Anybody with children knows how important a routine is for them. Ignore their nap time and you’ll have a grouchy kid for the rest of the day. In the past, routines were ridiculed as taking the spontaneity or creativity out of something. These days, more and more people are recognising the benefits of routines.
The benefits have been widely described as:
Do you ever have the feeling that time just flies by? This happened to me this last weekend. It was a fun packed one. An organising job, meeting my friends, playing a decent round of golf and finally having purchased new bedroom curtains. Luckily, I didn’t have to do any of the boring or time consuming activities. I’m very grateful for having found some time saving shortcuts, making my life a lot easier. Here are some of my favourite time savers = life savers:
Last time, I’ve taken through the basics of determining and setting your boundaries. Here are some practical tips for setting boundaries in the office:
Everybody is talking about work-life balance. Like there’s an equal balance between the two. But how easy is it to set boundaries and actually live them?
Working in the Middle East, where the work week is Sunday to Thursday, I’ve often worked on Fridays, too. It was frustrating and took a toll on my family life. Until I’ve set up limits and started living by them. What a difference they’ve made to my life!
How can you improve your life by setting boundaries?
The weekend is barely over and I’m already writing about the next weekend. Am I nuts? No, though some of my friends may question it at times. Rather than waiting for Thursday night, then debating how to spend the weekend and wasting valuable time, start thinking about it now. To me, it’s also a great motivator which carries me through the week. Are you also looking forward to some of your weekend activities?
When’s that opening of the long awaited restaurant again? Is there an artisan market which you meant to visit for weeks going on? What about this nagging home improvement list that you’ve been putting off? Do you need to complete a proposal for your business?
Follow these easy steps and you’re ready to own the weekend:
“Oh, I’ll need to make this one call.” or “Let me just wash the dishes and I’ll start.” These were some of my excuses when it came to writing this post. For some reason or another, I didn’t seem to find the right start and postponed and postponed and postponed writing.
For many of my clients, the thought of getting organised is overwhelming. How many times have I heard them say: “I just don’t know where to start.” Starting is actually easier than you think:
Living in the Middle East, where temperatures can easily reach 45-50C (113-122F) in the summer, the thought of a siesta or afternoon nap to recharge your battery is very appealing. This morning, my colleague Marie was telling me this morning how low her energy levels were. Bang! At 2 am, she was bright awake and couldn’t fall back asleep. I’m sure Marie would have preferred the option for a power nap after lunch.
I can so emphasise with the siesta idea as I’m coming across various energy vampires during my day. This is referring to individuals who are sucking the life out of you. For me, multi-tasking is probably the biggest and more stressful one. Answering a call and simultaneously checking my emails or calculating something in excel don’t work. Every day, there’s a new study released which confirms that multitasking is not leading to increased productivity!