I asked my husband to describe our family offsite last week. We try to hold one every quarter and come up with 3 goals for the next 3 months.
We treat it like a proper offsite; rent a room for 3 hours, get a babysitter, write an agenda and off we go. Since we have already had a few, we know the ropes so we get stuck in. We run it on “pomodoros” (25 min work, 5 min rest).
It started with a review of the last quarter, rating our last goals. Then we listed major events in Q2 for us. The list was long and included things like lockdown, #blacklivesmatter, #covid-19, fitness, health and a lot more. Looking back, it has been an extraordinary quarter, not just for us but for everyone.
We brainstormed the topics we potentially wanted to work on for Q3. They ranged from business-related topics to admin tasks to vacation plans. Then we get to pick 3 we want to work on each and use Pomodoro sessions to flesh them out. Most of my goals were business related but I did add a fun (and hopefully easyish) one – to hang from a pull-up bar for a minute. I can do 20 seconds now so it will take some practice.
We love doing these offsites because it gives us a chance to speak about all the things we never get around to speaking about all in one go. One small improvement we reckon will help is putting a photo of this quarter’s goals on our mobile wallpaper so we’ll be reminded every day.
Do you have family offsites? I highly recommend them.