As you enter the summer months, it’s easy to let the vacation vibes and relatively slow summer pace in the office keep you complacent. However, if you’re serious about moving forward in your career, the summer is the perfect opportunity to step it up and prove that you’re ready for your next promotion. Here’s how you can utilize your extra time in the summer:

Get organized

During busy times throughout the year, it is so easy to let certain items slide. It may be updating a spreadsheet that no one has asked to see recently, or perhaps foregoing organizing your files to focus on more important tasks. By the time summer rolls around, those organizational tasks you left behind are starting to pile up, and it’s becoming inefficient. Now that your work has slowed down a bit, this is the time to get back on track.

When you take the time to get organized this can show your supervisor that you don’t let little details slide. While you can demonstrate that you understand how to prioritize, you can also show that you didn’t forget about smaller tasks either.

Improve processes

When you have time in the summer to reflect how the year has gone so far, this is a great time to learn more about what went wrong throughout the year. Perhaps a project moved along slower than you thought it would, or a communication line broke down. This is an excellent time to hit the reset button and figure out how you can improve those processes for better workflow.

This not only helps you look more efficient in the future, but it could help improve your whole team. When you’re able to solve big-picture issues like that, your manager is likely to take notice.

Start doing the work

When aiming for a promotion, many professionals have already begun doing the work before the official title change or pay raise. As a result, this is a great time to assess ways in which you can begin increasing your responsibilities to match that title change. In addition to proving to your supervisor that you’re ready for the work, this is a great way to open up the conversation about your responsibilities and how you can continue your professional development with the organization.

Ask

Depending on your relationship with your direct manager, taking on more responsibilities or taking more initiative on your own may be difficult. When you’re unsure, this is a great time to simply ask about moving up within the organization. Because the summer months are a little less stressful, your manager will have more time to dedicate to deciding the best way you can continue growing in your role.