11 November 2011 by 2 Comments

Getting ready for Christmas/ the holidays

When I wanted to write about Christmas this week, I wondered if it was too early.

Then I saw two Christmas posts on a couple of my favourite “intentional living” blogs and I felt like I was in good company.

So… onwards and upwards.

When you think about Christmas, what are the aspects that overwhelm you and stress you out?

For me, it’s not knowing what’s happening.

I’m a girl who loves a plan and I like to know who’s hosting the lunch and what I have to bring.

I also like to have clear in my mind what we’re doing about gifts and cards.

Here’s a quick list I made just to get my high-level thinking going:

1. Who will we send Christmas cards to? Do I have enough or do I have to buy some more?
2. Who are we buying gifts for? What is our budget per person/ family?
3. What are we doing for Christmas lunch?
4. How much decorating are we doing?
5. Which activities do we want to participate in?
6. What caused us too much stress last year that we want to let go of? (too many socials, too much spending, etc.)

Does this list help you?

I suggest you print out these 6 questions and take 5 – 10 minutes over a cup of tea to answer them honestly.

Your answers may not look like those of other people but if you embrace YOUR vision, you’ll be a lot happier.

Personally I found that reading too many decorating blogs around this time made me feel inadequate as I’m very minimalistic!

That’s one thing I’m going to let go of 🙂

 

And a quick announcement

I’m doing a free workshop called Organising for a meaningful Christmas at Christian Family Church in Atlas Road, Boksburg on Mon 21 Nov from 7 – 8:30.

We’re meeting at Solo’s restaurant and everyone is welcome. Please bring R20 for your Christmas planner.

 

How do you get ready for Christmas/ the holidays?

Filed Under: Intentional living Tagged With: ,
9 November 2011 by 6 Comments

On not settling

pic from our recent photo shoot – I love it!

 

An interesting thing happened the other day.

I’d been wanting to get some new black sandals for work for awhile but since I really don’t like shoe shopping (bags are more my thing), I’d procrastinated.

Well, within two days, all three pairs of sandals broke.

And I was forced to go get a new pair.

But then while in the shop, because I was desperate, I just took the best pair to suit my style.

I wasn’t in love with the shoes but I needed them.

On Sunday night when I thought about what I’d wear the following day, and thought about wearing the new shoes, I felt myself deflate inside.

And then I realised something.

These shoes don’t make me feel happy and I probably won’t wear them much.

Can you guess what happened next?

I took them back yesterday and now own another pair of shoes that do put a spring in my step.

What was the point of telling you all that?

Live intentionally.

Don’t settle.

If something’s not making you happy, do something about it.

And only wear things that you love otherwise you’ll be wasting your money 🙂

**************************************************

Is it time to get your home organised for the holidays?

Do you need to take action so that your house welcomes you again?

Stop making excuses. The first step to fixing anything is admitting there’s a problem.

There’s nothing to be ashamed of.

You can work through the online e-course at your own pace and go as slow or as fast as you want.

Have a look here and remember to grab your free sample on that page

And for any orders of anything for November and December, you’ll get my free Christmas Planner.

 

**************************************************

Are you settling for anything in your life?

And on a less serious note, do you like shoe shopping?

Filed Under: Intentional living Tagged With: ,
27 September 2011 by 9 Comments

How do you accept meeting requests?

In my full-time job I have lots of meetings.

When I get a meeting request, Outlook tells me whether I’m free or not and I’ll accept or decline accordingly.

I can’t understand it when people accept meetings tentatively.

Either you’re free and you’re attending, or you’re not and you decline.

Right?

Apparently it’s not that simple.

We were waiting for somebody in a meeting the other day and the meeting organiser said, “well, he accepted tentatively”.

What does that mean???

Is he coming to the meeting or isn’t he?

It almost feels like he’s waiting for something better to come along?

Teehee.

Anyway, we had a whole discussion and they told me I’m the only one who’s this black and white about this tentative thing. Apparently it’s a J thing (I’m an ESTJ on Myers Briggs)

Someone said a meeting could fall through and then you could accept the one you’d previously only tentatively accepted.

Oy!

Too much airy-fairyness for me.

But what about you?

Do you accept meetings tentatively, or do you accept or decline firmly? Why?

PS If I ever send you a meeting request, please firmly accept or decline 🙂

Filed Under: Time management Tagged With: , ,
22 September 2011 by 4 Comments

Oops – I was checking my list

 

and realised that I’d never wrapped up the party planning posts properly.

First, here are all the posts

Venue

Decor

Food and cake

Party favours

Thank-you notes

 

Things that worked well

  1. The printable party theme set from Etsy (I already have 3 in my shopping cart til next year rolls round…) – I just loved having a cohesive theme
  2. Buying the cakes instead of trying to be Supermom and baking them myself
  3. Food was plentiful but not way too much, and easy since I delegated some of it
  4. Party favours were just my style – repurposed, practical and useful
  5. Having the party at home was a huge stress relief
  6. I think we invited just the right amount of kids.
  7. People seemed to enjoy the handwritten thank-you notes.
  8. Once I got the photos from the photographer, I made prints and sent each family about 3 – 4 each. This was something everyone loved – if I do it again, I’ll try and hold off on those thank-yous so I incur one set of postage 🙂

Things I would change

  1. I’ll never do paper, in-the-mail invites again even though those are my preferred style. Not only were they more expensive because of postage but the RSVPs took sweet forever to come in, and I must confess, I had to hound about half the people for responses.
  2. Next time I’ll pretty up the cake before photos with a ribbon or something.
  3. I don’t know if I’ll go with a professional photographer again. I do agree that the photographer needs to be someone other than us though so we can enjoy the party. The photos were stunning but my expectations were probably mismatched because I didn’t get many of my family and I thought we would. That said, we have made an additional appointment and we’re going to get some two-year-old pics in two weeks time.

 

As I was typing this, I realised I enjoy doing an analysis of what went right and wrong.

It makes me feel more mindful.

I do this at the end of every month anyway when I look at my goals for the month that’s just been and the one ahead.

 

Do you like taking stock?

 

PS Pic by my friend, Caren.

PPS This post is also going to be useful next year when I’ve forgotten what went well and what could be improved 🙂

Filed Under: Time management Tagged With: ,
13 September 2011 by 9 Comments

Twitter – why I’m torn

I like to say that I have a hate-hate relationship with Twitter.

You see, I heard it was a good thing to be on there so I created an account.

I have many weaknesses but I do take action quickly 😉

I also heard from a social media whiz that it would be a good idea to link your blog to go through to Twitter so I did that.

(Don’t ask me how; this was about 3 years ago and I haven’t messed around with the settings since then)

I also heard that it’s good for business so I keep my account open even though I’ve never seen any monetary return.

Secretly?

I hate it.

I hate the feeling that I’m talking and no-one is answering back.

A friend told me it’s because I follow tons of US people who are on different time zones to me but honestly, when I did my * Twitter experiment, I went on at 7 – 8 pm my time (lunch time in the US) and still felt like I was talking into cyberspace and no-one was listening.

*My twitter experiment was conducted twice – I’d go on live and chit-chat for 15 – 20 minutes a day for a whole month.

I’m not on there daily but occasionally when I am on Twitter “live” as opposed to a feed from my blog, I still don’t get the lovely fuzzies all the Twitterolics seem to get.

I go through phases where I think, “I’m going to delete my account” and then I read something from someone I respect saying you have to be on Twitter if your people are there, so I hold off.

And really, I know I don’t want to be tweeting or facebooking the whole day – I LOVE the clear boundaries I have with technology and I think I’m a more engaged and connected person because I unplug so often.

Does that make any sense?

I also believe in this thing called purposeful time management.

But one way or the other I want to get to the bottom of this Twitter thing.

Do you love Twitter?
Do you hate it?
Are you indifferent?

Just for fun, what am I doing wrong?

 

Filed Under: Time management Tagged With: ,
6 September 2011 by 3 Comments

An unexpected gift

 

The price for Spring into Organising goes up tomorrow – get your ticket now.

*****************************

We had an arrangement with friends of ours to see them on Saturday for lunch.

We’re both very active socially (I prefer this to “busy”) so we plan these things months in advance.

Last Thursday she emailed me to cancel our plans.

For a few seconds, I’ll admit I was a bit annoyed because I knew it would be months before we could see them again. And… it messed up my plans 🙂

But then a feeling of peace came over me.

I actually started looking forward to a weekend of doing nothing but church on the Sunday.

We had a wonderful Saturday – I pottered around the house, cleaning, organising, and after the kids were in bed, even got to sort out a whole month’s worth of photos.

That free time turned out to be an unexpected gift.

I’m going to keep looking for these unexpected gifts in things not going according to my plans.

Has anything happened in your life recently that may be an unexpected gift?

Maybe being a little under the weather gave you much-needed time to relax?

 

Filed Under: Time management Tagged With: , ,
30 August 2011 by 10 Comments

Being purposeful about your friendships

our good friends, J & P

One of my top values is connection and so I really enjoy spending quality time with my friends.

I found that life gets busy so quickly that months pass before we realise that months have passed (!) and then we have to try and find space in one another’s diaries.

I know “this is life” but I want to be purposeful about my time and prioritise the friendships that matter to me.

These three things are currently working for me:

1. Set the next date as soon as possible after I see them.

When we get together with one particular set of friends, we set the next date there and then for about 6 – 8 weeks out.

This way we always have something to look forward to and we don’t have to scramble to find the time to see one another.

I met another friend for lunch recently and we’ve already scheduled our next lunch date.

2. Use appointments or activities I currently have and “add a friend”

I’m using my lunch times and instead of eating at my desk in front of my computer (and blogging), I’m making one lunch date a week for the friends that are more my friends than couple friends.

I’m eating lunch and connecting.

I went to a parenting talk tonight and invited about 6 or 7 friends. All of them declined my offer (!) except one. She and I met up, enjoyed a cup of tea beforehand and sat next to each other during the talk.

I’m learning and connecting.

One more… I ran into a friend’s daughter at the gym last week and discovered she’s also a member now. What I plan to do is have us both work out and then have a quick juice/ cup of tea afterwards.

I’m exercising and connecting.

3. I made a friends spreadsheet

I resisted this for a looooooong time because it felt way too planned and structured for me.

And then I gave in. What does it matter if it helps me accomplish my goals?

I have the friends down the left and then dates along the top and I can see at a glance who I need to make more of an effort with.

It still feels OCD but it’s working 🙂

Two questions:

How do you keep up with all your friends?

Do you prefer to connect one on one, or in a big group?

Filed Under: Time management Tagged With: , ,
23 August 2011 by 1 Comment

my favourite and most effective time management tip

As part of any of my products, I offer free email support.

I do this because I personally hate it when I buy things and don’t have access to the product owners to ask follow-up questions.

Diana bought my Organise your Time system and diligently worked through it every single week.

She’d check in with me and tell me how things were going in her life (love this!) and then one day she asked me this question.

I liked her question so much that I’m going to share it here today.

So here’s what Diana sent me:

” As a time management expert, which is your favourite and in your view, most effective time management tip if you had to choose one?”

Okay, so there are two parts to that question:

1) the most effective tip

I believe that you will never be successful at time management unless and until you get VERY clear on what you want your life to look like.

Until you reach that point, you’ll be swept away at whim by other people’s needs, expectations, desires, agendas and you will not be able to live your life intentionally.

So how do you do this?

Start asking yourself these kinds of questions:

  • What do I want my life to look like?
  • What is an ideal day/ week/ month for me?
  • Where am I coming short?
  • Which factors are preventing me from living that ideal day/ week/ month?
  • What can I do about them?

And then you start working towards that. If you need help getting to that point or even identifying where you’re going off track, book a Success Strategy Session with me and let’s sort out some of these diagnostic issues and get you a whole list of strategies to suit your particular circumstances, and style.

The reason some strategies don’t work 100% for you is because you’re unique and special.

Isn’t that nice to know?

So you need unique and special strategies for your life 🙂

2) my favourite time management tip

This one is easy. It’s saying no!

I saw this work firsthand in my own life and I see that little word doing little miracles in the lives of my clients every single day.

What would you say to Diana?

 

P.S. There’s still one day left to enter the Clutter Rehab giveaway (previous post). By the way, I noticed that some commenters refer to my book. This is not my book but do look out for it later this year 🙂

Do you say no enough?

If you need some help, the Organise your Time system will help you with practical examples.

I hope you enjoyed hearing from a reader.

Please feel free to leave your time management questions in the comment box. I love, love, LOVE hearing from you.

Filed Under: Time management Tagged With: ,
25 February 2011 by 4 Comments

15 ways I make the most of kitchen time

I have to stay in the kitchen while I cook because “out of sight, out of mind” means I burn food if I leave…

Confession – when I was pregnant I got so forgetful at one point that the food burnt a lovely black circle on my kitchen ceiling. I had to get painters in to repaint because that black circle would not come off any other way.

Anyway, moving along…

Since I hate wasting food, money and time, I try and stay in the kitchen and just make the most of my time there.

Some of the things I do include:

  1. packing my lunch for the following day
  2. putting the children’s food ready for the nanny
  3. leaving notes for the nanny or for the once-a-week cleaning lady
  4. organising a cupboard or drawer

  5. going through the recipes I keep tearing out of magazines to see if they still appeal to me
  6. packing my cereals into little containers
  7. tidying the fridge
  8. throwing out old food
  9. updating the grocery list
  10. creating our menu for the following week
  11. taking inventory of the freezer meals
  12. throwing a load of laundry on (my laundry is next to the kitchen)
  13. folding a load of dry laundry
  14. answering some emails from the laptop
  15. preparing my mug for my after-supper mug of tea 😉

How do you make the most of your kitchen time?

P.S. Don’t forget the giveaway

Filed Under: Time management Tagged With: , ,
22 February 2011 by 2 Comments

We all have 24 hours

About 10 years ago, I once had the opportunity to see President Nelson Mandela up close and personal , at the Killarney Shopping Centre, surrounded by bodyguards.

He is much taller than I thought but more than that, has a very imposing presence. You feel like you’re in the presence of royalty…

I always tell my workshop participants, “we all have 24 hours a day. All of us. The President has 24 hours and we have 24 hours. The only difference is how we choose to use it”.

And that’s the truth.

Your life is a product of the choices you make with your time.

Your choices are not wrong, just different.

If you choose to “relax” for 4 hours each day watching TV, playing games, getting on Facebook, etc. don’t complain about not having the time to write your book, cook healthy food, organize your home, etc.

It’s the same way that I can’t complain that I don’t have enough time to read books when I spend too much time reading blogs!

Choices. It’s all about your choices.

Your coaching challenge

  • Stop. Think about how you regularly spend  your time.
  • Is there something you’d rather have in your life?
  • Consciously make a choice to choose something better at least once a day for the next week.
  • Need some help? Contact me for your Success Strategy Session. Otherwise, have a look at the Organise your Time system.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Filed Under: Time management Tagged With: , ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »
WP2Social Auto Publish Powered By : XYZScripts.com