1,440 Minutes per Day

We all have the same 1,440 minutes per day – how we utilise that time determines our ability to have a productive day.



So focus on doing the really important and high priority tasks first, usually 3 to 4 tasks each day. Once you have completed those tasks, then you can start working on the smaller stuff.


At the very least if you only get the 3 to 4 high priority tasks done then you will feel like you have achieved something in your day. That’s such a fantastic feeling.


One of my favourite quotes from Stephen Covey is:

“I can not get it all done but I can get the most important things done.”

WHAT ARE YOUR MOST IMPORTANT THINGS?

About Us



LifeStyle Refocus is a Melbourne based personal assistant, corporate concierge and lifestyle management consultancy. They are all about saving you TIME. By taking care of your “to do” list so you can spend time doing the things that are truly important to you. For more information go to www.lifestylerefocus.com.au or contact Silvana on 0417 595 744 or Michele on 0437 311 802.

Time Tracking Exercise Follow Up

Did you complete the time tracking exercise? How many days did you track your time for? What method did you prefer the planning method or the recording method?



Congratulations on investing the time to save time. Seeing as we invested in tracking time it is important to evaluate our recordings. We want to do the following:


1) Analyse the way we used our time, what can you see from looking at how you spent your time?


2) What are some better ways you can use your time based on the analysis?


3) What are your wasteful tasks?


4) What are your unproductive tasks?


5) How can you reduce or eliminate your wasteful and unproductive tasks? It is okay to do this one step at a time.


6) How can you consolidate your time so you have large chunks of time for your most important work?


What will this achieve?


> make us more aware of adding “quick” tasks into our day


> allow us to slowly eliminate time wasting


> allow us to eliminate unproductive work


> allows us to find chunks of time for our most important projects


> ensures we question what we are doing and when we are doing it


About Us


LifeStyle Refocus is a Melbourne based personal assistant, corporate concierge and lifestyle management consultancy. They are all about saving you TIME. By taking care of your “to do” list so you can spend time doing the things that are truly important to you. For more information go to www.lifestylerefocus.com.au or contact Silvana on 0417 595 744 or Michele on 0437 311 802.

Time Tracking Exercise

Last post we focused on time wasters this time I would love to introduce to you a time tracking exercise that I really recommend. The objective is to think about how you are using your time, identify useless or non productive activities and eliminate them this also provides you with a better guide for how long a task actually takes.



In his excellent book "The Effective Executive," Peter Drucker identifies that effective executives follow three key steps to manage their time better:

1) They analyse the way they use their time and think about better ways of using it
2) They find wasteful and unproductive uses of their time and reduce them systematically
3) They consolidate their time into large chunks that they can use for their most important work.


So over the next two weeks I would highly recommend you attempt one of the two activities below:

This has 4 columsn which you record your activities in what you plan to do, what time you think it will take, what you actually did and how long that activity took.

TIME TRACKING OPTION 1



Time             Activity Planned    Est. Time   Activity Completed   Actual Time


6.00 – 6.30
6.30 – 7.00
7.00 – 7.30
7.30 – 8.00


In the above we plan our day and estimate how long an activity will take. Then we actually record what we did at that particular time and how long a task actually took. This achieves the following:


> Identifies whether we stick to our plan
> Identifies what we do when we vary our plan
> Identifies if we are accurate at estimating how long a task will take
> If we are not accurate, it provides us with a real life estimate of the actual time a task takes


TIME TRACKING OPTION 2

In this activity you record what activities you have been doing and then consider whether they were an essential activity or a non-essential activity.

TIME                                        ACTIVITY


                                    Essential          Non-essential


6.00 – 6.30
6.30 – 7.00
7.00 – 7.30
7.30 – 8.00


This exercise follows a similar example however this time we are reviewing whether tasks are essential or non-essential and identifies how much free time we would have each day if we could eliminate or reduce the non-essential tasks.


It is recommended you try either option 1 or 2 for 5 days however to get real benefits it is even better to do it for two weeks.


Good luck and enjoy your learning experience I personally got a lot of useful information from this exercise.


About Us
LifeStyle Refocus is a Melbourne based personal assistant, corporate concierge and lifestyle management consultancy. They are all about saving you TIME. By taking care of your “to do” list so you can spend time doing the things that are truly important to you. For more information go to www.lifestylerefocus.com.au or contact Silvana on 0417 595 744 or Michele on 0437 311 802.

Time Wasters

Part of being human is that we are all time wasters. Sometimes time wasted can be productive, it gives you a break, releases tension, however most time wasted causes extra stress because what you know you should be doing is being put off.


The aim is to identify when you are wasting time and whether it is a welcome break, or whether changes should be made?

Some time wasters:

> Disorganisation

> Procrastination

> Social Interaction

> Perfection

> Visitors

> Telephone calls

> Television

> Mail

> Email

> Computer activities – facebook, twitter, games …

Take a moment to consider what are your time wasters?

Activity

I found this fantastic exercise that I recommend. Now that you have identified what your time wasters are, split your time wasters into two groups, those within your control and those beyond your control.

TIME WASTERS

Within My Control                                                                   Beyond My Control

Take a moment to consider what will you do with the time wasting activities that are within your control?

What should / will you do with the time wasting activities that are beyond your control?

About Us

LifeStyle Refocus is a Melbourne based personal assistant, corporate concierge and lifestyle management consultancy. They are all about saving you TIME. By taking care of your “to do” list so you can spend time doing the things that are truly important to you. For more information go to www.lifestylerefocus.com.au or contact Silvana on 0417 595 744 or Michele on 0437 311 802.

New Habits to Manage Time

With any improvements in life it is often our own habits that have to change to be able to move forward. Once I have written on a subject I like to reflect on some new habits or attitudes that we should be developing so that we can move forward. Therefore based on this I would like to propose the following:



Ask yourself “What will make the biggest difference?”
Are you making the best possible use of your time? Do you find yourself being reactive rather than proactive? Are you managing to do what you want to achieve? Therefore each day when planning ask yourself – “What is it I want to achieve today?” and “What will make the biggest difference in my life right now?”


Don’t be late
Lateness is rude and often seen as a lack of respect towards the other person.


1440 Only
We all have the same 1,440 minutes per day – how we utilise that time determines our ability to have a productive day. Remember Pareto’s Principle – the 80 / 20 rule, therefore do the 20% of really important things in your day, the other smaller stuff; the 80% will take care of itself.


Building Solutions
When you’re next thinking of a solution to a problem, make a list. Draw a line down the middle of a page; in the left hand column list things you can control and in the right hand column, list things you can not control.


Be pro-active about what you can control – that’s where you get the most power, don’t waste time on what you can not control.


About Us

LifeStyle Refocus is a Melbourne based personal assistant, corporate concierge and lifestyle management consultancy. They are all about saving you TIME. By taking care of your “to do” list so you can spend time doing the things that are truly important to you. For more information go to www.lifestylerefocus.com.au or contact Silvana on 0417 595 744 or Michele on 0437 311 802.

Respect Time

Someone once said “Time is a great equalizer. We all get the same amount of hours each day. Some people are able to organise their lives with consistently high results and successes in many dimensions of their lives whilst others never seem to be able to accomplish what they want.”

Which category do you fit into?

Do you need to develop new habits to plan your day as you are one of the few people who understand that you can not get it all done but you can get the most important things done?

What are the most important things in your day today?

If you have scribbled a “to-do” list on a bit of paper take a moment to look at it and rate it in order of importance then tackle task number 1 first as that is the most important task that you have identified for today, once you have completed that move onto the next task. By doing this small exercise each day you are on your way to making better choices in your day to how you spend your time.

There are further processes to ensure you have a life of balance and fulfilment which I will address in future blogs but this first step is a great way to start prioritising so you can be productive each and every day.

Remember the fantastic statement “I can not get it all done but I can get the most important things done.” Author Unknown

About Us

LifeStyle Refocus is a Melbourne based personal assistant, corporate concierge and lifestyle management consultancy. They are all about saving you TIME. By taking care of your “to do” list so you can spend time doing the things that are truly important to you. For more information go to www.lifestylerefocus.com.au or contact Silvana on 0417 595 744 or Michele on 0437 311 802.

Starting the Year Successfully

Happy New Year, we wish you a year filled with abundance, happiness and success.

Ideally you have reflected on the past year and are making plans for the year ahead which is a really positive start to the year however it is important to write your goals down.

We set goals all the time:
§ I have 1 hour to do the grocery shopping
§ Today I will get the washing done
§ Today I will do the ironing
But we want to set “life goals”.

Why do we need to set “life goals?”
Your brain is programmed to look for what is important for you so by setting life goals in the important areas of your own life your subconscious will be on the look out for opportunities and this is where it finds things you may never have noticed if you only had a vague idea of what you were looking for.

The clearer your goals are the more likely you are to achieve them.

A goal properly set is halfway reached.
Abraham Lincoln

Study at Harvard University
A study was done at Harvard University. Students were asked who writes down their goals, and 3% said they did. The researchers went back to the students 20 years later. The 3% who wrote down their goals had a net worth that exceeded the 97% who did not.

Goal setting is not all about the dollar benefits it is about achieving. So take time to write down your goals. Enjoy the process and experience the success.

About Us

LifeStyle Refocus is a Melbourne based personal assistant, corporate concierge and lifestyle management consultancy. They are all about saving you TIME. By taking care of your “to do” list so you can spend time doing the things that are truly important to you. For more information go to

www.lifestylerefocus.com.au or contact Silvana on 0417 595 744 or Michele on 0437 311 802.