Hey friends, in today's email we will be discussing:
Set boundaries: Listen to your body. Set boundaries and take time to rest. These tips will help you be more relaxed at work.
Embrace AI: There are a lot of AI tools, how do you decide what to use?
Work Smarter, Not Harder: Protecting Yourself from Overwork!
Most of us want to give it our all when it comes to work. Some would go above and beyond to make sure we can impress our manager so that we would be able to get a promotion over time. Sometimes, within that process, we forget to set boundaries. It’s not wrong to work hard and make extra hours for your employer, but you’ll have to manage it closely.
You don’t just want to keep pouring energy into work, without getting a break. This is how you start getting into burn-out territories.
I’ve had managers in the past who would expect people to constantly work. And with that, I mean being available 24/7 and not having a 9 to 5 mentality. If you’re the owner of the company, I can get that perspective. You want to get the most out of people’s pay. I think there is a flip side to this. It’s important for people to take breaks and set boundaries that protect them from themselves and their manager.
It could happen that you’re working at an agency and you work with plenty of different clients. This makes it harder, but even more important to set the right boundaries and not overwork yourself.
I wanted to share some boundaries that I set, but also some examples that you can use for yourself.
Starting with having a life outside of work. You don’t want your work to become your life. Yes, work is an important aspect of your life. Most of us work at least 8 hours a day and we do want to make sure we make the most of it. This can’t, however, become our identity. You’ve probably met people who can only talk about work. It’s all they have.
That’s why it’s important to have a hobby outside of work. This can be anything! You want to make sure you have a focus outside of work so that when the workday ends, you have something to look forward to.
I also believe that you need to be able to set the right expectations at work. Sure, you can be the person who is always available for work, but now this is the brand you’re working with. If things need to get done during out-of-office hours, your name will probably be dropped first.
That’s why it’s important to set boundaries. And like I mentioned before, it doesn’t mean that you won’t ever do anything outside of work hours. I’ve had it during the holiday season where I needed to run a couple of checks, just to make sure everything is working. This took me 15 minutes. Any email or request that I get outside of my check, won’t be taken on. I simply ignore these asks.
What to do when you have a very persistent manager, who kind of demands that you’ll have to work? Boundaries (again). When getting asked to do something outside of work hours, just mention that it’s outside of your work hours. You can mention that you’ll work on it next week. If they mention that it’s really important, mention that it’s the first thing you’ll do when getting back to work the next day.
Take time off. I mean this. It’s very important to take time off. And if you’re not in the position to go on a holiday, it might be an option to have a staycation. When taking a holiday, make sure to turn off your notifications from work. Don’t check any emails. It’s a holiday, which you have a right to. Make sure that before you leave the office, the team can easily take over the most important tasks that need to be done during your absence. But that’s it. I usually tell the team that if something is on fire, they can send me a private message or call. I can then assess if the request is truly a fire, or not. If it’s not, I simply reply that I’ll take a look at it when I am back at the office.
The last one, and maybe the most basic one, is making sure you leave work at a normal time. I’ve had a manager in the past who would start an hour early and stay an hour longer. They thought they would get promoted for the time and effort they put into the company, however, they got told that they didn’t know how to prioritize their work and thus didn’t get promoted. they were lucky, as some companies would give them the promotion. And if they needed to get their work done in time, they would probably start making 12-hour days.
Some might say that a 9 to 5 mentality is bad, but it’s what you get paid for in the end. If you would get paid for the value you’d deliver, you might not even need to full 8 hours per day.
And that’s how you can fight against a burn-out. Take a burn-out seriously, it’s not something to take lightly. You’re body will tell you when it’s tired and needs a rest, so take them.
Embracing AI: A Marketer’s Guide to Innovation!
I have been talking about AI for quite a while now. I hope that you’ve been picking up on the trend as well, as I still believe that AI will change our work for the better. Like I mentioned before, this is not a hype, this is one to stay. I heard a nice comparison. The stage where we are in is similar to when we just had internet and Yahoo had just indexed the internet to help you find websites. Knowing that Yahoo isn’t being used as a search engine anymore, you could say that the current AI tools won’t be the tools we’ll be using in the future.
We are just getting started.
This doesn’t mean that you should ignore it till the tools become good. You can already start using them now to get better and to understand how all of this works.
Should you use all of these tools? Well, that depends. I’ve been using ChatGPT to help me with my writing. When I have writer’s block, it helps me to get over it. It can give me different angles on a specific subject, which helps me to get my thoughts straight.
When would you use it and when wouldn’t you?
I think it all depends. For example, we don’t have a copywriter at the moment. This means that if I ask for copy for an ad, it will take longer and the quality might not be optimal for a platform. This is where I find good use of ChatGPT. In the tool I share the ads that are working at the moment, share more about the business, and let it know what I want out of it. I then get a list of potential ads. I vet these and when it’s done, I share the best possible options with our creative director. I’ve now made their lives easier, as they can approve the ads or give feedback. Technically we made ChatGPT our copywriter and have the right people give feedback and make changes.
I wouldn’t do this for creatives. I know that there are tools out there that could create ads, but we have designers in-house who can make beautiful ads and creatives. It might be faster to do with a tool, but the quality is also worse. I can use it for copy to get us on the right track and make changes where needed, but with creatives, I simply have better options.
It could be that you’re the only marketer in your company. You are the one who has to write the copy, create the creatives, and run the ads. For that instance, it might be a good idea to use these tools. Is the quality amazing? Probably not. But you can test a lot more different creatives against each other. Learning will be more important than creating the best possible creative.
This can be said for all the other tools as well. These tools are there to help us. It doesn’t mean that they can take over our jobs (yet), but there will be a time when the creatives look just as good as your creative team can make them.
If you are working in a smaller team, or have less access to people that can make your assets, it might be worth considering playing with an AI tool. Do your research and learn. We are in the Yahoo stages of search, which no one is using nowadays.
Podcast episode(s) you'd love
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Think Fast, Talk Smart: The Art of Disagreeing Without Conflict: Navigating the Nuance. Learn the difference between disagreements and conflicts. Get practical tips to help you improve your communication during these conversations.
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