Archive for the ‘time management’ Category
« Older Entries |Brits Waste 4.6 Million Hours A Day Commuting
Monday, November 9th, 2009
Research launched as part of National Commute Smart Week finds ‘smart commuting’ could dramatically reduce travel to and from work
• 62% of commuters want to reduce time spent travelling to and from work
• Being stuck in traffic, travelling in the dark and wasting time are big frustrations
• 46% say bosses won’t allow them to ‘commute smart’ to reduce their travel time
British workers are wasting 4.6 million hours a day commuting, according to a research report by Citrix GoToMyPC launched today to coincide with National Commute Smart Week. The survey of 2,000 adults* finds 62% of commuters want to reduce the time they spend travelling to and from work, with the biggest frustrations being stuck in traffic (42%), issues with public transport (38%), travelling in the dark (36%) and cost (30%). (more…)
Posted in flexible work, time management, work | No Comments »
How To Escape The Guilt Trap
Monday, July 13th, 2009
As mums we beat ourselves up about a lot of things – what our children eat, how they behave, how much TV they watch – the potential for feeling guilty is endless. Add to the pot the added guilt that Work at Home Mums feel about not spending as much time with their family and you could be heading for guilt-overload.
Guilt is a state which occurs when you believe you have done something you shouldn’t, or conversely, when you haven’t done something you think you should - and so has the potential to pretty much affect most situations! But if it IS only a state of mind, then maybe a change in perspective is all that’s needed to turn guilt on its head.
Here are some ideas about how you can turn a guilty thought into a postive one: more
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Some days you just shouldn’t try too hard
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
Parenting can feel like a competition some days. Is you house spotless? Are your kids off to school with shiny shoes and tidy hair? It can be particularly bad at the end of term. Have you made cakes for the school fair, donated a bottle for the tombola, attended the end of term play and made it to parents’ evening? You can end up feeling under pressure.
This week, the Family Friendly Working blog is looking at coaching. You may think that coaching is all about achieving perfection, but it doesn’t have to be like that. Sometimes you just need to decide what are important goals, and then also make a conscious decision that some things in life are NOT important. In her post, Fake It ‘till You Make It, Aussie Mumpreneur Karen Miles has some tips on how to fake parenthood when you need some breathing space:
1. Catch an episode of Play School and copy one of their art projects (even download their website templates) then marvel at your early childhood education skills. Your toddler will bask in your greatness.
2. Keep wicker baskets in every room to toss toys into at the end of the day and call your decorating style ‘country eclectic’.
3. Hide the laundry pile at the back of a cupboard when friends or family come over and enjoy your ‘tidy’ home for a few hours.
4. Better still, ‘home-bake’ some mini apple pies for mother’s group / school courtesy of the local bakery. Sprinkle a dusting of icing sugar over the pies after taking to them with a rolling pin (to squash them up a bit to make them look ‘truly’ home-made).
Karen says: “Cut yourself some slack. Laugh at the chaos of your life (you may as well), and give yourself the space to be ok as you are. Cut the smaller corners that will help you get through the day. Often your own expectations of yourself far exceed those of your kids or other people.”
So, when the pressure to be a perfect parent is mounting, ask yourself what is really important. Shove the laundry under the counter, send in bought cakes (with a little bit of home made icing on top 
), sit back and spend some time enjoying family life.
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Book Review: The Optimized Woman
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
As I’ve got older I have become more aware of the role of hormones in how I feel. I’m particularly interested in the changes I have experienced personally, and seen in others, after having children as it seems to unleash creativity in women.
And have you ever let rip in the week before your period? Some people may call that PMT, but it can also be a useful way of addressing lurking issues and clearing the air.
You may or may not feel that your hormones change the way you work but I’d certainly recommend The Optimized Woman: Using Your Menstrual Cycle to Achieve Success and Fulfillment: If You Want to Get Ahead, Get a Cycle
I spoke to Miranda Grey about her personal experiences which lead her to write this book. Miranda says, “After doing a science degree at university I did an illustration course and half way through it I set up as a freelance illustrator. It was very obvious to me, painting 24/7, that my creativity changed with the phases of my cycle. Also I found it easier to do some things towards running the business at certain times of the month than others. From discussing these experiences with other women and looking for images of women from the past to find a system to relate to, I wrote my fist book Red Moon: Understanding and Using the Gifts of the Menstrual Cycle back in 1994. It was very successful, translated into 5 languages, and I gave talks and workshops on the contents. It is about to be reprinted too.
Miranda then moved on from traditional illustration into electronic graphic design and set up a multimedia company with her husband. She explains, “Over the last 15 years I have worked for clients ranging from large international corporates to small startup businesses. A few years ago it occured to me that although I work to my strengths in my cycle that there was no knowledge of this practice in mainstream work and the menstrual cycle is still as much of a taboo in mainstream society as it was back in the early 1990s. Also, having finished a course on life-coaching and having tested a range of different success and goal achievement methods, it became obvious to me that they were based on a consistency of experience, motivation and ability that women do not have, making it difficult for women to use them to achieve their full potential.”
This moved Miranda to develop The Optimized Woman . She says, ” The Optimized Woman is designed to show women how to recognise their Optimum Time abilities and to apply them practically to three main areas of their lives: well-being, goal-achievement and work enhancement. It answers the question ‘What use is my menstrual cycle?’ and shows it as a powerful resource when we adapt activities, expectations, motivation, and success and goal-achievement methods, in line with our changing phases.
Miranda is in her 40s and lives in Southampton, England, in a scheduled ancient monument. As well as running a multimedia business with her husband, she paints children’s book illustrations, teaches Reiki, runs women’s workshops and facilitates an online women’s course. She has a degree in Geophysics and has written a correspondence course on using crystals for well-being. Find out more about the Optimized Woman at www.optimizedwoman.com/ or buy The Optimized Woman book for £10.79
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SELF-MADE MILLIONAIRE MUMPRENEUR SHARES HER SECRETS OF SUCCESS
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
Emma Wimhurst, 42, self-made millionaire entrepreneur, broadcaster, speaker and writer, has three children under the age of ten and refers to herself as ‘an ordinary woman who achieved extraordinary results!’ She has create sfinancial freedom for herself with the hot success of an entrepreneurial venture which rocked her to a lifestyle that more than matched her needs! Her venture began with her firstborn on her hip. She applied her passion and knowledge for business with scorching zeal, applied personal development skills and life/work balance structures to ensure the business niche she identified in 2000 would exceed her expectations and that she could have it all – on her terms and enjoy a rewarding family life and an inspirational professional life.
What are Emma’s Secrets of Success? “We all measure success differently,” comments Emma, who is a success mentor. “For some it is about achieving financial freedom whilst for others it’s freedom in how they work. What I believe sets successful people apart is that they are totally clear on what it is they want to achieve. It sounds simple, but if we don’t know what we are trying to achieve then we won’t know when we get there.”
EMMA’S TOP SUCCESS-ATTRACTING PRINCIPLES THAT WORKED FOR HER!
WEED THE PATH: get very clear on what you want to achieve. Clear the path of weeds including energy sapping people, projects, situations that are keeping you away from focusing on your goals. (more…)
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Harriet Morris’s 7 Toddler Tips For Working Mums
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
For working mums with a toddler, returning to work can be fraught with anxiety. Here are some tips to help you cope.
1.How many hours a week should you work is a question that only you can answer. The debate raging in the media is tiresome and irrelevant for 3
reasons: it centers on working full time or not at all (so many mums work part time), it assumes that all children are the same, and presumes that every mum has a choice about the hours they work.
2. Combat guilt at leaving your child with the knowledge that as a working mum, you are a great role model for your toddler. If you have a little boy, he will see women as equal with men in the workplace when he is older.
3. Most women these days have had to earn their own living from the time they left full-time education. Ask yourself if you can really be fulfilled staying at home all day with no other projects or profession. There is no right or wrong answer to this: many women welcome the break from a job they don’t really like – others need their career as much as they wanted to have children.
4. If you have to work full time, you have to work full time. Don’t waste time fretting over leaving your toddler in childcare – instead redirect this energy into planning quality time activities with your little one on your days off.
5. Toddlers are very adaptable and although they might make a fuss when you leave them at nursery or the childminder, they will soon come to enjoy the stimulation, variety and social opportunities that daycare offers.
6. Nursery or childminder? It depends on the childcare provider and your toddler. Many boys especially need the bigger space that a nursery provides.
On the other hand, some nurseries are too big to cater for your child’s individual needs.
7. Want to reduce your working hours but can’t afford to? Maybe you can after all. Look at new ways you can cut back. Organisation is hugely important in saving on day-to-day expenses. For example, cooking in bulk and freezing saves a lot of money. It also saves you time – instead of cooking when you get home from work, put a frozen shepherd’s pie in the oven and sit down for some quality time with your toddler.
Harriet Morris is a mum of two and runs www.toddler-ideas.com, a complete parenting resource – from tantrums to treasure hunts. Download your FREE Tantrum
Prevention Kit here.
Posted in childcare, flexible work, house and home, maternity leave, run your own business, time management | 1 Comment »
Where have you got to? How to get Unstuck and Move On
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
Sometimes it is easy to feel stuck. Maybe your business has hit a blockage or your search for work that fits with the family seems fruitless. This is the second article from Sandy Mann for Family Friendly Working and it will help you idenitfy where you are and move on. Good Luck!
People who’ve realised their dreams talk about going through different stages and roller-coasting up and down before they make things happen. Have a think about where you are and how you can move on.
Uneasy
This is that uncomfortable feeling when you’re starting to think that all’s not well with your life, that various things are going wrong for you and that maybe you ought to do something about all this. But you don’t quite start, because there are other things you need to do. The uneasy feeling goes grumbling on, though. (more…)
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Getting Organised
Friday, March 13th, 2009
If you want to start a business or find a flexible job, but already struggle to fit everything in, here are a couple of things I have found to help you get organised. I use the Life Book Diary from Organised Mum. They have a range of pocket diaries, larger diaries, wall calenders etc to suit most people, and lots of useful lists, pockets and space for notes too.
The other thing that helped me get out of post-baby chaos was signing up to FlyLady. Once you have got past the americanisms, it is a great way to give your life back some structure, and take control of the house rather than letting the chaos control you. I still love the idea of the 27 fling boogie, where you chuck 27 things in a bin bag while dancing round the house singing ‘Please Release Me’.
I hope one or both of these help you as much as they have helped me.
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Mumpreneur Profile: Nadine Hill of The Dream PA
Monday, March 9th, 2009
Name of Business: The Dream PA
Tell us about your family: I have a 6 year old daughter called Isabella and an 18 month old son called Jensen. My husband Simon runs his own business too and we also have a cat called Jet!
- Nadine Hill
What did you do before coming up with your business idea and how was it making the transition?
I started up my business after having my first child. I used to work long hours in PR for the fashion industry and then the motors industry. I returned to work when Isabella was 4 months old as my maternity leave had ended but my priorities had changed and it no longer suited me to be office bound for hours and still a commute away from home. I needed more flexibility and working from home appealed so I looked at my talents and decided to become a Virtual Assistant! (more…)
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Time Management for Busy Mums
Friday, March 6th, 2009
Here is the last in a short series of tips from Time Management Mum Nadine Hill to help you out if you are juggling kids and work. Watch out for an article from Nadine on the 9th of March.
Nadine says, “My last top tip has to be to make sure you get your rest or whatever the space is that you need to function. If you must have 8 hours sleep a night to function, then get it (babies permitting of course!) But if you know you will be up at 2 or 3am, then get to bed at 8pm! Claw back your sleep whenever you can. If your ‘must have’ is a long bubble bath after the kids are in bed, then DO IT! If you have to get your iPod on and go for a run – SCHEDULE IT! Whatever you need to feel like YOU again, has to be priority!
Nadine Hill runs a boutique Virtual Assistance business based in Yorkshire and is a ‘hands on’ mum of two children under six. She also writes a blog for working mums called Time Management Mum.
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Time Management for Busy Mums
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009
Here is the fourth in a short series of tips from Time Management Mum Nadine Hill to help you out if you are juggling kids and work – watch out for more tips over the next few weeks and an article on the 9th of March.
Nadine says, “Be disciplined when it comes to technology and especially email! Productive time can be wasted when you are constantly checking your messages as they come in, and when you work this way, you are allowing other people to dictate what happens in your day, rather than dealing with your own priorities in order. To stop this, turn off the email and only log in twice or three times a day! If it helps you relax, you can create an email autoresponder to tell people that you are just checking at certain intervals and they can expect a reply soon. At least then they have had some response from you. However just because email is such an immediate method of communication, this doesn’t always mean we have to respond immediately – give email the place in your life it deserves. A very useful tool but not your dictator!”
Nadine Hill runs a boutique Virtual Assistance business based in Yorkshire and is a ‘hands on’ mum of two children under six. She also writes a blog for working mums called Time Management Mum.
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Dads Missing Out on Bedtime Stories
Friday, February 27th, 2009
Who reads the stories at bedtime on your house? One of the plus points of flexible work is that you can be there at the end of the day. A new survey has found that just 3% of fathers read to their children, compared with 89% of mothers – and it is work that is stopping dads from being there for bedtime. 73% of parents think work commitments prevent them from spending time reading to their children. (more…)
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