Summertime and the living is easy…. Hmm perhaps it is if you are lucky enough to be off on a beach holiday or a relaxing vacation, but for most of us – even those with a break in their diary, summertime can often mean a stressful time. Skeleton staff, covering colleagues, warm days that test tempers. So what if you could cover everything, more efficiently and actually enjoy some of these longe sunny evenings? Follow these simple tips and you just might.

Do more by doing less

Remember almost everybody else is up against it at this time of year, so they don’t have the same time to open this email and that email. You may get more of a customer win if you slow down a bit on your communications and give them a break too.

Take the chance to be creative

In the traditional media, the summer is known as the silly season, as there isn’t usually as much hard news which leads to more obscure and ‘silly’ stories hitting the headlines and being reported. Use that same opportunity to maybe try something new or a new way of doing things. You can almost be guaranteed that you will be preaching to a smaller audience than normal to so use that chance to push the boundaries and see if something new may work.

Use your quiet time effectively

With fewer people in the office, fewer emails coming in and fewer inbound calls you should find you have more time on your hands than usual. Without those distractions use that time to plan longer term, get things organised and set-up systems that will help you through the busier times in the months ahead.

Focus on content marketing

With fewer people around you may not have the same resources to hand as you’d like, so new works of art and masterpieces may be more difficult. If that’s the case turn it to your advantage and have a look at curating what you already have and re-market it during the summer months. A kind of round up of the best bits of the first half of the year. Re-purpose and use content on a different platform from where it was first shared and see if you can hook new business or at least new attention.

The summer – especially if you deal with mainland Europe – can see something like a two to three month slow-down in productivity and availability, so it will pay to refocus your output and attentions during that time. With more efficiency and a happier you, that’s a great way to ensure you enjoy the summer whether you are able to get away or not.