Its time to think about Christmas Shopping.

The end of the financial year is a fantastic time to go Christmas shopping. Not because you have time on your hands, in fact it is to save time, save money and save stress.

However like everything it is important to plan your shopping trip. It is time to think Christmas Shopping. So it’s important to have a plan.

Planning
First, consider who you have to buy Christmas gifts for. Think immediate family, extended family, kinder and school teachers, sporting coaches … spend time now making a complete list.
Next, consider how much you would like to spend in total on Christmas gifts. Then consider how much you will spend on each gift. This will ensure you keep within your Christmas budget while shopping.


Thirdly, take some time to think about what would be a suitable present for each gift you need to purchase. This will allow you to think creatively and provide some direction while shopping which will save you more time.


Benefits
By starting your Christmas shopping early it will ensure you maintain your budget, can shop without pressure, emotional guilt and temptation which often occurs when you just need to purchase a gift in a hurry.

Oh and remember it is easier to leave the kids at home this time of year. Ideally everyone else around you will not be out shopping so you can get a babysitter for the afternoon. This will give you more time to think clearly and shop wisely.

Like everything it is worth doing the hard yards now so that you will be able to enjoy the Christmas period instead of making it hard work.

Happy planning and successful shopping.

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” or “wish 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.

End of Financial Year – Great time to review!

We often focus at the end of the year on our review of the year that has gone, and consider plans for the New Year and then set goals based on what has been identified. The end of the financial year is also a good time to stop and take a look. It is worth investing some time in reviewing if you are meeting your planned objectives and goals. You don’t want to waste the next 6 months just because you could not spare a couple of hours mid year.

Therefore take some time to check year-to-date highs, lows, the planned, the unexpected, the wins and the losses.

Potential Assessment Questions.
Perhaps the following questions may help with the assessment:

• Are we meeting budget?


• If yes, why, if no, why not?


• What have been our highs?


• What should we do more of to ensure we have more highs in the second half of the year?


• What have been our lows?


• What can we do to change this?


• How is our customer feedback process?


• Is it working for us?


• Is it working for our customers?


• When we get feedback where we know we need to make some changes, do we make the relevant changes?


• What staffing challenges have occurred so far?


• How did we handle them?


• Are we engaging our staff?


• What can we do to engage them more?


• What are our plans for the next 6 months?


• Are our staff aware of our plans?


• If yes, great, if no what are we going to do to ensure we are all working towards the same goal?

Don’t feel overwhelmed
The questions can go on and on don’t feel overwhelmed, just take some time to review you don’t want to waste the next six months.

Speak to Your Accountant
Even if the focus is specifically financial, remember it is important to speak to your accountant prior to the end of the financial year so any potential tax savings can be implemented. Don’t miss out on some great tax savings just because you could not spare a couple of hours for a meeting. I know my 1 hour meeting with my financial adviser saved me $4,000.00 in taxation. That meeting was well worth my investment of TIME.

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” or “wish 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.

Not-to-do lists

Lists, lists, lists I love them. I have shopping lists, weekly menu list, 2009 goals list, action items list, to-do list, birthday list, presents list, cleaning my house list and it goes on. The problem with all the lists is knowing what to do first so the idea when presented to me of a “not-to-do" list sounded sensational.

Author Michael LeBoeuf recommended the following for the not-to-do list:

• All low-priority items, unless you have successfully completed all your high-priority items.


• Anything you could reasonably delegate to someone else.


• Demands on your time from others that are either thoughtless or inappropriate.


• Any errand that, if ignored, will have minimal consequences.


• Anything you might have done for someone else that the person should be doing for himself or herself.
  

Wow – what a great idea. Think of the time you will save by not doing things. It will allow you to focus on getting the priority items done.

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” or “wish 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.