Month: July 2017 Page 1 of 2

We live in an information rich, time poor world.

So many of the people that I meet talk about how busy their life is and how they struggle to juggle their professional and personal time. They complain of having insufficient time for recreation and for the important people in their life.

It’s baffling that we have access to more resources and devices that are meant to save us time than previous generations but seem to have less spare time for leisure and relaxation!

A suggestion I make to clients who want to improve their time management and personal efficiency is that they start by considering how they carve up their available time each week. All of us have access to the same amount of time, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. A total of 168 hours each week.

If this was represented by a pie chart we could divide the pie up into three main areas – work, sleep and rest of life. We can start this process by subtracting the amount of time we spend working, traveling to/from work and preparing for work from 168. Let’s say this is 55 hours. This leaves 113 hours. If we subtract 49 hours for sleep, this leaves 64 hours for everything else – recreation, family time, exercise, study, household chores etc.

If people would like more time available for recreation/family etc. there are only two ways to achieve this. They can work less or sleep less! Most people are reluctant to reduce the work time for fear of results and productivity dropping. However, I have instances where clients have reduced work time from 65 to 50 hours a week and seen their results go up!

I think there is some psychology that comes into play when we have less time available. We focus more and manage distractions better. There is a law to be conscious of that is called Parkinson’s Law. This states “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”

If you want to save some time a good place to start is to compile a stop doing list. Consider what tasks, behaviours and procedures you can let go of in an effort to save some time.

Here are some additional time management tips:

Become more focused

• Prepare a realistic to do list first thing in the morning (or the evening before if you have time).
• Get clear on your 3 main priorities each day. Focus on those first.
• Regularly complete the ‘stop doing’ exercise mentioned above.

Manage interruptions

• Turn off email and social media notifications.
• Monitor/log your interruptions for a period and set about reducing them. Start with things in your control i.e. interruptions you cause yourself before moving on to tackle interruptions by others.
• Create quiet/sacred time daily (even if it’s just 15/30 minutes) and agree with others that you aren’t to be interrupted. Reciprocate for colleagues that help you with this by doing the same for them.

Learn to say no      

• Develop your assertive skills, tighten your boundaries and say no when you should. Practice saying no until you get good at it and feel more comfortable doing so.
• Be tactful, polite and firm when you say no.
• If your boss asks you to undertake a task when you are already overwhelmed, ask what you should set aside in order to take on the new task.

Overcome procrastination

• Get into the habit of doing the most unpleasant or toughest task first or when you have the most energy. Once completed it helps to clear the mind and provides momentum.
• Break large tasks and projects down into small chunks. Small consistent actions lead to outstanding results.
• Promise yourself a reward once you have completed a large task or something you have been putting off.

Effective meetings

• Review meetings you attend. Ensure your attendance is necessary. If not, negotiate missing the meeting or reduce the amount of time you spend in it.
• Ensure all meetings you attend have a clear objective and generate action points which are taken forward and followed up.
• Look to attend and arrange shorter, more focused internal meetings. Reduce the time allocated for the meeting from say an hour to half an hour. To help achieve this, stop doing recaps for people who arrive late.

During this week, why not take a few moments to reflect and consider how good you are at managing time. If you would like to create some additional personal time, what habits and behaviours will you change?

This week’s quotation:

“Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don’t wait for something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future. Think how really precious is the time you have to spend, whether it’s at work or with your family. Every minute should be enjoyed and savoured.” Earl Nightingale.

To arrange a free no obligation consultation, please contact Stephen Pauley via the contact form or by e mail: Stephen@befirstclass.co.uk

Last week I wrote about mistakes which highlight that we are all human and that they don’t define us unless we let them.

This week, I continue the theme of “I’m only human after all.” I thought that I’d base this blog on some information that I shared with a client who wanted to get better at accepting and moving on from mistakes and being less self-critical.

When we are hard on ourselves for making mistakes it can affect our mood, happiness levels and lead us to procrastinate for fear of making additional mistakes. If you have a strong inner critical voice then “The Ten Rules for Being Human” will help. They were written by Dr Cherie Carter-Scott and featured in her 1998 book “If life is a game, these are the rules.”

I have detailed the 10 rules below. I hope you enjoy reading them and find them useful:-

Rule One – You will receive a body.

You may love it or hate it, but it will be yours for the duration of your life on Earth.

Rule Two – You will be presented with lessons.

You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called “life”. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or hate them, but you have designed them as part of your curriculum.

Rule Three – There are no mistakes, only lessons.

Growth is a process of experimentation, a series of trials, errors and occasional victories. The failed experiments are as much as a part of the process as the experiments that work.

Rule Four – The lesson is repeated until learned.

Lessons will be repeated to you in various forms until you have learned them. When you have learned them, you can go on to the next lesson.

Rule Five – Learning does not end.           

There is no part of life that does not contain lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.

Rule Six – “There” is no better than “here”

When your “there” has become “here” you will simply obtain another “there” that will look better to you than your present “here”.

Rule Seven – Others are only mirrors of you.

You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.

Rule Eight – What you make of your life is up to you.

You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you.

Rule Nine – Your answers lie inside of you.

All you need to do is look, listen and trust.

Rule Ten – You will forget all this at birth.                    

You can remember it if you want by unravelling the double helix of inner-knowing.

This week why take a few moments to reflect and consider if you can you be kinder to yourself. Would reducing the volume of your inner critic increase your happiness and enjoyment of life?

This week’s quotation:

“I have learned more from my mistakes than my successes.” Sir Humphrey Davy.

To arrange a free no obligation consultation, please contact Stephen Pauley via the contact form or by e mail: Stephen@befirstclass.co.uk

I heard the song Human by Rag n Bone Man on the radio the other day.

This song contains the lyrics “I’m only human after all.” It made me wonder if the person who gave out the wrong envelope at the Oscars ceremony earlier in the year said the same thing.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Oscars story, there was a big mistake during the proceedings. It was nearing the end of the ceremony and time to hand out the final and one of the most prestigious awards, the winner of the best film category.

Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were tasked with announcing and handing out the award. After the nominations were announced, Warren Beatty opened the gold envelope, hesitated and handed it to Faye Dunaway. She read it and said La La Land.

Some of the La La Land cast and production crew made their way to the stage and started to make an acceptance speech. Discussions broke out on the stage and there were some confused looks on people’s faces. One of the La La Land producers then said there had been a mistake and the winner was actually Spotlight!

What a mistake to make with millions of people watching. Apparently, one of the auditors had given the wrong envelope to Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. They gave them the envelope for best actress, who was Emma Stone from La La Land.

It was a very big reminder to us all that mistakes happen and life goes on.

Yes it was embarrassing and shouldn’t have happened but the error was quickly spotted and rectified. It will lead to procedures being reviewed and updated and it will probably never happen again.

People tend to be very hard on themselves when they make a mistake. It’s important to remember that our mistakes don’t define us as a person, unless we let them. They are just a snapshot of our life. We’re much more than our challenges or past mistakes.

Sadly, some people don’t achieve all that they could in life because they become paralysed by the fear of making the same mistake or experiencing failure.

Thomas Edison didn’t see his 10,000 attempts to invent the light bulb as failures. He saw them as discoveries of ways that didn’t work and moved him closer to a solution.

When things go wrong, as they inevitably will at some point, we can choose to learn the lessons by asking the question “What is this teaching me?” We can then let the mistake go as soon as possible and say to ourselves “I’m only human after all.”

During the course of this week, why not take a few moments out to reflect and consider if there are any mistakes or disappointments that you need to let go of.

This week’s quotation:

“To err is human; to forgive, divine.” Alexander Pope.

To arrange a free no obligation consultation, please contact Stephen Pauley via the contact form or by e mail: Stephen@befirstclass.co.uk