31 days to enough time

29 Oct 2014 by Marcia Francois 8 Comments

{31 days of enough time} How I “get it all done”

When people hear that I work full-time, am married, have twins, write this blog and coach time management, they often ask me how I get it all done.

The short answer is that I don’t.

Yes, I do a lot but I would really like us to focus on what I don’t do:

I barely watch TV and as you can see from this photo, I don’t do much filing 🙂 (this was 9 months’ worth of paper…)

Let me explain the few things I’m awesome at (besides annual filing!):

Being very clear on my life’s purpose

I have a life mission typed out and I know my definition of success in life.

I also know my values and my core desired feelings. A quick secret – one of those values is not to have the laundry perfectly done, but it is to take action.

Are you clear on your life purpose?

Making friends with “good enough”

I feel that it’s better to have something done than have it perfect.

If you’re cringing at that sentence, let me tell you that I used to be you. That was until I realized that trying to get the last 20% of any project perfect usually takes more time than the previous 80%.

Do you know when 80% is enough, or are you still stuck on perfect?

Following a To Not Do list

We all know there are 24 hours in a day and there is not enough time to do everything.

It’s far more important these days to know which things to leave on the To Not Do list.

In my business, I do only things that could only use my input and I happily delegate the rest to my virtual assistant.
In my personal life, it’s important for me to cook from scratch but it’s not important for me to peel and chop all the vegetables myself.

Can you see the difference?

Deciding where I use my time and not feeling guilty about it

Be intentional about your time usage. I watch about 20 minutes of TV Mon – Fri while I change clothes, pack clothes and work bag, etc.

That’s it… except when a season of The Amazing Race is on 🙂

If you spend more time watching TV because that’s the way you relax, enjoy it!

I’ve chosen to do otherwise. Neither is right or wrong.

I do spend about 2 hours on the computer in the evenings, working on the business and connecting with friends through email and blogs.

I don’t feel guilty about my computer time because I know why I’m doing it.

Of course I procrastinate sometimes by surfing blogs too much but since I generally get things done, occasionally if I slip up, I don’t beat myself up about it.

Where do you want to be spending your time and why? Are you intentional about it?

Taking consistent action

Unfortunately getting things done is not going to just happen so you’ve got to take consistent action.

Whether it’s moving forward with a big leap or lots of little leaps, I try to take some action every day.

I’m good at constantly reviewing where I am in relation to my goals; you can get that way too.

Do you take enough consistent action?

To end off, let me leave you with one of my favourite quotes:

Filed Under: Time management Tagged With: 31 days to enough time

22 Oct 2014 by Marcia Francois 8 Comments

{31 days of enough time} Is it time to unplug?

If you’re involved on any of the social media platforms, you’ll regularly hear people mention that the noise is too much.

We’re all aware of Facebook envy, where you imagine that people’s lives are the sum total of their updates, because nobody posts about the flip side of the coin, real life.

Instagram has made it a little worse for some people, I’d imagine, with all those beautiful pictures of families, homes, travel, baking, and so on.

I remember when we went on a beach holiday, scrolling through my phone pictures, I’d see both Instagram-worthy photos (the beach…) and also the moments between Instagrams, like kids having time outs, messy kitchens after meals and laundry day craziness.

The truth is I’ve never really felt like I needed to unplug because I try to live life on my own terms and not compare myself to others… and I feel relatively well balanced. Well enough that I can coach other people in total integrity knowing I am being authentic.

You see, I set up some social media boundaries for myself years ago which are now very firmly entrenched habits:

I like to be more of a contributor than a consumer on any social media platform. If I’m on a particular site, it’s first to contribute (post, comment, etc.) and then to consume (check other people’s pretty pics and status updates).
I also use social media to connect with people. So if I scroll through my feed and see something I enjoy, whether a post or a photo, I’m probably going to comment or “like” that snippet. I want people to know I’m reading, watching and enjoying catching up with them, no matter how superficial some might think that is.
And of course, being a time management coach, I have very firm time boundaries for myself.

Also, very old-fashioned of me, but I actually still use Pinterest for my original reasons, storing bookmarks and websites I may want to reference again, and of late, as a search engine for pretty things.

All of that said, a few weeks ago, I was praying about a situation and I just felt like I couldn’t hear very well because my brain felt too cluttered.

I sensed that I should take a bit of a social media fast to clear my head a bit.

Since I didn’t feel that it was completely necessary to not have any involvement, I did a “light version”:

I blogged in advance for the week ahead.
No internet at night after supper. Night times were now reserved for cooking, husband and kids, gym, photos, prayer and Bible reading and other projects… like the good old days!
I only read blogs while eating my lunch at work and if I could only read and comment on three blogs during that time, then so be it.

What were the results?

I got a TON of things done around the house.
I heard a lot from God – I journalled too so I wouldn’t forget it all.
I felt calmer and more peaceful.
There was more time so I slept more during that week. My usual sleep duration is at least 7 hours and I was getting in 7.5 – 8 hours daily.
Of course my Feedly had about 200 items in it (I subscribe to about 75 blogs) and after the fast, I unsubscribed from a few feeds, the ones where I wasn’t even slightly tempted to do some catch-up reading.

I still don’t think I’ll need to do a social media fast very often but I’m definitely sold on doing one at least every six months.

What about you? Is it time for you to unplug? Either temporarily for a period or maybe permanently?

Filed Under: Time management Tagged With: 31 days to enough time

15 Oct 2014 by Marcia Francois 2 Comments

{31 days of enough time} B…b..b.. Boundaries!

When I first started teaching about boundaries, it wasn’t as common a subject as it is now. But then it seemed, as with any good thing, boundaries got overused.

We’ve all seen the emails with a blog post’s worth of text in an out of office reminder. That’s either very strong boundary-setting or going over the top, depending on the reader.

The best way I know how to describe a boundary is that it denotes an imaginary line drawn where that person’s emotional stuff is on his side of the fence and your stuff is on your side of the fence.

Setting good boundaries requires you to be assertive, not aggressive, respect that things may not go “your way” and that’s okay, but that you have a choice as to how you will then choose to interact with the person.

For example, if someone speaks to you in a way that you find demeaning, the person who has good boundaries would perhaps tell that person, “when you shout at me like that, it makes me feel _____. If you do that again, I’m going to walk away/ put down the phone, etc” and then do it.

You can’t control the person’s behavior but you can control your exposure to it.

The reason boundaries are so important is because it’s one of the main reasons women especially take on commitments they don’t really want to do, and then subsequently don’t have enough time to enjoy their own lives:

Here are two incidents that happened to me in the last 3 days and that show some other boundary situations:

Incident 1

Three of us did group personal training sessions for two months last year until I pulled out. You’d think I’d enjoy the group interaction and I do… just not while personal training. I eventually realized that I need (and want) the trainer to solely focus on me – what I’m doing wrong, where I’m battling, encourage and support me 100%. When I pulled out, I decided that if I went back, I’d only do one-on-one sessions. That was my personal boundary.

This year my gym employed a new personal trainer. I set my sessions up and arrived last week to find someone else in the session with me. I didn’t make a big deal seeing as it was our first session but it niggled at me until I checked with the trainer and yes, indeed, two other people would be joining one of my two weekly sessions, at a reduced rate for all of us, of course.

I sent one or two more emails on Monday mentioning that I’d booked her for that time first and when I got an email back, I realized this was going to be better spoken about in person. You can always tell these things!

When I went for my session that evening, I had a moment where I wondered if I want to be that person who makes a big deal about everything. Then I realized that this is important to me – getting fit and healthy is one of my biggest goals for the year – and I need to address this issue.

So I did. And it was totally fine. The other ladies are being moved to another day. Success.

Incident 2

I booked a 30-minute massage. I was early enough to be ready on the table at the appointed time. The therapist did the massage, her finishing routine and left the room. I looked at my watch – only 20 minutes had elapsed.

Again I had a decision to make. I didn’t like this therapist’s style – she seemed too rushed and in a hurry to get me done – so I probably wouldn’t go back since I go get massages for relaxation and nothing else. Should I still talk to her about the quick massage?

I’m a believer both that things get easier the more you do them but also that other things get more difficult if you let them slide.

I didn’t want to create a habit where I start shying away from dealing with things so I mentioned to her that the massage was actually only 20, and not 30 minutes. She was most apologetic and told me her watch is probably fast….. that wasn’t the issue for me. I wanted her to know and apologise, which she did.

Can you think of one or two circumstances where you feel your boundaries were or are being overstepped? Are you willing to have that uncomfortable conversation?

Check for the niggle inside of yourself and either deal with it, or choose to not let it bother you anymore if it really is inconsequential.

Strengthening your boundaries is like exercising a muscle; the more you do it, the easier it becomes.