"Lost time is never found again." ~ Benjamin Franklin.
Last fortnight I made the case for the importance of rest. This time, the harder question: how do you actually rest when the job list never ends?
I’m no expert (and it's something I'm still working on!) but here’s what I've learned.
1. Plan your year
Often, the big reason we don't rest is because it feels like there is SO MUCH work to be done.
And in some ways that's true! We will always have more work we'd like to do. But not everything has the same level of return.
So, if you feel like you've got no time to rest, here's what I want you to do:
Spend 3-4 hours one day creating an annual planner (there's also a downloadable spreadsheet to help you get started at that link). Put down everything that you normally do in a year. These are all the things that make money for your business, and keep your land producing.
This does two things:
First, it's amazing how much space you'll find in your calendar. The core operations will likely leave a lot of freedom for other nice-to-do jobs. And for rest!
(If your whole year is very full, then you either have too much complexity in your business or you don't have enough staff - you probably need to make fixing that a priority.)
Second, it means you are less likely to miss things. And a lot of wasted time comes from fighting fires because we forgot or weren't timely enough on something small leading up to a major task. Like not ordering ear tags early enough.
Wasted time also comes from silly mistakes. Like the time I moved a mob of cattle further away from the yards just before preg testing. Six extra hours of mustering… 🤦♂️
It doesn't have to be that complicated - some highlighters and scribbling on free calendars...
2. Get the rest of the jobs out of your head
The other thing that makes us feel like we've got no time to rest is that we have all these other jobs that we'd love to do. While we've got that all up in our heads, it feels overwhelming.
So, once you've got your annual calendar, it's time to get those other jobs out of your head and onto a piece of paper (or task app, or whiteboard).
Split them up into things that need doing now, and things that can wait.
If you prioritise just a couple of these each week, it's amazing how much clearer your brain feels. And paradoxically, how much more you achieve.
And do this regularly. There's times I've found myself getting stressed about everything I need to do. I've put it on paper, and realised that it was only 5 or 6 tasks, and some of them were 15-minute jobs! But, because they were crowding space in my head, it felt overwhelming.
Make space to rest like these 3 lambs (have to look closely for the third!)
3. Get the right genetics
A bit of a cheeky last tip… But it's so true. Sheep have a bad rap for being lots of work. And I know of places that are still drenching every 6 weeks and having to apply a fly treatment every 3 months. And having to feed dying sheep as soon as the feed starts to go off.
Ain't nobody got time for that!!!
It's why so many sheep producers are now running wannabe goats (dorpers), cattle, or even actual goats.
But merinos don't need to be all that much extra work beyond shearing. It's why we focus so hard on quality wool that doesn't get flyblown, worm resistance so they don't need drenching, fat & muscle so they don't need as much feeding, and lamb survival so they bring those lambs in without any work.
Sheep that work for you, not make work for you!!!
Just doing their thing making lots of lambs.
So get the right genetics. Get the jobs out of your head. And plan time to rest. If a full day feels impossible right now, start with half a day!
Until next time!
Alan Rissmann