We all know that we can’t get any more time in the day and we sure can’t save it up to use later! No matter what your back ground, if you’re a uni student, teacher, stay at home mum, doctor, senior Executive, Director or CEO we can all be smart with our time. Are you being smart with yours? Here are some tips to find those extra minutes each day to get things done. First you need to recognize them and then start constantly using them. You will be surprised at the results! I call them ‘Windows of Opportunity’, they seem arise each and every day in your lifestyle can and often do go completely wasted if you’re not aware or prepared for them or action upon them. And if you add them all up they can often amount to several hours a week – What was that about not having enough time in the day to do everything you want to do?

Here are 7 Windows of Opportunity to get you started:

• When you’re ready for a meeting and the other person lets you know they will be 5-10mins late it’s not enough time to work on your bigger projects but you sure can quickly go to review your list for an action or two that will take this amount of time and do it
• If you catch the train to work and get really frustrated or stressed when they are delayed or how long your travel time takes everyday, forget that and view it as the perfect time to read those broachers for your holiday, magazine review of your industry news, (that you have with you because you’re prepared) or get to read more pages of your novel and relax longer before you hit home where you need to cook and do the washing!
• When you’re waiting for your kettle to boil – stack or un-stack your dishwasher or clean up your kitchen.
• If you exercise at home or at the gym, schedule your sessions at the same time as the news or your favourite TV program.
• When you’re walking to and from meetings or locations slip in a few quick calls you need to make on your mobile.
• When stuck in traffic jams listen to your CD’s and bop away, a motivational CD or get yourself a CD that relays stories and sit back, relax and enjoy.
• When you have to clean your house, crank up your favourite dance CD and not only get a clean house but master your dance steps and exercise and feel GREAT all at the same time!

The biggest thing is to be prepared for windows of opportunity that you know could pop up in your day and use these times wisely instead of either doing nothing or negatively. I see too many people become annoyed, frustrated and even downright angry when people or transport are late. Chill out, there is nothing you can do about this unless you don’t meet with them ever again or don’t go anywhere, but what you can do is utilise your time better and feel happier and productive instead of frustrated or annoyed.

When you have your tasks and actions right there and ready telling you exactly what you need to do in these windows of opportunity it’s just so easy to get things done that people will start saying where do you get all the time to do that?

For more information about executive coaching contact Jacqueline Pigdon T: +61 (0) 404 362 379     E:jacqueline@jinalife.com

Do you have work/life balance? This is a very common question now especially amongst executives and if you are one of them you might like to take some time to look a little more closely at your life to answer this. One often relates work/life balance to the amount of hours you spend at each but what I’d like to focus on here is how ‘effort balance’ is important to your work/life balance. Do you apply the same amount of dedication and thus effort to all of the other areas of your life like you apply to your work if you’re a hard dedicated and long hour’s worker? Often work and careers are shown a lot of dedication because so many people see you at work, you ‘have’ to go to work and not many people see what you do in other areas of your life. Are you often measured there! And due to these factors your efforts can very quickly and easily become out of work/life balance.

Sometimes you may want to and need to sacrifice time at home for time at work, time with your partner, family, children, friends, health, holidays etc. But what are you like when you get there? Do you dedicate the same amount of effort and energy into the other areas of your life once you get there such as when you’re with your partner, exercising, children, family, friends, health, holidays? If you answer no to at least one of these then you might want to start setting some goals in this/these areas for effort. For without 100% effort there is not 100% attainment and therefore you are not reaching your potential in that area, are neglecting that area and therefore simply out of work/life and effort balance.

Working on your work life balance is just as important as a business owner working on their business not only in their business. It’s easy to live our lives and forgot to work on our lives and where we want to go. Work/life balance requires planning, control, effort and sticking to your plan without ‘allowing’ another area of your life to get in its way!

Without work life balance and 100% equal effort in all areas of your life you can feel out of control and balancing requires control… Just as much as too much of one thing is bad, not enough of some things are when things are going to give. Life can be like a juggling act!! Managing all these things can become overwhelming and sometimes make you feel like it’s just too much and anxiety and stress hit you head on! If this sounds familiar here are 7 steps to help you gain more work/life balance in your life:

• Group together the different areas in your life such as work, family, relationship, hobbies, health & fitness, personal time etc.
• Next to each area write down how much effort you apply to each on a scale of 0% -100% and if not 100% write one point that would make this % increase.
• Write down the number of hours you spend each week on that area.
• See if your life looks in balance to you.
• If not, decide on areas that you can reduce time and give to something else and point out those that you are simply being lazy in and could provide more effort.
• Commit to the points that would increase your effort that you wrote down in point 2
• Then assess your results, if you’re applying 100% effort in all areas of your life and everything looks in balance then well done! If not, focus on applying more effort to the areas lacking in the next month and watch the results, your satisfaction and enthusiasm grow!

For more information
Contact : Jacqueline Pigdon
Tel No   : +61 (0) 404 362 379
Email    : jacqueline@jinalife.com