As creatives and marketers we want to make a difference for brands and consumers. This is the time of year that we’re all flexing our muscles to do our jobs well, but also to prove to ourselves we are growing and developing new skill sets. Plus, we are always surprised how these acts of gratefulness can themselves be amazingly impactful acts of self-care… it feels good to love!

So write a little affirmation about your badass self and the work you're doing because together we’re more than optimizing advertising dollars were trying to be memorable. You deserve credit for it and when you give yourself credit all this work actually feels fun. 

The spirit of the season is joy and celebration - so embrace that during busy season and smile! Remind yourself regularly that you love what you do, you are prepared for this, you know what matters and you are awesome at it - then have a glass of wine (we recommend enjoying a little Biltmore Wine of course) and let it go!