Stacey’s simple stress-reducer
18 September 2012I’ve been working with Stacey* for a couple of months as her productivity coach. She’s the GM of a successful company in the engineering field. She used to be a big list maker. Often she’d have five pages of items ‘to do’ – but hardly anything got done and the lists just got longer. Result? […]
Are your possessions slowing you down?
5 April 2012Top blogger Leo Babauta of Zen Habits was my interview subject for this month’s GettingAGrip Inner Circle audio programme. He blogs in a really interesting and very practical way about a number of the things I also focus on. Time magazine listed it in their Top 25 blogs for 2009 and it’s now read by […]
'No' Is Your Most Powerful Time Management Tool
29 February 2012I’ve made a study for some years on what makes some people successful when others who seem to have the same opportunities don’t achieve their potential and struggle endlessly to get their head above the daily grind. When I was asked to address Mal Emery’s Platinum Group of High Achievers in Sydney it was the […]
Overloaded? Educate the people around you how to treat you.
30 January 2012I’ve recently had the privilege of speaking at the national conference of TravelManagers Australia, a subsidiary of New Zealand’s House of Travel. Kim Mason, one of their top agents, is a young mum in Sydney and yet she runs her travel business in about 20 hours a week. Given that travel is usually a very […]
Teachers' Time-Saving Tips, and Bureaucracy Highlights
5 October 2011Here are some top time tips to get students to return newsletter and permission slips asap: Encourage a ‘rewards’ system so that the children take responsibility for returning them the next day – an end of term tally perhaps? (NO punishments though!) Mention what is required in the weekly newsletter, with a due date. Replies […]
Does Your Organisation Overuse Email?
21 June 2011Just because we can send an email doesn’t mean we should! Here’s an example – The planning team of a large institution often work on large collaborative projects. This often requires input from all members. They had been in the habit of sending emails to all members of the team for input and contributions. […]
Don't Do What Someone Else Can Do
15 June 2011Who opens the mail? Who does the filing? Do you find yourself constantly getting bogged down with tasks somebody else could do? Over lunch some time David Eddy, Project Director of a great First Time Principals programme via Auckland University, shared the following tip. It was given to him by a colleague early in […]
Sometimes You Have To Be Cruel To Be Kind
26 April 2011Is it kind to make things easy for people? I put it to you that when we smooth the path too much we run the risk of short-term kindness becoming long-term cruelty, not only to the person we’re assisting, but often to ourselves. (I’m not talking about customer service here.) The consequences can be very […]
It Was A Dark And Stormy Night…
28 March 2011… and I was 9 years old, squashed in the back seat of a taxi with my younger brother and sister, driving through the unfamiliar and bewildering streets of a sprawling large city. No, we weren’t being abducted. But – something I heard on that winding journey impacted my life forever. Our aunt had flown […]
Grow Your Business Through Savy Delegation
14 October 2010Not sure what you can delegate? Don’t know if you can afford it? Try writing down a list of all the regular tasks you do in a week, and estimate the amount of time spent on each activity. Now, pretend you’re paying someone a wage relative to each task, and put a dollar value beside […]