There is always a day when you notice it, usually mid-August. There is a slight cool breeze in the air, more amber hue to the sunlight, or a chill when you open the window in the morning. You suddenly realise peak summer has gone, and we are on the run down to Autumn.

In the UK, where we have been waiting for summer to actually start, this somewhat inevitable event is just not great news… and this weekend Twitter or X did not exactly help my mood by cheerily pointing out that this is the last time the sun sets after 8pm (in London) until next April. Great!

For some, those that can, this is a signal to get away to warmer climes.

However, for the rest of us, it is a sign, this bank holiday weekend, to have one last hurrah, pretending it is still summer, before the back to school, and back-to-work, start in earnest next week.

Summer this year has undoubtedly been a bit of an excuse to suspend many of the worries in the world, where I have desperately tried to ignore the news and pretend everything is just fine… (it has been hard I admit)

Yet now having to face the full reality of heading back next week, I am a little worried. I expect most of these uncertainties to still be there, having not gone away… and judging by the toxic soup that seems to infest many comment pages these days, actually getting worse.

So the question at this point is what is to be done about it? (without just booking another holiday!).

Certainly, bad news can have negative effects.

It impacts our mood, our well-being, and importantly can also result in hesitation. Hesitation to make important decisions.

For example, it is all too easy to wait to make important investments, delay developing new skills, products, or redesigning processes…. all in the secret hope that the world will go back to the comfortable previous version… and all will be okay again… if only we wait long enough.

However unfortunately this current reality is most likely here to stay, and we can easily get caught like a deer in the headlights, unable to move.

Yet if we don’t lay down the groundwork now, we are also cutting off our future growth, constraining our ability to adapt and change. A small hesitation in the long run becomes procrastination and costs us more.

Now I am not saying we should all be Pollyanna or stick our head in the sand and pretend nothing has changed. That can also be expensive too (Kodak and Blockbuster spring to mind). However, as hard as it is, making smart investments now and being optimistic, can pay big dividends.

So if like me you are feeling that end-of-summer urge to extend the holidays and ‘hesitate’ a little, maybe we need to take a leaf from the back-to-school mentality…

In academia, it is the start of a ‘new year’, new subjects, new people, and new things to learn. In many ways, every year is a fresh start and a great time time to plan, and set out your vision for the future… Where can I grow my skills, where can I develop new products and where can I find an edge? At this point, all is still to play for, optimism runs high.

So this is my plan this year… a plan to build new things, develop and grow.

And if, collectively, we can shake the growing malaise there feels around us sometimes, maybe we can all feel more positive and move forward.

Fingers crossed… and welcome back.

This week, I was struck down by the lurgy. Not the normal run-of-the-mill sniffles, but the proper ‘I need to go to bed’ feeling type, which is unusual.

Although I did test negative for COVID, it did bring back memories… and not great ones… especially the brain fog.

My suspicion is being crammed in an aeroplane for a couple of hours with lots of other people did not help and from what I have been hearing, a lot of others seem to have had something similar too.

And, having been away a bit the last few weeks, the timing has been tricky.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I have two categories of things to do before I leave for a trip:

1. things that must get done – items I don’t want to have on my plate when I am back
2. things that can wait – on my to-do list for when I’m back in the office

Before the break, #1 is the problem… you run around like mad trying to tick things off, and get ready… and with thoughts of beach, late mornings, and all-you-can-eat lunches growing in anticipation of the vacation… the temptation to push some, if not most of them, into category #2 is huge.

But, of course, to do so just makes the challenge, when you do return, even greater… as on your return you again need to run around like mad trying to tick things off to catch up!

So having already a long to-do list, being unwell soon after your return is, let’s just say, not helpful…

It was, however, what it was, and by Thursday I was confined to bed… trying to get some rest.

In our ‘always on’ and ‘remote enabled’ world, especially if time working equates to revenue, switching off is hard. But as I needed to be better for next week, pure rest was prescribed. So the diary was cleared… a whole day just to rest and recuperate.

It started well, with a triumvirate line of mugs… lemon-ginger-honey, Lemsip, and tea. A solid start, yes, but now what?

By 11 a.m., I was bored… just so bored.

Work was not an option; I was not thinking straight; I was not tired so couldn’t sleep… and it dawned on me that being ill is just really really boring.

I think it may have been the only time I was grateful for TikTok; allowing me to waste an entire hour easily. Maybe this is what it should really be used for, although the dangers of Lemsip-related changes to your algorithm should not be underestimated.

It was just really hard to switch off.

Eventually, coaxed by some very mindless shows on Netflix… it was cake btw… I did manage to drift off.

In a smaller sense, this echoes the same battle we have with work-life balance.

We know we need to get some balance, but when faced with the reality of switching off it is hard, especially when you know full well that there are things that need to be done, piling up and waiting for you when you return.

The easy choice is to just keep going, especially in the short term… but by keeping going we don’t get the rest we need and our performance dips. Over the long term, we burn out and don’t get much better.

Yet, after a full day off, I definitely feel on the mend.

With the holiday season in full swing, my reflection this week is how it is important that we all take a proper break, look after ourselves and stay healthy.

So, have fun on the beach, be careful not to catch anything on the plane back, and most importantly, make sure you leave the laptop home.

Have a good weekend, everyone.