You expect to feel relaxed and ready to go, but instead you just feel….flat.

Don’t forget, in any High Performance Routine you don’t shift from ‘Recovery’ mode into ‘Focus’ overnight.

Just as we don’t instantly relax on day 1 of a holiday, we don’t immediately hit the ground at full speed on return.

“It’s day 1 after my vacation” said one CEO yesterday “so you get the best and worst of me.”

Quite.

In a High Performance Routine what follows Recovery is not Focus, but PREPARATION.

Most of us are in a preparation stage, so here are 3 ideas that may help:

1.   𝗦𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀. Preparation is about narrowing focus. There are roughly 100 days left this year, what do you want to achieve?

Get specific – I’ve got goals in the areas of fitness, finance, family and book writing. There’s spreadsheets and everything.

2.   𝗖𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗸𝘀. Tidy your desk. Unsubscribe from some spam. Channel your Inner Eminem and Clear Out Some Closets.

I’m having a PROPER clearout this week.

3.   𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀. How can you make the next few days, weeks and months easier? What systems need to improve? When will you do important stuff?

Today I went to the optician (so I am literally preparing to focus) and I’ve been getting workouts into the diary along with my kids’ sporting commitments.

Whether it’s a couple of hours or days, it’s normal and necessary to have to psychologically get back up to speed, so embrace this period with some solid PREPARATION time.