Annie Ashdown the resident Life Coach on ITV’s Kyle’s Academy and contributor to Zest, Slim at Home, She and Prima Magazine specialises in confidence building and relationships. Time pressure, stress and other emotional situations can create food demons that drive us to eat…Annie speaks from personal experience about breaking the emotional attachments many people have with food…
Procrastination is a thief of time...
We cannot manage time but we can manage how we direct our attention and one of the crucial gateways to success is clarity. Do you feel on top of what and who you allow into your day? Do you let people and places choose you, and then feel obligated to run with them, or do you prioritise your schedule, allowing time and energy for the unexpected?
Organisation around time and energy is imperative for many reasons. Firstly how can we expect anyone to value our time and energy if we don’t value our own? Secondly, by becoming selective with our time and energy, we gain a far better perspective on our life.
I suggest you never agree to imprecise meetings, as one short meeting can take up your whole day. In fact, I recommend you don’t go to any meetings, unless there is an identifiable need for them. I put value on my time, so I ask myself ’Would I pay X amount for what I got from that meeting?’ Even if I say ‘Yes’ I ask myself Could I have achieved the same result for less cost in terms of my time and energy?’
I used to race about all over the place, then one day I looked at the total cost to my time and energy. The true effect of filling my diary with meetings was a shock. I realised the most important meeting I could commit to each day was with myself. It gave me clarity and an opportunity to review everything and to monitor if I was being effective with my time and energy.
A time log is an effective tool. It quickly helps you spot where your time is being spent and the effect of such things as interruptions and meetings. It is also helpful to bring your awareness to what you have accomplished that day.
It takes effort to get into this disciplined approach but it’s worth it. Don’t worry if you go off track: merely put it down to impulse, and return to your intention. We all react to thousands of impulses subconsciously throughout each day.
Monitor your mind for impulses. For example, you might be in the middle of something vital, when you get an impulse like,‘I need a cup of coffee’or‘I forgot to respond to Jane’s email’. Label this when it happens, as you are most vulnerable when you have interruptions. Do this daily and it will strengthen your ability to resist impulses.
Make a list of all you want to do, group the items into the order you are resisting and work downwards to the lowest resistance items. Start a second column, tick the highest resistance, then do this a third time.
Take a look at how much of what you are resisting is due to pressure from others. Maybe you need to consider setting some boundaries. Examine your true feelings and be vigorously honest with yourself about what you are resisting. Successful people acknowledge their resistance but still take action. They don’t avoid doing something just because they feel resistance. They are aware whatever they are resisting is likely to get them to where they want to go.
Embrace your resistance, make it work for you. The distinction between acting as a result of a conscious decision, and acting as the result of an impulse is fundamental to achieving what we want in life. You consciously deal with what you want to achieve, as opposed to reacting to a bundle of impulses that you have not consciously examined.
Avoiding what we are resisting doesn’t make the resistance disappear, it increases it. We know in our heart what we ought to be doing, if we didn’t, we wouldn’t be resisting it.
Pretend you are employing yourself as your own PA. What hours are you expected to work? What jobs are you expected to do? How many tea breaks can you have? Look at what you do as if through the eyes of a third party. Employ yourself as a publicist, an admin assistant, creative artist, whatever! Schedule these in during your week, and be really vigilant as if it were for a client or boss.
Procrastination is a thief of time; the aim is to do what needs to be done when it needs to be done. Good self-management = decisive people; poor self-management = impulsive people.
Without a daily grand design, it is too easy to get caught up in trivia that zaps energy and takes you away from your real purpose.
It is crucial you believe your time and energy is valuable and you honour yourself. After all we can’t walk everyone’s talk, but we sure can walk our own talk!