Every year I hear the same thing. People feel rushed, they start to dislike family gatherings because of the obligations and “stuff” that they have to do. They have to make time to go present shopping, cook, parties, and all of life’s other tidbits.

It’s chaos overload for most of those around me, including the folks that work and play at Insanitek. 

When stress hits, the brain stops.

I had been thinking about this problem for quite a while as I’ve been feeling the annual pressure since high school when I got my first real job. I never thought it was fun. As as I got older and took on more responsibilities, it got even less fun.

Ali, Insanitek’s cofounder, had his own set of complaints with paper overload at school which caused stress and health issues to flare up. If he’s having problems with the season this soon in, our students might be as well. So, we surveyed them and took account of what they were going through. Turns out that they needed a bit of a break as well.

And the teachers? Same, but worse. Insanitek isn’t their primary place of employment, and all those other places were doing potluck parties, all friends were having gatherings, and well, life. Ouch.

So, Ali and I decided to try something a little old-fashioned — and take things easy. 

Have you ever studied cultural history? I haven’t in any academic way, just in the curious way of a child annoying their grandparents about how things used to be when they were kids. (Yes, I talk to my elders and listen to their stories. You’d be surprised how ill-behaved they were.) But, I also talked with a lot of my elders while volunteering at the nursing home as a teen. A theme that ran through their stories regarding holiday times is that they worked as they had to, but didn’t do a lot of “extras”.

It seemed like they were really good at prioritising and didn’t try to squeeze in nearly as much as we do as most of us. *ahem* <coughs guiltily>

Since Insanitek isn’t a full-time gig for anyone but me, this is a perfect time to start trying out how to work out this prioritisation, time management, and chill approach to our schedule. And we’ve been at it for two weeks, so I’m fairly comfortable reporting the results so far of this relaxing experiment. But let me note one thing first…

Prioritising and communicating = HARD

Image found at Quiescence, if you need a few quick things to find peace every day, check their post.

It seems like we all sorta forgot how to communicate over time. Just being honest. We get busy and just keep moving about our lives, but we don’t bother to give a shout out to keep people updated about things very well, and what our priorities are even less. This is probably the hardest thing to get past, but if you are in a leadership position, it is the key to keeping projects moving forward, even it if it is only incrementally during the holidays.

So, what I do is use a platform called Asana to keep projects listed, prioritise them, and allow people to work on them as they can and want. Then, I ask people to prioritise their work, reminding them that school, their full-time job, and life come first. But, allowing them to commit to things on their time means that they are more likely able to actually get it done during their hectic schedule.

So the key is to work with people to prioritise their life, ask for commitment that is reasonable, and keep a soft communication line always open. 

After we did this, it’s been pretty relaxed, but there have been no hitch in the way things work. Students are still getting their education, projects are still getting done on the side, lab work is still getting done, and the feeling ’round here is relaxed.

That’s not to say it’s all good.

If I were to unveil how this is all really going, it’s going shaky.

Yes, we are feeling slightly less pressured to get ALL THE THINGS done. Yes, we are all feeling a bit more confident in ourselves. Yes, this has stretched us in the realm of communication (which is a freakin’ miracle in the making, I admit). Yes, we are moving forward — at a glacially slow rate.

And that’s the problem is that “glacially slow” rate. I’m not even talking about a melting glacier, but one that happily moves along in the coldest, not quite arid of weather. Instead, one small task gets done a week on the big projects. Several smaller, one-off projects get done just to put a check on the check-list. But anything that requires a second person or team work? It’s not happenin’ any time soon.

In today’s culture of instant gratification and fast growth, this isn’t supposed to be the aim. 

Every company has a team that turns the gears in turn. Turning smoothly makes it work well.

As the captain of this ship, it’s a bit trying on my nerves to “prove” Insanitek, our ideas, and our company to the world. And, sadly, when placed side by side with the glory stories in the news, no one really sees the hard work that each one of the staff puts in before they finally “made it.” And partners with us that haven’t adopted the chill mentality ask where their stuff is. They want results from our teams yesterday, even though they know we are in low gear and working slowly. They assume “slowly” is the same speed as before we all took a breath, organised things, and started to do things differently while making time for all those social obligations.

Stressed? I am more than stressed trying to do damage control while protecting those that work with me. Is it worth it? Hell yes.

Even when you get lucky and instant gratification happens, the feeling of “awesome” doesn’t last. You have to keep going. But, on the whole it doesn’t happen. Every day we build something, whether relationships, businesses, or any other aspect of life. It’s a struggle, but the cliché about the journey is true.

It’s time to start living that truth without apology and enjoy life while we’re at it. 

What are your thoughts? Think we are on the right or wrong track? What would you do as an owner? As a client? As an employee? I would like your voice on the topic so we can refine for next month and upcoming years.