What To Do When It’s Slow, Because They’re Busy

For most of the creative industry this time of year is often very slow. People are thinking more about using leftover vacation time, spending time with children while they have a break from school, and what needs to get done before the end of the year. All this adds up to people not being too focused on work, and as a result it’s pretty hard to get much done when the people you are depending on for decisions and approval are off somewhere else mentally. When you are a creative professional this mostly turns into a waiting game, and thus a slow time of year because everyone else is so busy with not working.

I’ve been thinking for the last few months about what to do during the “slow time” at the end of the year. Oddly enough, for our company (PWG Design), this has been a strangely busy time, when normally we are slow during the month of December this year we have been swamped. I ended up with all this thought going into what to do to stay busy, and now am not going to get to do any of it. So, I pass my thoughts along, for whatever they’re worth:

  1. Find out what everyone “busy” doesn’t want to do.
    You’d be totally surprised how much work is out there simply because people don’t want to have to do it instead of taking their vacation.
  2. Work backward from known deadlines coming in the beginning of the following year.
    Demonstrate what needs to be done now in order to meet those deadlines. With minds being elsewhere it is easy to forget priorities.
  3. Start developing new ideas for the coming year.
    Most of the beginning of the year gets lost because planning was not done in advance. Putting proposals in hand right after the first of the year shows you are way on top of the game, and forward thinking.
  4. Don’t waste your time.
    So what if you haven’t done a blog post for three days. Unless it’s important don’t let it detract you from being productive.
  5. Live a little.
    Remember your work is not who you are, and who you are will never be found in how much work you do. While your brain may still be in it, take time off from work, do fun stuff, hang out with people, and enjoy what you have.