One of my chief executive clients said this to me the other day, and I love this quote.

When people talk about time management they think of people wasting time, but this person, like me, is phenomenally busy. We both cram a lot in to a day, and sometimes the day runs out.

So the article in my head to write today will need to wait till another day. But I’m ok with this thinking back over all the things in the day that I did achieve, including all the essential and important ones!

Have a nice weekend, Denise x 

 

It’s so tempting isn’t it, to check on each email that comes through, but it distracts us from doing tasks where we need to focus our energy and has us nipping into side journeys to explore the content of different emails.

It can be so helpful to limit the time we spend looking at emails - to perhaps two or three times a day.

There’s a very interesting post about this from Graham Jones, Internet Psychologist http://www.grahamjones.co.uk/2008/08/check-your-email-quick-another-one.htm where he makes some good suggestions for how to stay in control of our mail.

 

Thought I’d share a tip - you know how sometimes emails sit in your inbox because you intend to deal with them one day? Plus there are all the things you want to read when you get a quiet moment?

What I’ve been doing over the past few weeks is setting up rules to move all my "reading" emails into a separate folder - READ AT NIGHT and any new non work emails  that come through get routed to this folder.

I therefore only have important stuff in my in box.

I’m now closing Outlook down and only opening it up once an hour, eventually I’ll move to every 2-3 hours. It’s much easier to deal with a batch of emails than just one and this means that I can concentrate on a task.

When I look at my emails I aim to deal with them right away if they are quick, if they will take time I’ll either plan to deal with them later that day - and add it to my to do list, or if it is something I plan to do in a few days time I’ll electronically file it away but set up an alert so I get a reminder 24, 12, 8 and 4 hours before it needs to be done.

So I now have an empty inbox, and will not look again till 9.15.

Why not try this, and let me know how you get on

 

Denise x

 

 

This comes from my heart, and something I am trying to address.

Some people find themselves saying yes to everything, they know they don’t have much time but still agree to other things. I’m really busy at the moment yet have still found the time to fit in clients when I really have enough clients in on a day, but should I have?

Some women are addicted to stress and end up in withdrawal if they do try and slow down. Apparently if you try and read a book for 30 minutes and find yourself unable to do this you are a stress addict.  I can do this, so not too bad!

I think there are different reasons why I do too much, it is partly because I love to help others but also part of my nature, my parents were always very busy when I was young and I have a very strong worth ethic.

We should all take the time to slow down, and make sure that we do connect with people. We all need time to be rather than to just do – I was able to spend yesterday away from my desk, which was good, still busy doing household chores but I took time for a leisurely lunch out and to relax with my husband.

What about you? How busy are you and should you take some time to slow down?

If you have some tips, I would love to hear what works for you, so do please let me know.

Did you work your proper hours on Friday? Last week I said that “89% of British managers are working more than their contracted hours, and the average manager works an extra 78 minutes a day above their contracted hours.  

This works out at a whopping 40 days extra work done each year.So did you manage to get home on time? I made a conscious decision not to work over the weekend, well, to be honest I did some, but the little tasks that didn’t require much brain power, such as clearing out a filing cabinet.

I also had more time for family, friends and relaxation, so I think I did my bit!

The Chartered Management Institute’s Quality of Working Life Report says that 89% of British managers are working more than their contracted hours, and the average manager works an extra 78 minutes a day above their contracted hours.   This works out at a whopping 40 days extra work done each year – imagine!

In most cases people don’t want to work these extra hours, but they need to do it just to keep up with their work load. Although there will always be some who love their jobs so much that they don’t see the work as a drain.

What impact does this have on our health, not time to go to the gym and less time to spend with our family and on leisure activity which can have a negative impact on our mental health.

 This Friday is Work Your Proper Hours day so make a plan to leave on time!

Read more here

I’ve been sorting through some old journals and found details on an interesting piece of research. Emma Russell from the Department of Psychology, University of surrey found that people who are working on stressful or boring tasks and choose to respond to an email alert are helping to increase their well being and effectiveness in the workplace.

The research found that taking a short break from work to read emails can help to reduce stress or boredom. Emma said “Taking short breaks from intensive or dull tasks to address an incoming mail message can have the potential to really enhance people’s well being, and ultimately their productivity.”

I’ve just learnt that Microsoft has brought out some new software to better manage the flow of data in our inboxes. If you click here you can find out more.

From what I hear it will help me find threads easier, and provide all the emails sent by a certain person, no matter where I’ve filed them.

As I write this I’m on a train to

London. In just over an hour I’ve read a couple of articles and drafted out 5 entries for this blog. If I’d been at home I’ve have checked my emails about 10 times, followed up on links and maybe written one article. I find working at the library or on a train where I’ve space to write means that I get much more done. When there are fewer distractions, I’m better able to focus.

We have too many distractions - TV, computers, people and more. 

So if you have things to do, give yourself some space to concentrate: 

- switch off the phone

- send your family out of the house (or get them to watch a  DVD if it won’t disturb you)

- grab a pen and paper

- Now take time to think and write. 

Let me know how you get on.