The message came onto the display panel of my Saab yesterday – “Time for Service.” Since cars have somehow become smarter than people, I took it seriously enough to look it up online. Seems the car has been pre-programmed to give service notices at particular mileage or date points. Since we just turned over 56K, that corresponded with what Saab’s website was saying. I was glad because it meant I didn’t have to crawl under the hood and locate, then replace whatever cable or part was giving me fits.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we came with these notices? Our cars, our homes, our kids, our pets all get regular attention and care. Our businesses? Ourselves? Not so much. If your business had a “time for service” notice, what would it be reminding you to do? Most likely it would be a marketing reminder or a reminder to chase down those overdue invoices. And your personal reminder? When was the last time you took a week off or even a day off? When was the last time you read a writing or grammar book, taken a class, or improved your business in some way? When was the last time you applied any of the Worthy Tips I’ve put out here?
Time for service, folks. Here’s a suggestion – open Outlook, Lotus Notes, or Mozilla’s calendar function and schedule your own maintenance. Pick a day to take off and enjoy yourself. Choose a deadline for sending out XX marketing pieces. List a week’s worth of clients to contact personally, spreading them out over an entire week (yes, type their names into your calendar).
How to you maintain your business and your sanity? What regenerates both areas?
8 responses to “Worthy Tip: Time for Service”
Massage! I am really bad at scheduling them, and always wait way too long. I've decided to sign up for a series of them that require me to show up regularly, at least once a month. This does wonders for my stress levels, which of course impacts both business and personal life.
Your advice is solid. Downtime and marketing time should be a built-in part of any schedule.
Your Saab would get along well with our "family truckster," a Chevy HHR. It sends me emails every once in awhile telling me if the tire pressure is off a little bit, if it's time for an oil change, etc. It sorta freaks me out!
Eileen, I love that idea. I need to find a good massage place – the last one I went to left me feeling, well, a little tattered. I did visit a great rhythmic one once that was just fantastic. I felt great for days afterward.
Carson, this car is quirky enough to love. It's not like my VW, whose manual was more of the "Don't even try it" variety. This one is more like "Sure, go ahead – give it a shot. We'll even help you get going." I miss that VW in handling, but I love this Saab for all its weighty, neat features. Those emails would freak me out, too!
I seldom take full days off, but I just scheduled a "play day" for Monday, March 29. My sister-in-law is going to bring the kids out (ages 5 and 6). It's "spring break" for them, but the goal is to find something fun-but-educational for all of us to do.
I'll also take Good Friday off that week, but that's because I'll be hosting Easter and will have plenty of cleaning and cooking to do.
I actually schedule time for me on my calendar and often it works… now, can anyone tell me what the idiot light in my (older paid for) Honda means? Honda can't get it turned off and none of the other mechanical types I've asked about it have been able to… surprised it hasn't burned out. 😉
Is it the light that shows the engine, Anne? If so, how many miles? The things that come to mind are:
– Catalytic converter
– Battery
– Sensor
– None of the above
If the mechanics find nothing wrong, it's probably something like a sensor or the battery giving you fits. Hard to say without symptoms or any computer diagnostic, but I'd be thinking sensor first.
I definitely need to incorporate these types of messages. Here are a few I need to put in right now:
1. take wife on a date.
2. Play a board game with the kids.
3. get a haircut (Am I the only writer that has this problem?)
4. Go outside and walk for 15 minutes. (take the dog along).
5. Cook supper and do the dishes(again when I am writing, I get in a zone and all of sudden the day is GONE)
I think a good way to "maintain" is to schedule every thing-doctor's appts.,writing time, exercising. You see where I'm going with this? Keep the schedule. I regenerate by taking a step back and evaluating.