No one purposely sets out to get stuck in an area of their life, but unfortunately too many people put up with what’s going on around them.  Like a slow sinking ship, if these areas of dissatisfaction are left to fester, the problem can end up feeling too colossal to salvage.

As Steve Pavlina said “an off-track career doesn’t suddenly get better” and “a bad financial situation doesn’t magically fix itself”.  So the first step to looking after yourself again is to be honest about what you’ve let go.

Being blinkered about what is going wrong in your life is not a coping strategy and will only get you more of the same (or worse!).

Your Action Plan:  Don’t Stay Stuck

So what can you do if you’re feeling stuck but really want to improve your situation? To take that all-important first step forward start by answering this question: -

• What would you like to change if you could?

Don’t rush your answer, and importantly, be brutally honest with yourself.  The answer might be confronting or uncomfortable, and you might not know what to do about it, but the key here is to be frank and admit to yourself that there’s an area of your life that you’d like to do do something about.

When you ‘put it out there’ and admit to yourself that there’s something you’d like to change, your mind can then start to look for ways to solve the problem.  But all the time you leave that little issue hidden, denying that it actually exists, the problem has more time to grow and grow.

Don’t kid yourself that things are magically going to get better all on their own.  Be brutally honest about what is going on in your life, and do something about it.  Take the first step towards change and have an honest conversation about what needs a readjustment – it’s the first step to giving yourself a refreshing spring-clean, whatever the season!

Have you let an area of your life go before and are now back on track? Post a comment below and let us know how you picked yourself up…

Written by Faye Hollands – Mumpreneur and Director at Busy Working Mumma and Outshine Consulting.

Faye is an accomplished Business and Career Coach and Productivity Specialist who has helped countless clients create careers and businesses they love, get more done in less time, and achieve personal and professional success.

A Telstra Business Women’s awards nominee, Faye has featured in various media publications including Cleo, Cosmopolitan, Fitness Fitness Magazine, and BNET.

Prior to founding her own business, Faye’s career in finance, professional services and recruitment spanned 14 years, international borders and a host of blue chip global organisations.

Away from Outshine and Busy Working Mumma, Faye is Mum to her young daughter Charli, wife to Will, and dog walker to Zac – the big Rhodesian Ridgeback who rules the roost!

You can contact Faye on +61 2 8323 4335 or email faye@busyworkingmumma.com

Your Most Valuable Commodity

Unlike money, you can’t borrow, store or multiply time – all you can do is spend it.  Spending less time doing something isn’t saving time, it’s actually spending your time more wisely because you can’t put the additional time you ’saved’ into a bank and use it later (unfortunately!).

So having an awareness of how you spend your time, and then budgeting smartly on how you’re going to use it in the future is important.  Follow these simple steps to set a Time Budget that will help you make the most of this valuable commodity: -

Take Action:

….

1.  Where are you spending it?

• Take a moment now to write down where you currently spend your time.
• Do you work long hours; get up late; procrastinate; flaff around on email or waste time on social media?
• Just like a financial budget, you need to know where you’re currently spending your time to be able to make effective changes.  If you’re unsure, keep a time diary so that you really know when you’re time is going.

2.  Where do you want to spend it?

• Realistically, how would you like to be spending your time?
• Do you want to exercise more regularly; see your family more; leave the office at a decent time or get key projects done on time?
• If you don’t know where you want to spend your time you can’t budget effectively so make sure you have a clear vision of how you would like your time to be dished out otherwise you’ll probably find someone else dictates that decision for you

3.  Where are you spending your time unwisely?

• In setting a financial budget it would be important  to identify areas where you’re wasting money or could possibly cut back your spending – do the same with time
• What tasks or jobs are you doing that waste your time?  Write them down.

4.  What changes do you need to make?

• From your answers in #3, what’s the first change you would like to make to your budget?
• For example, if you’ve identified that you spend too much time on email you could decide to only check your inbox three times a day, for 15 minutes each time.  Or perhaps you spend too much time watching TV and by cutting that down you could find more time to exercise

5.  What activities do you need to schedule in your diary?

• Blocking appointments in your diary is critical if you want to spend your time smartly
• Now that you’ve identified the changes you want to make, schedule time in your diary for each task as this increases focus and commitment to follow through with your budget
• Create a diary that looks the way you want to spend your time and commit to executing your plan

As Psychologist Dr. Denis Waitley points out, “Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can’t buy more hours. Scientists can’t invent more hours.”  So how you choose to budget your time, and then spend it, is the key to how successful your life is.

What changes are you going to make to your time budget? Post a comment below and let me know…

Written by Faye Hollands – Mumpreneur and Director at Busy Working Mumma and Outshine Consulting.

Faye is an accomplished Business and Career Coach and Productivity Specialist who has helped countless clients create careers and businesses they love, get more done in less time, and achieve personal and professional success.

A Telstra Business Women’s awards nominee, Faye has featured in various media publications including Cleo, Cosmopolitan, Fitness Fitness Magazine, and BNET.

Prior to founding her own business, Faye’s career in finance, professional services and recruitment spanned 14 years, international borders and a host of blue chip global organisations.

Away from Outshine and Busy Working Mumma, Faye is Mum to her young daughter Charli, wife to Will, and dog walker to Zac – the big Rhodesian Ridgeback who rules the roost!

You can contact Faye on +61 2 8323 4335 or email faye@busyworkingmumma.com

I’m sure we’ve all experienced email-overwhelm at some time or another, when your number of unread messages looks more like a phone number than something quick and easy to maintain!  And using your inbox as a filing system is another common trap that many of us Mumpreneurs fall into when we’re juggling life and email! 

There’s no doubt about it, email’s a fantastic tool when it’s used smartly but when it gets out of control it can cause increased stress levels and a sense of overwhelm that can significantly impact how productive you are.  So if email’s stealing too much of your time and sanity follow these simple steps to get back in control of your inbox: -

New Habit : Inbox Mastery

Action:

1:  Sort

You need to be able to see the wood for the trees in your sea of emails so the first step to recovery is to filter the ‘From’ column in your inbox so that you can clearly see who your emails are from in order to work out your priorities.

2:  Delete

Without a doubt you’ll have pockets of emails that you receive purely because because you’re on a distribution list or have subscribed to a newsletter for example.  Some of those will be important, but a lot won’t.  And depending on how long you’ve been away for, many of those emails may be out of date or irrelevant by the time you get to read them.   So do yourself a favour and get delete-happy!  Be ruthless, brutal and quick – cast your eye over the ‘From’ list and hit delete on any newsletters that aren’t critical to your goals or job, and any distribution-list emails that are old and out of date.

Importantly, get rid of the dead wood so that you can see clearly and prioritise effectively.  By deleting as much of the irrelevant routine stuff as possible you will allow your mind to focus on what is important rather than being distracted by a screen of chaos.

3:  Prioritise

As your screen becomes clearer, you’ll start to get a sense of what’s in your inbox that’s actually important.  Think about the purpose of your email and prioritise accordingly i.e. if this is your work inbox then what are your business objectives?  Make sure that the emails you focus on are directly aligned to your goals and not chit-chat with friends or reviewing facebook comments!  So in my case, my clients are my first priority so I make a b-line for their emails first – I won’t look at anything else until I’ve dealt with their messages.

4:  Action

Once you’ve identified your priorities work through your emails in that order, and importantly only ‘touch’ each email once where possible.  What I mean by that is that once you’ve read an email take action on it there and then, and move on.  Avoid the temptation to read all of your emails first and then go back to action them – this wastes valuable time and aids procrastination.  Read it, deal with it, delete it (or file but only if absolutely necessary!)

5:  Be Timely

So that you don’t let your whole day fade away into an email-abyss, make sure you block out a set amount of time in your diary to deal with your inbox, and keep to that time frame without fail.  The longer you give yourself, the longer you’ll take – so be ruthless, and push yourself to get on top of your email quickly.

6.  Turn Your Email Notification Off

Now you’ve worked through the overflow it’s time to manage the day-today effectively and here’s your starting point – if your email program checks for new emails automatically, turn it off.  Having a constant beeping sound when new emails come in can be very distracting and will make you lose focus – this in turn wastes time and causes you to be less efficient and effective.

7.  Stop Constantly Checking Your Emails

Being at the beck and call of your emails will drain you of time and energy.  Diarise to deal with your email at certain intervals during the day and avoid the temptation to keep checking your inbox every few minutes.  Unless you’re waiting for an important email there is no reason to keep ruining your productivity with this nasty trap that so many of us fall into!

8.  Keep Your Inbox Clean

Don’t use your inbox as an archive, hanging on to every single email ‘just in case’ you might need it.  If you must keep certain emails, create a folder and file them as they have been dealt with.  Opening up an inbox full of junk that you don’t need is another energy-drain that will impact your focus and productivity, so keep your inbox as clean as possible, with daily clear-outs.

9.  Create Templates

Stop keep writing the same type of email over and over again.  If you find yourself sending similar emails create a template or draft email and use this to save time.

10.  Pick Up The Phone

Be selective in your use of email and always question whether picking up the phone or meeting someone would be a more effective way to communicate.  Resist the temptation to rely solely on email – it’s a great tool, but it isn’t appropriate for all situations.

What do you do to help keep your email under control? Post a comment below – I’d love to know!

Written by Faye Hollands – Mumpreneur and Director at Busy Working Mumma and Outshine Consulting.

Faye is an accomplished Business and Career Coach and Productivity Specialist who has helped countless clients create careers and businesses they love, get more done in less time, and achieve personal and professional success.

A Telstra Business Women’s awards nominee, Faye has featured in various media publications including Cleo, Cosmopolitan, Fitness Fitness Magazine, and BNET.

Prior to founding her own business, Faye’s career in finance, professional services and recruitment spanned 14 years, international borders and a host of blue chip global organisations.

Away from Outshine and Busy Working Mumma, Faye is Mum to her young daughter Charli, wife to Will, and dog walker to Zac – the big Rhodesian Ridgeback who rules the roost!

You can contact Faye on +61 2 8323 4335 or email faye@busyworkingmumma.com

Great Word Of Mouth

People love your brand so much they actively market it for you, and what better way is there than word of month – considering that over 70% of people trust their peers over any other form of marketing or advertising.

It is possible, but first we need to put aside some common misconceptions about branding and marketing your business:

• “Brand love” can’t be achieved by having a funky new logo and web design, people love brands for more than their appearance.
• Your marketing or advertising alone won’t get you long term love, only short term sales and awareness.
• Your competitors don’t have the answer for your business, so stop watching and copying them.
• It doesn’t have to cost the earth, in-fact all you need is time and brain-power to get started.
• Having people love your brand is achievable for any type of business – regardless of how crowded your industry is.

As a business owner the biggest barrier to growth is cash, which comes from sales, and the sales come from marketing the features and benefits of the product or service on offer.

Sounds simple right?

Too simple. There’s a fundamental piece missing in this process, and that’s a commitment to create something extraordinary to tell a story about.

If you’re a follower of Seth Godin this will already be sounding pretty familiar. Seth writes a lot on creating a business that’s so remarkable people cannot help but talk about it to others.

But how do you create something extraordinary and remarkable out of, more often than not, the ordinary business? AND why will people love it?

This is where most marketers’ stumble, because we’re not talking about conversion rates or ROI, we’re talking about becoming intuitive, insightful and aware so that we can connect with emotions via storytelling.

Many CEOs and Business Owners don’t own the task either, thinking that it belongs to marketing to ‘get it sorted out’; when they’re the ones holding the key to being ‘extraordinary’, but haven’t shared their vision throughout the business.

I’m urging every business to bring CEOs and Marketing Teams together to tap into how they can get more “Brand Love”, it costs nothing but a little bit of time and brain power to get started, here’s how:

With your teams in the room ask:

1. Do we love what we are doing?
When we love what we do in business the impact of any type of marketing is significantly increased. If the answer to this question is a resounding NO then think about what needs to change for you all to love what you’re doing again? Make steps to implement that change. If you got a chorus of YES’s, congratulations! Move onto the next question…

2. Why are we doing what we do?
Central to the success of any business is a compelling reason “why” the business exists beyond making money (which is the by-product). You might call this your vision, passion, purpose, mission… whatever it translates to for you doesn’t matter as long as it provides everyone with a powerful and motivating reason “why” they’re coming to work everyday, which will provide the start point of why customers will choose your brand over the competition.

3. What do we believe about our brand or the industry that can change the world for the better?
Many smaller businesses are created out of an individuals desire to re-shape or change the industry. Perhaps people in your industry are over charging; perhaps you know how products or services could be improved. Think about what makes you angry, or is making your clients and customers frustrated that you believe its time to change and you’re prepared to act on.

4. Why should anyone care?
Customers are selfish, which is right and normal when they are paying for goods and services. To get “Brand Love” it’s critical to think about what’s in it for them. How will your “why” and beliefs benefit and become important to them?

5. How can we improve our product, service and brand experience to make people care even more?
Where can you make improvements and innovations? It can be as simple as improving your messaging to make it more about your prospect and the value your brand offers them, or the service and delivery to customers to create an experience beyond any other. How can you continually make their life better when they come into contact with your brand; how will they feel as a result of your brand; will they view themselves differently after using your brand?

Love isn’t based on ROI, we give love to receive it, but first you must love your businesses enough to let your brand shine. If you only take one thing away from this post let it be this:

Stop chasing the money and the numbers. Start by understanding your own motivations for being in business and focus on the unspoken and unmet needs of your clients and prospects – the numbers will take care of themselves.

If you liked this post, you’ll love 16 Questions to Skyrocket Your Business

Sarah Birken is a Communications Expert and brand owner of Purple Circle Group in Sydney, which offers specialist brand strategy and communication consulting to businesses and is a wheel in strategist for design and marketing agencies.

Services on offer include Brand Strategy and Communication Planning: “How to get more customers and become untouchable by the competition”, Communication Directorship, Brand Management and Tailored Workshop Facilitation.

Contact Sarah directly on 0414 182 567 or email sarah@purplecirclegroup.com

Referral marketing increased my clients base and profits at Outshine Consulting significantly, and has been by far my most successful form of marketing over the last 5 years.

During this webinar I share with you how it can transform your business too.

So if you want more clients and more revenue make sure you listen up and get ready to take lots of notes!

Simply click below to replay this webinar…

Got a question for Faye?  Please post a comment below

Presented by Faye Hollands – Mumpreneur and Director at Busy Working Mumma and Outshine Consulting.

Faye is an accomplished Business and Career Coach and Productivity Specialist who has helped countless clients create a career and business they love, get more done in less time, and achieve personal and professional success.

You can contact Faye on

• Phone:  +61 2 8323 4335
• Mobile:  0400 122 108
• Email:  faye@busyworkingmumma.com or fayehollands@outshineconsulting.com
• LinkedIn:  http://au.linkedin.com/in/outshineconsulting

Time Management Life Savers

As Mumpreneur’s we’re all busy and unfortunately there’s no way of adding an extra few hours to the day, BUT you can spend your time more wisely and if you master these stellar strategies the clock will be your best friend again.  Take a moment out of your hectic day to read through these 5 simple steps, and start putting them into practice – they’ve made a big difference to my productivity, and they can work for you too:-

New Habit:  Time Management Mastery- The 5 Stops

Action:

1.  Stop Writing Long To-Do Lists

Your To-Do list isn’t a memory bank … if you write down everything you want to remember you’ll end up unfocussed and working on tasks that aren’t important.  If you’re worried about forgetting things, grab a separate note pad and use that to collect your thoughts.

Your To-Do should only include the important things you need to get done each day and should be short and concise so that you can clearly see your priorities and act on them quickly instead of wading through random thoughts and ideas.

2.  Stop Being Too Nice

If you’re constantly saying ‘Yes’ to requests you’re probably bogged down with too much to do and not enough time to do it in.  Other people are also likely to take advantage of you if it’s common knowledge that you find it hard to say no.  Stop being too nice and toughen up – say no to low-priority requests and focus on the work that’s important.

3.  Stop Procrastinating

In most cases putting ’stuff’ off won’t make it go away – all you’re doing is prolonging the inevitable, and ultimately making it more painful to deal with in the long run.  If that wasn’t reason enough, procrastinating also affects your efficiency because you’ll probably end up rushing at the last minute to do the work you’ve put off, and produce a below-standard result.   Nike’s slogan has been around for year’s because it works – quit the excuses, bite the bullet, and just do it!

4.  Stop Working Long Hours

OK, so this is a catch-22 – you manage your time badly so you have to work longer hours.  But working longer hours reduces your productivity which means you get less done.   Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that working longer means you’ll get more work done – it doesn’t.  Slaving away and tiring yourself out means you’ll be more easily distracted, find more it more difficult to focus, and will ultimately make more errors – not exactly a recipe for success!   Work effectively when you’re at work, and then when relax and sleep when you’re out of it – that’s what increases productivity!

5.  Stop Multitasking

Stop kidding yourself that answering the phone whilst replying to an email and trying to write a client proposal is effective – it’s not.  Each task you do will take longer when you’re splitting your focus and attention between different things. Unfortunately your brain doesn’t process multiple tasks simultaneously – it actually flicks back and forth rapidly between them.  So if you try and do multiple activities at once you actually perform more slowly and less accurately because your mind has to constantly switch back and forth.  As you would expect, this results in lower levels of productivity.  Focus on one task at a time, and do it well.

What do you do that helps you manage your time effectively? Post a comment below and let me know!

Written by Faye Hollands – Mumpreneur and Director at Busy Working Mumma and Outshine Consulting.

Faye is an accomplished Business and Career Coach and Productivity Specialist who has helped countless clients create careers and businesses they love, get more done in less time, and achieve personal and professional success.

A Telstra Business Women’s awards nominee, Faye has featured in various media publications including Cleo, Cosmopolitan, Fitness Fitness Magazine, and BNET.

Prior to founding her own business, Faye’s career in finance, professional services and recruitment spanned 14 years, international borders and a host of blue chip global organisations.

Away from Outshine and Busy Working Mumma, Faye is Mum to her young daughter Charli, wife to Will, and dog walker to Zac – the big Rhodesian Ridgeback who rules the roost!

You can contact Faye on +61 2 8323 4335 or email faye@busyworkingmumma.com

Watching your listener, or reader, become totally captivated by your words is, unfortunately, something we seldom experience in the business world. But wouldn’t it be wonderful if your readers became similarly wrapped up in the story you are telling?

Story Time

In sales and marketing communications we tend to focus on our key sales messages: we are the biggest; we are the smartest; we are the best value. We forget that humans love stories and are most engaged when reading something that takes us on an emotional journey.

How do we achieve that in our writing? With a narrative arc. A story that has a narrative arc is, put simply, one with a clear beginning, middle and end.

Importantly, though, something actually has to happen. As readers, we want action, adventure and excitement. And we want the story to end in a different place to where it began.
To tell a story in your business writing, your narrative arc should generally include:

• A hook (see the big bad wolf up there?): something that grabs the reader’s attention. This can be an anecdote, a statistic, an observation, something topical, or even something funny.

• A problem (readers find business writing boring): what is the issue under discussion that you can help your readers solve? What is the impact for readers? Think about ways to phrase this that will create emotional resonance.

• A solution (a narrative arc): what is the solution to the problem? This is where you can include your sales messages, but think about how you can weave them in to your story in a way that creates action, excitement and emotion. Usually, showing is more effective than telling. So instead of saying “We have 500 qualified people across Australia”, let those people become part of your story. You could quote them, survey them, include pictures of them, use them in a case study. Let their qualifications and experience shine through in what they say – it will be much more convincing.

• A resolution (emotionally connected readers). What happens at the end of the story? Does everyone live happily ever after? Ideally, you want to leave your readers feeling positive about your company and your people with a clear idea of what they can do next.

Introducing a narrative arc helps you to find the emotion in the story. And that will help you connect with your reader. Your story will resonate and your reader will start to respond to your piece in a more emotional way: “Yes! I have that problem”; “That sounds like me”; “I can see that working in my situation”; “These people seem great, I’d be able to work with them.”

All good story books have pictures, right? In Tell Me A Story: How to Add Colour to Your Writing, we explore how you can illustrate your writing.

Written by Experienced Marketing Copywriter Rosemary Gillespie from Proof Communication.

UK-born Rosemary began her love-affair with copywriting, editing and proofreading when working at the BBC in London. Yet it was a few years later, when she was working in the marketing department of a large European business, that Rosemary discovered her eye for detail that marks out her abilities as a marketing copywriter, editor and proofreader. Rosemary’s copywriting career flourished, and led her around Europe, back to the UK, and eventually, to Australia. Here, she wrote tenders and internal communications for various multi-national organisations, before deciding to launch her own business in 2000.

Today, Rosemary works with services and professional services businesses of all sizes – copywriting, editing and proofreading their B2B business, sales and marketing materials. She is an occasional contributor to Marketing magazine and The Sydney Morning Herald.

Contact Rosemary:

• Phone: 02 9314 7506
• Mobile: 0411 123 216
• Email: rosemary@proofcommunications.com.au
• Web:  http://www.proofcommunications.com.au/ 

Indulge

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned recently is that taking your foot off the accelerator, and sometimes coming to a grinding halt, is actually OK.

Working from home with a baby nipping at your toes makes for an interesting juggling act, and if you throw teething into the equation there’s almost a guaranteed headache on the way.

I’m very good at picking myself up and moving on during tough times, but on this particular occasion I couldn’t even conjure up an ounce of spare energy to think positively, let alone ‘do’ positive!

So what did I do? Well unusually for me, I admitted defeat.  I wrote the day off, had a little cry, ate a lot of biscuits and felt a bit sorry for myself!

What a sorry sight!  BUT, as tragic as it sounds, it was also great therapy.  Instead of giving myself a hard time (which I’m very good at), and making life even tougher than it already felt on that particular day, I just decided to go with the flow and have a ‘down day’.

Did it work?  Absolutely and here’s how you can benefit from the same plan of attack….

New Habit:  Give Yourself Permission To Stop

Action: 

• Stop.  Do no pass go!  Recognise when you’re feeling overwhelmed and make yourself stop whatever you’re doing, grab a cuppa and sit down so that you break the state you’re in and give yourself some time to reflect

• Importantly though, make sure that your ‘defeat’ ends when you go to bed that night.  Anytime you decide to indulge in defeat, just make sure you have a plan to pick yourself up the following day.  Defeat definitely isn’t a long-term strategy, it’s simply a ‘treat’ to relieve the pressure and find a new perspective.

…..

For Your Diary:

• After you’ve slowed down and regrouped, and before you go to bed, write down 2 or 3 actions you’re going to take the next day to move forward.  Make them small and simple so that you start your day off well, and then crack on the following morning as if your day of defeat was a mere bump in an otherwise smooth and exciting road.

• Make sure you diarise those actions at specific times of the day so that you wake up focused, and clear on what you’re doing and when.  This will also help to eliminate any lingering overwhelm.

Why:

• By taking the pressure off and giving yourself permission to stop and clear your head, you’ll give your mind a well-earned break.  For me, the result was that I had a new-found energy and fresh perspective the following day.

Have you ever had a down day and admitted defeat? Post a comment below and let me know what happened, and how you picked yourself up again…

Written by Faye Hollands – Mumpreneur and Director at Busy Working Mumma and Outshine Consulting.

Faye is an accomplished Business and Career Coach and Productivity Specialist who has helped countless clients create careers and businesses they love, get more done in less time, and achieve personal and professional success.

A Telstra Business Women’s awards nominee, Faye has featured in various media publications including Cleo, Cosmopolitan, Fitness Fitness Magazine, and BNET.

Prior to founding her own business, Faye’s career in finance, professional services and recruitment spanned 14 years, international borders and a host of blue chip global organisations.

Away from Outshine and Busy Working Mumma, Faye is Mum to her young daughter Charli, wife to Will, and dog walker to Zac – the big Rhodesian Ridgeback who rules the roost!

You can contact Faye on +61 2 8323 4335 or email faye@busyworkingmumma.com

Protect Your Precious Time

Here are some tips to keep you focused and alert.

Don’t meander down link street

You know when you see something you like or something that could ‘help’ you work better so you click the link then you see some tidbit of gossip or exciting news and their goes another link and in the end 2 hours have passed and you’ve done nothing constructive? Well, don’t – it keeps you online for no good reason

Set your boundaries and don’t go over

You’ve decided that 10pm is a healthy time to go to bed. Stick with it. As soon as you start slipping to 1am 2am then you’re becoming an online addict and starting a bad pattern of waking up tired and not being able to concentrate until night time when you start the cycle again. Not to mention your friends and family won’t appreciate you not being available for them.

Have at least one outing everyday day

I know it sounds weird but there’s a whole exciting world out there! Make sure you make some commitments that you can’t just say ‘I can’t be bothered leaving my computer’ like taking the kids to sport or doing team sport yourself. Even a nice drive somewhere different to get yourself out.

Concentrate and focus on finishing each task

Do you sometimes start one thing and then think of something else that could possibly be important in the next week or year or so and start looking at that instead? Stop. Finish what you’re doing. Just like we tell our children they can have their dessert after dinner, say to yourself – finish the task then you can look at the nice new house you’d like to buy on Domain.

It doesn’t have to be perfect

It has been said that a good performance is 90% just turning up. Do you know how many people are ‘no shows’? A lot of people! Lucky you only have to compete with people who actually have to guts to get out there and DO something. So if whether you’re writing an essay, a report, an email or a blog entry – just do it and finish it and PUBLISH it or hand it in. Full stop – finish it and get on with life because there’s life beyond the pixels of your computer screen – and it’s worth getting offline for!

Written by Sophie Kay, a Virtual Assistant who operates from her home office on the Central Coast, New South Wales.

Sophie obtained her Masters of Education Studies (Mathematics) in 2001 at the University of Newcastle and her Bachelor of Education at the University of New South Wales. Her extensive information technology skills include working with Google, social networking sites, web design and formatting. She has also used systems such as Oracle and FileMaker. She’s quite the tech whiz!

Before joining the ‘Virtual Assistant‘ team, Sophie worked at various schools teaching children mathematics.

Contact Sophie: -

• The Virtual Assistant
• P: 1300 36 88 10

Divide and Conquer

Everyone’s got stuff they’re ‘gonna’ do, and the odd ‘gonna’ here and there’s OK but if your list continues to grow over a long period of time unfortunately so will your frustration levels as tasks go undone week after week.  This in turn can impact your ability to focus and concentrate on what’s actually important.

Unconsciously all of those ‘gonna items’ that are swirling around inside your head compete for your attention, making it hard to put them completely out of your mind until they’re done or deleted.

So what can you do to ease the burden if your to-do list is overflowing with ‘gonna’ items?  Start by following these simple steps…

New Habit:  Eliminating Gonna’s

Action: 

1.  3 Columns: On a piece of paper draw three columns entitled – Want To, Need To, Should Do

2.  Split Them Up: Go through your to-do list and write each task down under one of the three headings.  Here’s how to split them up: -

• Want To – items you actually have a desire to do but just haven’t found the time for so far
• Need To – these are the tasks that contribute to your key goals and objectives
• Should Do – jobs you think you ought to do but probably don’t have much motivation for

3.  Organise: Now it’s time to prioritise, reduce or eliminate you ‘gonna’s’ based on your 3 lists.  Here’s how: -

Want To & Need To: These are your priorities because they make you feel good when done, and actually contribute to your goals and purpose.  To stop them being ‘gonna’s’, pick one, break it down into smaller tasks and schedule time in your diary to get each piece done.  Importantly, be realistic and don’t try and work on all of these tasks at the same time.  For example: -

• Gonna Task: Update website
• Want, Need, Should: You want to do it because you know you’re business will benefit, and you probably need to do it as well – an old, out of date website isn’t a good look for any business
• Break It Down: Having ‘update website’ written on your to-do list is a huge task and one that can seem overwhelming, which is probably one of the reasons why it’s stuck on the ‘gonna’ pile in the first place.  To update your website might take lots of different individual actions, including writing new copy, decided on the layout and flow of the site, choosing appropriate images, improving your SEO and so on.  By focusing your time and attention on each of these components one by one it’s much easier to start taking action, moving ‘update website’ off the gonna pile!

Should Do: I tell my clients not to ’should all over themselves’ and it’s something I urge you to resist too.  Life’s no fun if you spend too much of your time doing things just because you think you should, and these tasks are often the biggest culprits when it comes to gonna-lists.

Take a look at your ’should’ list and be brutal – delete everything that’s been sitting on there for weeks and is unlikely to ever get done.  Resist the temptation to leave them on your to-do list just as a reminder – your mind will be much clearer and focused when you get rid of them once and for all!

For Your Diary:

• For the items that are left it’s important to look at your motivation behind doing them, and what the cost will be to you if you continue to put them off.  If there’s no cost, and you’re unmotivated to take action, then delete.  If there’s a cost and it’s one you’re not willing to pay, then follow the same process as above and break each item down into small, bite sized pieces so that the task becomes more palatable.

• Once you’ve identified the tasks that you’re committed to doing, schedule time in your diary to work through each of the bite sized pieces one at a time – and that means physically writing/typing in your diary what you’re doing to do and when – don’t leave anything to change, and the more specific you are with your plan and actions the more likely you’ll be to follow through.

Why:

• Whatever category your ‘gonna’s’ fall into, rest assured that when you eliminate, reduce or actually do them you’re going to feel a whole lot better, and we all know it’s hugely satisfying to draw a line through a long, lingering to-do list item!!

Have you been ‘should’ing’ all over yourself?  Let me know what you’re going to eliminate from your to-do list – post a comment below….

Written by Faye Hollands – Mumpreneur and Director at Busy Working Mumma and Outshine Consulting.

Faye is an accomplished Business and Career Coach and Productivity Specialist who has helped countless clients create careers and businesses they love, get more done in less time, and achieve personal and professional success.

A Telstra Business Women’s awards nominee, Faye has featured in various media publications including Cleo, Cosmopolitan, Fitness Fitness Magazine, and BNET.

Prior to founding her own business, Faye’s career in finance, professional services and recruitment spanned 14 years, international borders and a host of blue chip global organisations.

Away from Outshine and Busy Working Mumma, Faye is Mum to her young daughter Charli, wife to Will, and dog walker to Zac – the big Rhodesian Ridgeback who rules the roost!

You can contact Faye on +61 2 8323 4335 or email faye@busyworkingmumma.com