Half-stopping – have you ever heard of that as a way for super busy leaders to recharge? I hadn’t. Be inspired then by David Rock’s “Half-Time August”. As a super busy USA leader he says he cannot take a fortnight’s holiday without being very stressed before hand and afterwards. He can, however, take a month’s holiday with his family and work half-time. For all you leaders in the Southern Hemisphere, this is your “Half-Time January”. David solves the super busy leader’s dilemma of not being able to stop work, as well as the work-life integration dilemma. He goes off with his family for a month – works half time and spends the other half with his family. He will often work 2-3 days and then takes long week-ends of 3-4 days when he does no work. Or he works half days and then spends the rest of the day with family.

If stress and overwhelm have taken control of your life  the only way back is to stop, step back and recharge. That is incredibly hard for leaders to do when they see everything they do as vitally important. The answer is not, as many think, about improving their time management skills. It is about being able to set priorities, of being able to determine what’s most important. It is also about knowing what to stop doing, what to keep doing and what to start doing. You can only do this when your head is clear, not when it is overloaded with lists of what you have to do. In this blog you’ll find ways for super busy leaders on how to stop and how to recharge. When we can find what allows us to stop, step back and recharge, we need to do more of it.