1 – YOUR BUSINESS TIP

I’m starting with a confession today.  About how I got something so wrong in terms of managing my time that it taught me an important lesson that I call ‘Fix It BEFORE It Goes Wrong’.  It works in all areas of life and business and was a game-changer for me.

Towards the end of my time as an employee (back in the last century!, I used to be so bad at prioritising myself and personal ‘stuff’ that I ended up paying an unexpectedly high price.  (I’m always honest about how I’ve learned so much by getting it wrong first . . . then learning the lessons and changing my approach!)

Over the years I’ve learned it’s not just me.  It’s too easy to get caught up in day to day activities and lose sight of what really matters.  And as for maintaining a work/life balance – well, I’d have to have HAD one to maintain it!

Tunnel vision is a big issue for some business owners and leaders.  Being so focussed on getting the work done that they lose sight of what it is costing them in health, relationships, social life, lost time that can NEVER be reclaimed.  I fell into that trap and I remember clearly how I went from one deadline to another, achieving on the business front and carrying my personal mail (back in the day it came in the post!) to work, back home, back to work and it went on and on.  Until I had no idea of what was even in the plastic carrier bag of ‘personal things to deal with’ although my very nice leather briefcase was also full of ‘business things to do’.  

Somehow that fancy leather briefcase and the business issues always seemed more pressing. And it wasn’t even my business.

The more hours I worked, the more work there was to do.  And my personal work just never seemed to make it onto the daily ‘to do’ list.  Until . . . I realised that a really important bill hadn’t been paid!   Then the things I hadn’t prioritized at all suddenly became the TOP priority and I had to do far more to fix the problems that caused than if I’d just dealt with it when I should have.  Challenging.  Awkward.  Embarrassing.  Unnecessary.  

Solution:

‘What we resist, persists’.  In other words:  being busy and avoiding, ignoring or ‘forgetting’ things doesn’t work.  Things just get bigger and can escalate out of control.

The change was so simple it hardly makes sense.  

I started to plan out my time so that I could allocate some time slots for personal matters – starting small and growing over time.  Nowadays – all these years later – I have a simple ‘timetable’ that includes business, personal, time in/on/out of the business and more.   I colour code it so I can quickly SEE that I have more balance.

At first I ‘claimed’ 10-15 minutes at the start of each day to review the day before and plan.

I claimed another 10-15 minutes at the end of each day to see what was done, not done, needed to carry forward, etc.  So very simple.

And the real magic was putting in appointments with myself!  Time to work ON things – personal correspondence, bills.  Now that’s grown to 90 minute time slots to work ON the business and projects.

I now have a weekly plan that matches my body clock (I’m a night owl), my business and my wishes.  The by-product of finding my ‘rhythm’ for life and business is that I achieve more, enjoy life and business more, know my ‘best’ times for different activities and have the flexibility that is important to me.   

And again – it’s not just me – the ‘timetable’ (we call it a Default Diary because it’s what happens by default) works for so many others too.  It’s flexible and it changes as our businesses and requirements change too.

Give it a go . . . it might just give YOU the freedom you’re looking for too 😀  

Next Steps:

  1. Follow me – Mary –  on LinkedIn.  Each week I share ONE SIMPLE RESOURCE you can implement to improve your life and business.  https://www.linkedin.com/in/marycollin1/ 
  2. Want more?  Head on over to the 90dayplanning free facebook group (link in intro) and ask me the DEFAULT DIARY or my MORNING ROUTINE templates so you can customise them to suit you.

2 – YOUR MARKETING/LINKEDIN TIP

Write your next post in 5 minutes!

Here’s an example of a post you could easily write in 5 minutes:

So, why am I sharing this post with you?

Well, because all it takes for you to post it is to have a valuable resource you could share with your audience. 

Just like Tim.

All he did was share an insightful video he found on YouTube that his audience was interested in.

You could do the same. 

Your content really doesn’t have to be more complicated than that. 

Solution:

EG:  One of our most difficult things when it comes to posting regularly on LinkedIn is coming up with consistent ideas for content and what content works best for your business. 

We’ve created a 32-page E-Book full of our collective knowledge on LinkedIn. What works best and what strategies will get you more leads from LinkedIn. 

Want a copy? 

Click here: www.resources.90dayplanning.co.uk/Content-Secrets  

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