The future rhythm of work is grand oscillation. Consultants and entrepreneurs are used to this. Some months are super busy and other months are slow.

The change is that workflow oscillation will creep further down organizational ranks going forward. Meaning, more of us will start feeling the effects of oscillation in our work when historically we may have been immune.

One strategy for dealing with the ebb and flow of work is to outline projects for the team to do during a low oscillation time. If we can’t keep them as billable as we want we may be able to at least keep them as productive. Identify those projects that can truly wait for a bit of downtime and line them up.

The trick is to do this before you need to. We want to have downtime projects in the bull pen ready to go instead of in our imagination waiting to be found.

Make hay while the sun shines, but be ready for the rain when it inevitably comes.