Enough already. What about me?

Are you a 'work at home' Mum?

Ha Ha. Just found this tongue-in-cheek guide to being a 'work at home' Mum, or Mom, as the video says. If this is you, enjoy! And if you're looking for more practical advice about making time work for you, come along to my Taming Time workshop for over-scheduled parents on 17 June. Look this way >>>>>>>>>>>

Seven wise quotes about time

1. Time is our most valuable asset, yet we tend to waste it, kill it, and spend it rather than invest it." Jim Rohn

2. Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year – and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade!
Anthony Robbins

3. It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?
Henry David Thoreau

4. Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal. Henry Ford

5. Until you value yourself, you will not value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.
M. Scott Peck

6. Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.  Carl Jung

7. Human beings created the concept of time. Our attitude towards those seconds, minutes and hours is key to how we manage them.

This blogger

'Me time' workshops for parents - bring a friend for free

Has the snow thrown your life off balance in the past few weeks?
 
Maybe you’ve fallen behind with household or admin jobs because the kids were off school or you couldn’t get out in the snow? Perhaps you’re frantically making up missed work days?
 
With all the things that need to be done, you might think you can’t possibly prioritise time for you.
 
Well, now you can! Because I’m making an offer you can’t refuse on my New Year ‘me time’ workshops for parents.
 
When you book either 'Put YOU back into your life' or 'Taming Time' - you can bring along a friend ABSOLUTELY FREE.
 
So, two of you can benefit from these highly practical and motivating workshops.
 

1. This is what you’ll get from my Put YOU back into your life workshop:

-     two and half hours of uninterrupted ‘me time’ to recharge your batteries

-     a deeper understanding of what is really getting in the way of living the life you want (clue: it’s not the weather or the mortgage)

-     a personal action plan for creating more energy, focus and time for YOU over the coming months.

 “Thank you so much Katie! You have done what you set out to do and put me back into my life. The money was nothing for what you have helped me achieve.”  (Sally, one-to-one coaching client, South London)
 
Put YOU back into your life
Sunday 17 January
10am – 12.30pm
 
reCentre
260 Balham High Road
London SW17 7AN
 

2. This is what you’ll get from my Taming Time workshop:

-     practical techniques for managing your family, work and personal life more effectively, so you can catch up after the last few frantic weeks

-     three simple secrets for how to get more done including how never to procrastinate again and how to ditch the ‘to -do’ list

-     a calmer, more positive attitude to time management which will give you more time in the day – whatever the weather.

“I did Katie’s Taming Time workshop because I felt overwhelmed by my to-do list. Since the workshop, I’ve changed the way I organise my time, am more efficient and now I am beginning to create more time for myself.” (Claire, Mum from South West London)
 
Taming Time
Thursday 21 January
7.15 – 9.45pm
 
Lavender Heal
189 Lavender Hill
London SW11 5TB
 
So, these free places are there for the taking. But, don’t delay! You need to contact me NOW - this offer melts away when the snow does.

To book your two places for the price of one (£35) call me on 0208 772 7808 or email Katie@putyoubackintoyourlife.co.uk

Bye bye procrastination

Aargh..! A whole month since my last post. October just kind of disappeared.

But here I am at last and ready to make a commitment to blogging at least three times in November.

Procrastination? Me!?

So, why no blog? I've been meaning to do it, after all. Do I suspect some procrastination? What me? A life coach? Surely not!

Yup, that's exactly what it is.

When I put something off, it's usually because I'm relating whatever it is I have to do with some kind of pain (even if I don't realise it). In this case, the pain of facing the fact that my blog is not being seen by a whole lot of people - so much techie stuff to learn!

So instead of getting on and facing it, I find something else to do.

Surprise!  Life coaches aren't perfect! But thankfully I know what to do about it and it's crazily easy.

Banish procrastination in 5

I show my clients that however demanding their lives (and most are incredibly busy mums) they can stop procrastinating in about five minutes flat. The thing is, is that procrastination isn't an action, it's a feeling - a horrible, guilty, 'weighing down on your shoulders' feeling that makes you feel absolutely useless. But you can stop that feeling right now and never experience it again.

Really.

Obviously, the odd task can sneak through the net, like last month's blogging, but on the whole, I've pretty much banished procrastination from my life using this method. And so have many of my clients.

So, here's how.

5 easy steps

Step 1. Make a choice - are you going to do this particular job or are you not?

If the answer is NO, forget about it. Throw out the relevant piece of paper, pass the job to someone else, or do whatever you have to do not think about it ever again.

If the answer is YES, then…

Step 2. Decide when you're going to do. Decide how long it's going to take, and this is important -  BLOCK IT INTO YOUR DIARY. If you have to move it because you've got swine flu or whatever, BLOCK IT IN AGAIN. Don’t just add it to your to-do list. This is an absolute non-starter for your favourite procrastinations. You'll just keep not doing them.

Step 3. Then, spend a little time re-associating the job you are currently associating with pain or fear, with pleasure. This way, you will genuinely want to do it. (Have you ever noticed, by the way, that you never, ever procrastinate on something you love doing?)

So for instance, if you're putting off, oh I dunno, fitting the draft excluder to the back door… Think about how warm the kitchen is going to be and how great you're going to feel when you've done it. Don’t let the fact that you're really busy, and have no idea how to do it, let you put off handling it for a moment longer. Focus on the pleasure, not the pain.

Step 4. Forget about it - this is so much easier now you know when you're going to do it.

Step 5. When the moment of truth arrives, as scheduled into your diary, remind yourself of all the pleasurable reasons you are doing this particular job  - and just do it!

So. Here goes. I'm going to follow my own advice:

Step 1. Make a choice. Am I going to write my blog at least three times in November or not?  YES!

Step 2.  When am I going to do it? Umm… I'm getting my diary out now… here's 45 mins here …and here ….and here. Great. It's scheduled in.

Step 3. Associate the job with pleasure. Remind myself why I write my blog - because I love writing, because making meaningful connections with followers is fantastic and all the other many reasons why blogging is so much fun.

Step 4. Forget about it.

Step 5. Do it! Ooh, there goes my blog. Heading for cyberspace now. What a lovely, satisfied feeling.

Now, I just have to work out how to get more people to read it. Any tips?

Tips for taming time

Are you a BANJO* person or a BANJO person?

Are you a 'Bang a Nasty Job Off' person? Or a 'Bang a Nice Job Off' kind of a person?

Received time-management wisdom is go for BANJO 1. Get that grim job done.  Focus on what you don't really want to do, get it out the way and you'll be so pleased with yourself you'll go into the rest of your day with a skip and a jump. And most importantly, you'll avoid the depressing, heavy, inspiration-killing weight of procrastination on your shoulders.

So, Get a Nasty Job done. Reap the rewards of your actions and move on.

It's great advice. No question. Unpleasant tasks hanging about make us feel bad and can make it difficult to get anything else done.

But I'd like to put a word in for BANJO 2 - 'Bang a Nice Job Off'. In my view, this approach has a lot going for it, too.

Firstly, it's a Nice Job because you want to do it. It's probably something that you value, that is line with what you think is important in life. Not something that you simply have to do, or feel you ought to do.

Because you value it, it'll make you feel good when you do it. You'll probably enjoy doing it and it'll add to your feeling of happiness and well being. It'll make you feel positive about yourself.

And you're probably quite good at it, as well. We tend to want to do the things we are good at before the things we aren't. So the act of doing it will make you feel capable and successful, too. 

And then… Guess what? Once you've BANJO'd that Nice Job off, and you're feeling happy and pleased with yourself, doing that nasty/rubbish/scary/tedious or overwhelming job doesn't seem half so bad.

The secret is not to procrastinate on the Nasty Job. Plan exactly when you'll get those expenses done, but plan to do them after a job that you value, like writing your blog! The feelgood feeling that you'll get from the Nice job could take you a long way to making the Nasty job much less Nasty.


You can discover the three simple secrets to Taming Time at:

Taming Time - A Workshop for Parents. 

Please contact me for future dates and venues: 0208 772 7808 or email Katie@putyoubackintoyourlife.co.uk

Ref: From Roger Black, 'Getting Things Done'. Great book by the way!

Finding time to be a human being

Happily tweeting birds in my (very urban) garden woke me up early this morning. I’m talking extra early here, way before the milkman. The kind of hellish time I used to be forced out of bed when my girls were tiny. Thank heaven those days are over.

Did it bug me? Yes. Did I wish I was still in a deep and heavenly sleep dreaming of Jude Law. Yep. Did it ruin my day? No way. Without giving it too much thought, I jumped on my bike. And minutes later I was on the Common - dew on the grass, sun rising through the mist, just me and the ducks. I even did some yoga out there in the hazy sunshine.  It took 15 minutes. 

I’m not a fitness kind of person. I don’t do this sort of thing as a rule and probably won’t be doing it again soon. But today it felt like the right way to spend that extra bit of time the birds had created for me. I took a different decision from usual and got a different result - a few moments just for me, doing a valued activity that makes me feel like a real human being, not a stressed-out mum. 

That’s often the way with time for parents. It’s not so much that there isn’t enough of it – we all have the same 24 hours, let’s face it – but that we forget to fill any time at all with stuff that makes us feel fabulous as individuals. And, whoops, kids are doing just fine, but we seem to have disappeared.

It takes just 15 minutes a day to honour who you are. Give it a try.