Busy or productive? Be proactive

image courtesy of Freedigitalphotos.net

Most people I come across in my life as a work life balance coach are incredibly busy. In fact that's often what leads them to contact me in the first place.  They are often rushing from pillar to post juggling work, home, community and all sorts leaving barely any time for leisure and relaxation.

So how can you make your life more productive and less busy? How much of your time is spent reacting to situations? How could you be more proactive in your life?

Being proactive is all about taking charge. It's about making decisions and deciding in advance what you are going to be doing. To draw an analogy with computing, by being proactive you are being the programmer of your life. You are deciding what you are going to do and how.

Of course there is more scope for being proactive in certain situations. For example if you are self employed then you are much more likely to be in control of what work you do and when.  As an employee you can be proactive in other ways, like taking the initiative and anticipating what needs to be done. In addition to making you feel more in control of your life, your efforts will almost certainly be noticed by your seniors and will greatly increase your status and chances within the organisation if opportunities arise.

Taking charge, both in and out of work will greatly increase your effectiveness and productivity and reduce feelings of stress from feeling out of control.

Stephen Covey’s very first habit of effective people is Be Proactive.  In some cases you need to develop the courage to be proactive, especially if you are not used to taking charge. Start with small things and gradually increase the areas you are proactive in.

Simply taking the decision to be proactive is proactive in itself!

Caroline Love

www.stepoffyourstilettos.co.uk 

Do you need help to use your time more effectively and productively? Have you ever tried coaching? Would you like to?

The wonders of technology mean it doesn't matter where you live.

Contact me to arrange a free consultation about my coaching services. My step by step programme will help you get more from your allotted hours and give you time to do the things you want to do as well as the things you have to do. Send me a message or email Caroline@carolinelove.co.uk 

7 habits you can't be without

 

I was recently very excited to go on a course entitled the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The course was based on the book of the same name by management guru Stephen Covey. The book has sold over 15 million copies and been translated into 38 languages.

I figured 15 million people can't be wrong so I registered for the course hoping to bring back plenty of learning to share with my clients and make the achievement of a better work life balance a bit easier to attain. 

I wasn't disappointed. On the first day we were presented with a bag of materials including our very own talking stick to complement habit 5 - seek first to understand, then be understood (more about that later).

As it was such an action packed and informative couple of days I decided I wouldn't be selfish and will be posting a series of blogs on the habits to follow over the next few weeks.

Covey was a world renowned management guru who wanted to discover what it was that made some people successful and not others. He studied a large number of highly successful people and worked out some of the qualities they had in common. These he called habits which he managed to distil into the fundamental seven he wrote about.

The habits have further been divided into two sections. Habits 1-3 are known as the personal victory habits. They are qualities or traits we have to find within ourselves. Habits 4-6 are public victory habits which concern the interactions we have with others and how we work together to achieve the best results.

To summarise, the habits are

Habit 1 - Be proactive

Habit 2 - Start with the end in mind

Habit 3 - First things first

Habit 4 - Think win win

Habit 5 - Seek first to understand, then be understood

Habit 6 - Synergise

Habit 7 - Sharpen the saw

Caroline Love

www.stepoffyourstilettos.co.uk 

Do you need help to use your time more effectively and productively? Have you ever tried coaching? Would you like to?

The wonders of technology mean it doesn't matter where you live.

Contact me to arrange a free consultation about my coaching services. My step by step programme will help you get more from your allotted hours and give you time to do the things you want to do as well as the things you have to do. Send me a message or email Caroline@carolinelove.co.uk 

Six ways to think positively

image courtesy of freedigitalimages.net

Life feels brighter if you have a sunny and positive outlook. Negativity in both yourself and others can drag you down and sap the energy out of you making you feel like a wrung out rag. Thinking positively is a constructive outlook to have and you'll find that life becomes all the sweeter

Here are some tried and tested ways to get yourself into a positive mindset and make life feel easier.

1. Write 5 positive things about yourself everyday.  Whether you write in a journal, post it notes or somewhere else. Take a few minutes to remind yourself about the good things you do, say or are. After only a week you'll have a list of 35 and by the end of the month you'll really see the positivity adding up.  Take time to go through them periodically especially if you're having a bit of a down day.  Try and set yourself a particular time of day to write so it becomes a habit.

2. Develop goals for yourself to achieve and go for it!  Achieving goals is rewarding in itself. The sense of having reached a target or goal you set yourself really increases the power within and give you the impetus to set more and therefore achieve more.  Make sure they are your own goals not someone else's.

3. Don’t let a setback set you back. It is easy to become disheartened when your plan doesn't seem to be coming together.  Even the highest of achievers have had setbacks along the way. The trick is to keep on going one step at a time. Every little step you take is a step closer to your goals and proof to yourself that you are capable of success.

4. Remember that thinking positively is a choice you can make. Make a decision to stop thinking negatively, by reflecting on your thoughts and feelings thing thinking how you could actively turn those negative thoughts into positive ones.

5. Go on a thinking negatively diet. Actively look at the thoughts you have and try and reduce the negative ones and increase the positive. Remember if you seem to be having quite a few negative thoughts you can change them. If you were on a diet and lapsed by eating a bar of chocolate it would be a mistake, not the end of the world. Try and draw this analogy with negative and positive thinking.

6. Make a conscious effort to smile more. It will lift your whole mood and other people will react positively to that in return.

Caroline Love

www.stepoffyourstilettos.co.uk 

Do you need help to use your time more effectively and productively? Have you ever tried coaching? Would you like to?

The wonders of technology mean it doesn't matter where you live.

Contact me to arrange a free consultation about my coaching services. My step by step programme will help you get more from your allotted hours and give you time to do the things you want to do as well as the things you have to do. Send me a message or email Caroline@carolinelove.co.uk