Time Management Archives - Page 2 of 5

Are You A “Messy Desk” Person And Does It Matter?

Albert Einstein is famously quoted as saying, “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”

and there’s certainly evidence to support a theory that a messy desk belongs to someone with a streak of creativity, thinking outside of the box ideas, an entrepreneur or inventor, perhaps even someone with a touch of genius.

“If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”

But if your messy desk is causing you stress or overwhelm, don’t panic! I can help. I won’t be able to tidy your desk for you, but I will empower you with real strategies to tackle the mess, to become more organised and show you how to restore order to chaos. I do this through Focus Guru Power Hours, where you’ll learn key skills to apply in your business and at home and achieve your goals.

“Rachael has great ideas and a fantastic system for getting yourself organised. Certainly worth a conversation to explore options.” – Sharon Broer

How Desks Get Messy

For some people, the flat surface of a desk becomes a magnet for clutter. It can only take a few minutes for a coffee cup, unopened post, receipts hastily scooped out of a wallet, a phone charger, loose papers and a multitude of other items start balancing one on top of the other. There comes a point when you don’t know if your desk is black or white or made of wood or metal, because it has vanished out of sight! Was there a mouse and keyboard somewhere under the clutter?

Possible Consequences

Loss of time is almost certainly a possible consequence. How long does it take you to find your car key, a client’s phone number, or the agenda for your next meeting? Not keeping on top of your paperwork can lead to losing client enquiries, failing to attend meetings and missing important deadlines. But it can also lead to feelings of anxiety, stress and depression. You may find you experience a tension headache, or backache. A messy desk also attracts dust, dirt and mould.

How To Change

In my Focus Guru Power Hours I will help identify the messy triggers in your life. Without fail, there is always a reason why you don’t file your receipts, or you have random phone numbers written on post-its. I can teach you systems and processes to manage clutter so that it doesn’t build up unmanageably. I will recommend strategies to make sure you don’t run out of time or energy to keep on top of things. The key skills are “Organisation” and “Accountability” and in your Focus Guru Power Hour you’ll learn exactly how to put these in place.

Why It Matters

Decluttering is proven to make us feel good. It’s satisfying to feel on top of clutter and mess. This doesn’t mean you can’t still have a coffee cup on your desk, or that you have to move every piece of paper into a filing system (or the bin). It’s about creating a positive working environment to enable you to sit at your desk, knowing what needs to be done, by when, and freeing up your time to pursue your goals.

Your Next Step To Achieving A Tidy Desk

I’ve mentioned Focus Guru Power Hours where in sixty minutes we’ll chat and I’ll guide you through proven strategies to improve your organisation and accountability skills. You’ll find the benefits reach far beyond whether your desk is tidy or cluttered. These are strong habits you’ll be forming to help you achieve more in your work and personal life.

Those goals you thought were out of reach will become achievable and the best part is you don’t need to leave your desk to participate! I offer a free 15 minute consultation to establish where you would like to start and give you a choice of Focus Guru Power Hours to help solve your most pressing problems.

To book your free 15 minute consultation, please contact me on 07756 772950 and let’s get started.

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way

www.getfocus.guru

How Do You Feel When Someone Asks You To Use Their Appointment Scheduler?

Love them or hate them, the use of online diaries and appointment scheduling apps is on the increase. Designed to maximise productivity, these clever apps are running our lives. But how do you feel about appointment scheduling? Does it work? Is it rude? Has it changed your life?

How to use automation to organise meetings

At Focus Guru, I help business owners make the best use of their time, energy and resources. Speaking recently with different clients, I’ve noticed a big change in the way they want to book appointments with prospective customers, organise team meetings and plan their networking follow-up calls.

Using an appointment scheduler, my clients have time to work during the day as well as speaking with their customers, without the time spilling into home life, hobbies and holidays.

A shift towards online calendars

Instead of an old-fashioned paper-based diary, there is a distinct shift towards online calendars and appointment schedulers. Having an electronic diary means appointments and events can be scheduled and shared with colleagues or family members, as and when required.

Your time can be divided into segments, colour-coded and reserved, for example, for meetings, sport or family activities. The time segments can be a five minute slot for a quick check-in at home, or a capped half hour consultation with a prospective client.

Automatic reminders encourage attendance

There’s nothing worse than being ready for a call and the other person fails to show up. How many times has this happened to you? Do you give them a second chance? Or a third?

Appointment schedulers have a great feature where they can be configured to send a reminder about your upcoming meeting. The app can also remind the person you’re speaking with that they have a meeting with you.

This alone is responsible for ensuring both parties are aware of the upcoming meeting and encourages attendance.

Rude and impersonal or does it show you value your time?

When the first person asked you to use their appointment scheduler, how did you feel? Did it feel rude and impersonal? After all, you were just asking for a chat with them. You might have wanted to buy their product or service. Perhaps you met someone at a 4N Online meeting and wanted to carry on your 121 and they asked you to book a time slot.

However, is it any different booking a 3pm to 3.30pm phone call via an appointment scheduler than verbally arranging a time? Does it show you value your time? Is it more reliable than writing the meeting time and date on a scrap of paper?

Would an appointment scheduler work for you?

There are many good reasons to use an appointment scheduler. From your side, you can choose the times you want to be available and when you want to switch off the phone. It can be relaxing to know you have a quiet hour or two to spend with family, to shop, read, or catch up with friends.

You’ll also know in advance who’s calling and can prepare documents or check facts and figures before they call. Having the answers ready and information to hand automatically reduces stress and creates a positive impression.

In my Focus Guru Power Hours, one of the topics I cover is how to choose the right appointment scheduler for your business. There are several to choose from and cater for single users, families, teams and entire organisations.

I’ll make sure you know how to set up appointments, send out professional invitations and organise the times you wish to be available. This will give you the right tools to manage your appointments and increase your working productivity.

To book your Focus Guru Power Hour, please contact book a free discovery call into my calendar and let’s get started.

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way

www.getfocus.guru

How Making A Cup Of Tea Can Improve Your Organisation Skills

When was the last time you stopped to make a cup of tea? Was it just before reading this? Or will you make yourself a drink in a few minutes? Stopping for a quick tea break actually has more benefits than you might think.

Stopping for a drink helps your brain process your recent activities.
The act of making a cup of tea has sequential actions which must be followed.
Rehydrating regularly throughout the day is proven to enhance your productivity.
Taking a break is a great way to come up with new and innovative ideas.

How can making a cup of tea help you get organised?

The human brain is said to process around 30,000 decisions each and every day. This starts from the moment you wake up, perhaps the alarm has gone off and you decide whether to switch it off and get up or hit “snooze” and have another ten minutes in bed. The decisions continue as you decide what to wear, which shirt, blouse, skirt, trousers, shoes, bag, jewellery is right for the day’s activities.

Each item you choose to wear becomes a decision and each decision can have a consequence on the next decision.

It’s the same when making a cup of tea. We all know the ingredients, the teabag, the milk, perhaps a spoonful of sugar, the water, the cup, the kettle, the electricity, and we make plenty of cups of tea each day on auto-pilot.

Our brains know what to do and when, in order to achieve the intended result.

50 Steps To Make Your Cup Of Tea

If something goes wrong, perhaps the milk has gone stale, the teabag splits or there’s a power cut, our brains are creative and there will be a workaround. It might surprise you to learn there are approximately 50 steps to making a cup of tea. That’s around 50 decisions your brain is making. It’s 50 things to keep track of, and that’s where your organisation skills are essential.

For example, there’s no point trying to boil an empty kettle. There’s no point trying to stir the tea without a spoon. From lifting the kettle lid, turning on the tap, allowing the water inside, turning the tap off, closing the lid, turning on the electric, putting the kettle back on the base, pressing the switch, waiting for the water to boil…you get the idea. There are lots of steps!

Using Your Time Twice

As humans we’re great at concurrent activity. We can do two things at the same time. I call it “using your time twice”. While the kettle is boiling the water, you’re probably opening the cupboard door, choosing your cup, closing the cupboard door, going to the fridge, opening the fridge door, picking up the milk, closing the fridge door…going back to the cup and the kettle, opening the milk carton, pouring in the milk, closing the milk carton, retracing your steps to the fridge. More steps!

I hope you can see how quickly the number of steps add up. You can see all the micro-decisions taking place. All to make a simple cup of tea.

Improving Your Organisation Skills

In this example I’ve shown how these micro-decisions become the jigsaw pieces to build the complete picture. If you feel you’re lacking organisation skills, perhaps you’re the person who runs out of milk, or doesn’t have a clean cup to drink from, I can help you change into the person who has everything under control.

Organisation skills are simply habits which can be learned and improved on at any stage of life and applied in business and at home. I can help you become the person who’s prepared for many eventualities, simply by becoming more organised.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to boil the kettle! I can easily make two cups of tea, so if you fancy a chat to see how you can improve your organisation skills, please contact me.

I offer a free 30-minute consultation to find out more about you and your business. This can lead on to working together to identify areas in your business or personal life where a little extra organisation will free up your time to enjoy the things you want to do.

Please contact me on 07756 772950 or drop a message in the comments and let’s get started!

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way

www.getfocus.guru

Power Hour for “New Businesses” – Let’s Get Organised!

As a new business owner do you feel daunted by all the tasks in your business that need doing? Was it easier when you were employed by a company and everything was already in place and tasks were organised for you? This is more common than you might think, especially for businesses under three years old. Let me explain how a Power Hour can help you with all of that.

Power Hour helps you get organised in just 60 minutes

Many new business owners race to get their business at a certain level. Even though you’re just starting out, you might feel you have to be competing at the top to win new clients. You might feel frustrated that the tools you used to have in place need to be rebuilt from scratch. But that’s ok. Establishing and running a new business takes time, effort and energy. It takes organisation.

Some people are naturally organised. To outsiders, they seem to intuitively know what needs to be done, by when and by whom. This has probably come from years of experience, trial and error, making mistakes and learning how to change things to make them more organised and more efficient. The good news is that becoming organised is easy to learn.

I would like to share with you some of my top tips and if you think these are helpful, let’s book a Focus Guru Power Hour to expand on the themes. We’ll open up more time in your diary to spend with family, friends, hobbies and holidays. I will help you find more hours in your day and more energy to enjoy your work and downtime. All from becoming more organised!

“Rachael changed my life literally. I now know exactly what needs doing, when it needs doing, and which task will be the most profitable. Invaluable session!” – Caroline Andrew-johnstone, Networking Rebel

I work with many start-ups and newly established businesses to help the owners and their team to see the wood for the trees. It can be a quagmire knowing what to do first. Sometimes it’s like the chicken and the egg. I offer a unique way to prioritise your incoming tasks, to look at your systems, processes, procedures and priorities, to help you take control of your day, rather than letting the work control your time.

In your Focus Guru “Let’s Get Organised” Power Hour we will achieve:

Prioritising Your Workload
Breaking Down Tasks
Using Technology to Streamline Processes
Changing Your Mindset
Stopping Feelings of Overwhelm

Focus Guru Power Hours aren’t for the faint-hearted. I will ask questions about how you want your business to run and what you want to achieve. It may challenge you to think differently about the tasks you do, the clients you work with, how you manage your time and more. But the results will be worth it.

“Rachael’s butt-kicking, no-nonsense, organised approach has held myself and my team of six accountable. This alone is saving me over £2000 per month!” – Adrian Savage – Dynamic Marketing Lab

If you know you need to be a little more organised to achieve everything you want to do, let’s have a chat. I offer all small business owners a free 15 minute chat to see if a Focus Guru Power Hour would benefit your business. Focus Guru Power Hours cover many business related themes, from organisation to accountability, from streamlining processes to automating repetitive tasks. Let’s get started! Please book your 15 minute call here: https://calendly.com/rachael-8/15min

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way with no “Squirrels!”

www.getfocus.guru

Could You Benefit From Collaborating With Your Competitors?

Does the thought of collaborating with one of your competitors make your blood boil? Is the mere thought of chatting with someone who does what you do make you want to run a mile? We’re often taught to be wary of competitors and to keep them at a safe distance.

Create space, time for you by working with competitors

Are you concerned if they know too much they’ll poach your customers? It’s possible they could steal your business and take away your turnover. You might worry they’ll undercut your prices or include extras you haven’t thought of. Maybe you’re worried they’ll drive you out of business?

Changing Your Mindset

Of course, it makes sense to watch your back when you encounter a competitor. You might meet at a networking event where you’re pitching for the same business from the same people. If you’re an independent consultant representing the same company, offering the same products, at the same prices, you might think it can leave little room for differentiating yourself. You might think, “how can I compete?”.

But, that’s where changing your mindset from competition to collaboration makes a big difference. Instead of stressing, you can relax. Rather than racing to be first to follow up each potential customer, you can take a step back and see the bigger picture.

Two Heads Are Better Than One

There genuinely is enough business for everyone and working together to achieve a common goal can be extremely satisfying. To be able to say to someone – “I can’t help with that, but I know someone who can”, or, “I’m fully booked this month, but have you tried speaking with…”, puts you in a powerful position to be remembered as the person who went out of their way to be helpful, rather than the person who wouldn’t share information.

Being able to outsource surplus work is another good reason to have names of competitors in your address book. Attending 4Networking meetings always generates fresh leads for me, and my competitors. Yet, people in the same industry can and do work together. I have realistic expectations and I’m always looking for ways to collaborate with others.

Realistic Expectations

Unless you’ve invented something revolutionary, the chances are someone else will be doing what you do, or something similar to what you do. This happens in almost every industry across the world. It’s unlikely you’re the only plumber in town, or the only car salesperson, utility company, marketeer or life coach. If your business is network marketing, you’ll almost certainly meet a competitor at events. They may be from the same company or offer a similar product. Remember, there really is enough business to go round.

Having realistic expectations when meeting a competitor can open many doors to new customers and new opportunities. Instead of running them down, ignoring them, or being fearful of them, is there a way you could work together? Being open-minded to collaborating rather than competing gains respect and forges lifelong friendships.

I work with people who run businesses in many different sectors, from accountants, to IT companies, to freelance tradespeople, network marketeers and many more. Everyone has a common goal, to earn money to feed their family, provide a roof over their head, to afford nice things, and to grow their business.

I run Focus Guru Power Hour workshops via Zoom for individuals and teams to explore collaboration opportunities within your business sector. It all starts with an easy conversation about what you’d like to achieve. I’ll give you the tools you need to be confident in meetings when you meet someone who does what you do. Contact me on 07756 772950 to find out more.

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way

www.getfocus.guru

You Don’t Always Know What You Know – How Your Skills Can Help Others

How many times have you watched someone do something and it’s like they’re performing magic? In a matter of minutes, they’ve effortlessly solved a problem that would have taken you hours or even days! Maybe someone has helped you with something you’d given up on, or fixed something you’d written off as a lost cause?

“How did you do that so quickly?”

Achievement list is more productive (picture of a Penguin because it’s cute!

I believe everyone is good at something and that we are all good at different things. Sometimes we don’t appreciate how often we know things that others don’t. Maybe we just take it for granted that we can install a complicated piece of software, re-tune the car radio, bake a delicious cake, write an blog, organise a sell-out seminar, do a Facebook live, or anything else you find easy but someone else would find impossibly difficult.

“Will you show me how to do that?”

When you’ve solved someone’s problem, taken away their pain-point, and given them the ability to get on with their task, take a step back and see whether you can show them how you did what you did. Have a look at the task from their perspective and see if you can explain it in a way they can easily understand.

“Can I do something to help you?”

Often our help is reciprocated, the law of “what goes around comes back around” kicks in. You’ll soon find sharing your knowledge and expertise pays back many times over. Helping others releases a “feel good factor”, we feel valued and appreciated, which plays a key part in our overall wellbeing.

On a personal level, it’s very satisfying implementing systems and processes to make life easier for people. I work with individuals and teams, streamlining procedures and making life run smoother both at home and in the office. Initially, this was based around helping friends locally, then I realised the potential to help people further afield and today I’m working with clients across the world.

“How can I do that?”

Turning your skills into a business service is easier than you might think. I recommend starting with a list of ten things you think you’re best at. Then ask a trusted friend or colleague to do the same. I can almost guarantee there will be differences between the two lists! Other people are great judges of your skills and the reason for this is simply because you will almost certainly be taking some of your skills for granted. Perhaps you think “everyone can do this” or “everyone should be able to do that”, but they can’t.

Already this month, I’ve helped my 4Networking teams create ways to find new visitors for our meetings. I’ve worked with my Arbonne consultants to promote our products and generate new sales. I’ve worked with clients on accountability, time management, motivation and goal setting. Plus, I’m excited to be offering Mail Chimp training, including software set-up and creating targeted customer lists.

“You don’t always know what you know.”

Remember, everyone is good at something and we are all good at different things. I’m offering a free 15 minute call to help identify your own key skills and strengths. You might be surprised what this uncovers. Once you know what you know I’ll help with strategies and suggestions how you can make the most of your unique abilities. Let’s chat! Please call me on 07756 772950 to get started.

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way

www.getfocus.guru

How A Time Intensity Grid Will Help You Choose What To Outsource

Are you feeling overwhelmed at the moment? Do you wish there were more hours in the day?

Don’t worry, you’re not alone. The last few months of lockdown have been hard for many people for many different reasons. It’s also been a good time to stop and take stock of what works in your life and what can be changed or dropped altogether.

One of the tools I use is a Time Intensity Grid. It’s less complicated than it sounds, and it simply means I divide items on my Achievement List into sub-categories, based on how much time or energy I estimate they will take. I can show you how to do the same and in just a few minutes you will see exactly where your time and energy is going.

Know the Source

Knowing the source of what’s making you feel overwhelmed is part of the solution. It’s a lot easier to solve a problem when you know what the problem is. Identifying your “brain drains” and “time thieves” is the first step. It will make you think and re-evaluate whether the task is important or necessary. But it may also prompt you to think whether the task is best achieved by someone else on your behalf. How much time could you save by outsourcing a troublesome task?

A client recently said to me how stressful they were finding it to choose a new car. They admitted spending hours on car websites, looking at manufacturers, models, specs, interior and exterior trims and features, safety features, fuel economy and much more. They had spun themselves into such a muddle that the idea of buying a new family car, which should be an exciting achievement, into a spiral of stress. Guess what, they were still driving their old car two weeks later.

This made me think about how much energy we use thinking through problems. Things we find incredibly time consuming, difficult, and stressful, other people consider a breeze. I phoned my client and recommended outsourcing the search for their new car. They created a brief list of the features they wanted and their budget. Suddenly, the list of thousands became a shortlist of a handful cars available on the market. A couple of test drives later and they have their new car. A great result!

Outsourcing Works

The simple step of outsourcing this task saved time, effort, energy and potentially a couple of family arguments. Outsourcing can be applied to almost anything. If you stop and think about the tasks you dawdle over, the things you procrastinate and put off, the “tomorrow tasks”, you’ll know the ones you need to look at.

When chatting with clients about outsourcing, some of the most popular tasks to delegate are:

Finding sales leads and booking appointments
Sending quotes and answering common enquiries
Invoicing, sending statements and debt collection
Filing and putting receipts into the accounts

By outsourcing these tasks to a Virtual Assistant (VA), the cost of hiring someone for a few hours per day, week, or month, can suddenly free up your time and brain to focus on what you do best. I can help with all these tasks and more. Please call me and we can chat about saving you time and stress by delegating tasks like these.

At home, some of the popular tasks my clients said they wish they could outsource were tidying up, cooking healthy meals, washing clothes, cutting the grass, buying birthday presents and checking utility prices for the best packages.

The good news is that all these tasks can be outsourced as well. It might feel strange at first letting someone else come into your home, cook your meals, or make changes to your filing system. But by changing small things now, you’ll find you have more time to spend with your family and friends and more time to expand your business.

What works for you might be different to what works for someone else and that’s why the best way to start is with a Time Intensity Grid. Please contact me and I’ll help create your Time Intensity Grid and show you how to put it into practice. You’ll be surprised how much time, energy, and money it will create for you and your family.

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way

www.getfocus.guru | 07756 772950

Are You Experiencing Overwhelm In Your Life Or Business Right Now?

Overwhelm doesn’t usually happen overnight. It can creep up on you over days, weeks, months or even years. It comes in tiny layers of stress, building in your mind and showing itself sometimes in physical form. That stiff neck and shoulders you’ve had all week. A recurring headache. General lethargy and loss of interest in your favourite hobbies.

Left untreated, overwhelm can lead to more serious physical and mental conditions. So, if you see signs of overwhelm in yourself or in your family, friends, colleagues or customers, then you may have an opportunity to act, intervene, assist or remove the cause of the stress and overwhelm.

It's easy to stop overwhelm — It’s easy to stop overwhelm

Remember, it’s ok not to be ok.

Everyone has different tolerance levels. What seems easy to you may be difficult for someone else. While you learn how to do something new quickly, it might take someone else lots of practice. This can vary from social skills to practical tasks. It might be daunting attending a networking meeting, or filing your tax return, or driving on a motorway.

Everyone is different and we are all good at different tasks too. Overwhelm can cause us to doubt ourselves. A task you could do with your eyes closed suddenly seems complicated, you’ve forgotten the steps, or the directions, or the system or process. This can cause anxiety, stress, and panic.

Symptoms of overwhelm can include an increased temperature, sweating, quicker heartrate, shaking, irritability and insomnia. One of the key symptoms is our susceptibility to distractions (otherwise known as “Squirrels”). You might call it procrastinating, deferring, postponing, or messing around, but these are all side-effects of overwhelm.

There’s often a logical reason behind why you haven’t jumped at sending that email, or made that phone call, completed that purchase or done the next task on your achievement list.

I recognise my overwhelm when I am scrolling aimlessly through Facebook or find myself watching daytime TV. If I was mentally ready to do the tasks on my achievement list I wouldn’t stop for half an hour to scroll through what my friends had for dinner or where they’re going on holiday after lockdown. Online quizzes and polls wouldn’t catch my eye and I wouldn’t look at the clock and wonder where the last hour had gone.

Make time for yourself.

If you need to watch an hour of TV to unwind and relax, that’s ok. If you want to have a blitz of news from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok and Instagram, that’s ok too. It’s when your list of important tasks gets set aside that you might feel overwhelm creeping up on you.

Perhaps you had a deadline to meet and now there isn’t time to get that report in for your boss. They won’t be happy and you can imagine their reaction when you have to tell them. This adds a layer of stress. Or maybe you had a client appointment to prepare for and now you’re winging it. You may be thinking you could have done better or worrying about what the client thinks of you and this could cause a layer of stress.

Tips to avoid overwhelm.

Allow plenty of time to achieve tasks on your list. Can you ask for more time if needed? The idea is to remove the layer of stress brought on by unreasonable deadlines and unexpected delays.

Keep an eye out for symptoms. Are you feeling rushed? Any physical signs? Do you need more skills or training? Could this task be delegated to someone else? Is there anyone you know who seems stressed, angry, tired, or tearful? These are common signs of overwhelm.

Look after your body as well as your mind. Simple suggestions include homecooked meals, drinking more water, having a good night of sleep. Making the time for seeing friends, exercising, and learning new skills is as important as meeting that deadline.

I know how overwhelm can cause short term and long term problems and I work with people from all over the country to help them recognise their symptoms of overwhelm. I can help put steps into place to reduce overwhelm in your business and personal life. If you’re juggling too much something will give.

Don’t let overwhelm run your life. If you find you’re bouncing from one task to another with no time to rest or relax please get in touch with me. I will help identify where you can carry on with what you’re doing and where it makes sense to outsource or delegate tasks. No task is too big or too small and if you feel overwhelmed, please give me a call.

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way

www.getfocus.guru | 07756 772950

Why Your To Do List Isn’t Getting Done

For many of us, having a To Do List is our way of remembering what we need to do and crossing items off the list once they have been achieved. Your list might be the top three things you want to achieve this morning, or it might be a list of everything you want to do today.

When working with clients, I’ve seen To Do Lists which include items that can’t possibly be achieved in a day. Sometimes people show me their To Do Lists spanning weeks or months with a bottomless pit of items.

There comes a point where a To Do List becomes more of an Ideas List, a brainstorm of items you’d like to get done, maybe, sometime, one day. You might have a list like this that never seems to get done.

Scrap Your To Do List

My advice is to bin your To Do List, that’s right, to scrap it completely, and start again. But, this time, I’d like you to create an Achievement List with all the things you’d like to get done. The simple act of changing the name of your list from “To Do” to “Achievements” mentally reinforces the good feeling you get when a task is done.

Then I’d like you to look at all the items on your Achievement List and group activities where possible. You may need to rewrite your Achievement List a few times to put things in groups to start with, but this becomes easier over time.

For example, I like to make phone calls on my walks with Missy. We have about an hours walk twice a day and this enables me to use my time twice. I still take in the scenery and fresh air and get to play with Missy, but I’m also crossing off items on my Achievement List at the same time.

Another example would be to post letters on the way to the supermarket. Both tasks need doing and if I combine them into one journey it becomes an efficient use of my time and my petrol.

Order Your Achievements

I also try to prioritise items on my Achievement List. To do this, I use a Time Intensity Grid and allocate a value to each task, whether it is a high or low intensity task using lots of energy, strength or brain power, or a high or low time task using minutes, hours or days of my time. It can help to annotate each task with HIHT, HILT, LIHT or LILT so you can prepare yourself for how long or how intense each task will be.

For example, my trip to the supermarket and posting my letters would count as a LIHT task, because although it’s easy, it takes time, especially at the moment where there are sometimes long queues to go into the supermarket.

Add Times For Your Achievements

If you have a lot of tasks on your Achievement List it can be helpful to divide your day into blocks of 15 minutes and allocate blocks of time to each task. For example, my walk with Missy takes about an hour, so that’s 4 x 15 minutes blocks of time.

I can add to this by allocating a time of day to this task, for example Missy likes a morning walk, so I can allocate 9am to 10am for our first walk. To use my time twice, I will often pre-prepare some phone calls to make during this hour as well.

Our second walk usually takes place just before an evening meal and we often meet friends on this walk to share our day and catch up on news, socially distancing of course.

Try This For Yourself

At the beginning, I encouraged you to bin your To Do List and change it into an Achievement List. I’m pleased to say my advice and tips have worked for many friends and clients over the years. I recently gave a 4Sight at a 4Networking business networking meeting talking about Achievement Lists and Using Your Time Twice.

The 4Sight was very well received and I had a 121 with one of the attendees who commented, “If nothing else, that bit (about Achievement Lists) has made this 121 worthwhile”. So, I encourage you to try this for yourself and turn your To Do tasks into Achievements.

Rachael Chiverton, Focus Guru – Giving You Your Time, Your Way

www.getfocus.guru

How To Make The Best Use Of Your Downtime

Have you ever stopped on a Sunday evening and wondered where the weekend has gone? Those 48 hours between Friday and Monday have vanished again without a trace. Have you felt frustrated about going back to work knowing there were things you wanted to do, people you wanted to see and places you wanted to go?

This is a really common situation and it doesn’t just apply weekends. It could be that week’s holiday you booked to catch up on home projects where the time drifted away. If you’re self-employed, it could be those few days waiting between projects where nothing seems to happen.

It’s important to recognise when your body is telling you it’s time to rest, relax and recharge. This is the time where your mind can process everything that’s happened and work through solutions to problems. Have you ever written down something that’s bothering you, gone to bed, and then the answer has presented itself to you the following day? Our minds have the extraordinary ability to solve almost anything with time and patience. Sometimes the more we think about something, the harder it becomes to think clearly. We can’t see the wood for the trees.

Missy lives in the moment, exploring everything as we should be doing in business

Some of the common signs telling us we need to slow down are feeling tired, slow, difficult to think or speak, loss of interest in hobbies, not wanting to see people and, if left untreated, this can start to affect our physical as well as our mental health. So, we can all agree it’s good to have downtime. But how can you make the best use of your downtime?

I’m talking about making the best use of this time, not treating downtime as work or a chore. I hope you will turn your downtime into time you take for yourself. I want to help you feel as though the time has been well-spent and not wasted.

The first step is to know when your downtime is coming. It could be looking forward to the weekend, or it could be a random day off if a client cancels a meeting or if a project is postponed.

The second step is to know what you want to achieve in your downtime. For me, I like to take a break from work to walk my dog, Missy. She enjoys the time we spend together, and I love being out in the fresh air walking in my local park. After our walks I always feel revitalised and ready to take on new tasks.

Another form of downtime for me is helping Mum with her weekly shopping. Before lockdown we would do this together, spending an hour going to the supermarket and then I would help unpack and put the food away afterwards. This usually involved a cup of tea, some biscuits, and a good catch up. Now I carry out the food shop and have the cup of tea and catch up standing outside while she packs things away.

As well as my routine of walking Missy and helping Mum, I have also added some personal projects to my Achievement List of things I would like to do. One of these is to carry out the scanning and filing of many thousands of photographs I’ve taken over the years. From a hard drive filled with random images, I am slowly working through labelling and organising the photographs into categories, holidays, people, and events. This has been on my list of things to do for a long time and it feels good to take the time to put things in order.

The third step is to put this into practice. So, the next time you have a spare half hour, half day, a week, or any period of spare time, have something ready to achieve. You’ll feel better about going back to work if you have achieved something in your downtime. It could be something as simple as making a phone call to a friend, or organising your photographs, or going on that day trip you promised yourself. But make the time to do something for yourself during your downtime and it will pay off in many different ways. You’ll feel re-energised, and ready to take on new tasks.

If you need a boost to help keep yourself relaxed and calm at work or at home, I can recommend the new calming products from Arbonne. These botanically based natural healers offer a truly relaxing experience. As the name suggests, Arbonne’s InnerCalm and SuperCalm remedies are perfect to help you relax from the inside to the outside, taking care of your wellbeing and giving your body the opportunity to become revitalised and ready for new adventures.

For help making the best use of your downtime or to find out more about the relaxing remedies, please book your free 15 minute call. I specialise in helping business owners streamline tasks and processes to free up your time and energy for the things you enjoy the most.