Have you ever had one of those days where you just can’t seem to get it together?
Today, I’m working on mostly personal stuff but still rushing about trying to get back to people, connecting with the tribe, organizing the house, scheduling clients, figuring out where to put the new pool, preparing dinner for the family. You get the idea. People often ask me how I juggle running a company + clients + 3 kids and hubby + everything else in-between? To make a long story short and frank…I don’t.
If something takes me more than one hour to figure out, I source it!
If I have no interest in doing it, I source it!
And, if it doesn’t feel good, I don’t do it!
I know, that sounds terribly blasé but I truly believe that you really have to know yourself and your limitations before you can serve others. I want to give my best, my 120% every time I’m in contact with a client, the public and even my closest friends and family (they deserve the best of me too, right?).
I say no to stuff all the time. Not because I don’t want to be there but because I know that in order for me to keep myself on-task, fresh and highly creative, I need to say no. I need to be in bed by 9pm (unless I have a scheduled thingy). More stuff I don’t do… I don’t use a Franklin Planner (but I really like the look of them) and they have a really cool website!
So how I keep on task? I’m a Timer Girl! Very simply, I schedule absolutely everything on my Blackberry Calendar and my timer does more for me than 100 planners put together. I’m a need-to-be notified kinda gal. Two hours prior to said appointment – timer goes off. One hour prior to same said appointment – timer goes off again and then I know I have one hour to prepare for the next appointment. I never schedule my clients back to back. I always leave one hour between to give myself enough time to recharge my batteries so I can again give 120% to the next client.
One final thing I don’t do is I don’t get caught up in what other people in my line of work are doing or not doing. I don’t spend numerous hours monitoring Facebook or Twitter. Folks… jealousy is the most time-consuming emotion you will ever have. Stick to the things you can control. You’ll find you have a lot more time in the day to get things done.
So, that’s my plan (or lack of one) in a nutshell. What does your UNplanner look like?
Tina Yelle is a “Connecting Maven” who currently serves more than 5,000 clients across Canada. Her express networking events for women help the average business owner as well as big corporations get extra-ordinary results quickly. She has a proven track record for building communities and has recently built a client base of thousands of women stretching across Canada in just under 2 years with The Fuchsia Factory Inc. – currently one of the fastest growing networking companies for women in Canada.
