Posted on May 22, 2018 By
Download a chapter of It’s Not About Time here.
Posted in: It's Not About Time, Quotes | Leave a comment
Posted on April 30, 2018 By
The reality is, effective people are highly productive. Part of that stems from enhanced self-managing skills, but a significant contributor is the way these people think about and use their time. They’re judicious and thoughtful about its use.
As Charles Duhigg, author of Smarter Faster Better puts it, “‘Productivity’ means different things to different people, but at it’s core, it’s about thinking a little more deeply about the choices we make every day.”
To that end, here are some time management and productivity tips to spark your thinking about your own time-use. One of my tips happens to be #18.
Posted in: It's Not About Time, Tips |
Posted on April 6, 2018 By
It’s a great time to give yourself the gift of time. Download a free chapter of my book here. [Yes, it has a new cover]; Or, buy it on Amazon here.
Posted in: It's Not About Time | Leave a comment
Posted on February 14, 2018 By
When we arrived, I found three familiar bent heads focused on the remaining pieces spread around the not-yet-finished jigsaw puzzle on the coffee table. In time, those pieces evolved into a whimsical cat picture, the process of which absorbed a variety of extended family members, from 8 to mid 70s, over a snowy holiday weekend. Various family came to linger in the living room, trying their hand at puzzle creation; searching for a likely piece, placing it in their imagined spot, and then returning it to the table once their attempt failed.
We’ve all seen or been engrossed by such endeavors. But this one caught my attention. It hindered a quick finish with its limited color differentiations, causing drop outs unwilling to invest more time without clear progress. After all, there were other family engagement options during our days together, from “Just Dance” video game challenges to pie making.
By our second day, two puzzle-players remained. Determined to finish, they rarely moved from their homesteaded-spots on the couch and adjacent chair. By evening, the puzzle was as done as it would ever be — complete but not completed. With one piece missing, technically, the picture would never be “finished.”
I’ve thought about that weekend several times since, with its intensity of effort, missing piece frustration, and then acceptance of the puzzle’s imperfection. Lost. Missing. Never received? Who knows why the piece wasn’t there. It didn’t matter; it was still fun.
But the experience got me thinking. We all have a missing piece or two at times in ourselves or in our lives; pieces like (continue reading →)
Posted in: In the Scheme of Things, It's Not About Time, Life |
Posted on January 23, 2018 By
After the completion of Walt Disney World, the story goes that someone went up to Mike Vance, Creative Director for Walt Disney Studios and said, “Isn’t it too bad Walt Disney didn’t live to see this?” Without pausing, he replied, “But he did see it, that’s why it’s here.”
If any outside figure influenced my life early on, it was Walt Disney. Maybe it was because when I was five, my favorite uncle took me to a wondrous new place called Disneyland; or because I grew up in Southern California, visiting it every year or two, watching a man’s vision come to life and grow; or because I believed that “when you wish upon a star, it makes no difference who you are.”
Growing up on the Wonderful World of Disney, I learned how to dream. But as I got older I realized it wasn’t just the dreaming and wishing that made the dreams possible; it was the doing.
Wishing and hoping are poor strategies for making dreams come true, yet that’s (continue reading →)
Posted in: It's Not About Time, Winning at Working |
Posted on November 25, 2017 By
I’ve always loved books. I think they make great gifts for family, friends, work colleagues, or staff.
They’re great thank yous, too. A signed book is even nicer. So this year, if you’re interested, I arranged
a way for people to get signed copies of any of my books, directly from me, at discounted pricing,
including my latest one, It’s Not About Time. Here’s the link.
Posted in: It's Not About Time, Uncategorized |
Posted on September 28, 2017 By
I’m a colleague of Nan’s. It’s been several months since I posted on Current Musings. With cooler temperatures and a new school calendar starting; I thought it a perfect time to share what’s on my mind and perhaps yours.
I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed this week with a lengthy to-do list, changing schedules and pressing work deadlines. I need to get grounded quickly. So, I picked up Nan’s most recent book, It’s Not About Time – How to Thrive and Get the Results You Want at Work and in Life for some perspective and real-world tips. Skimming the table of contents, Chapter 1 – What Do You Want? and the specific topic of Self-Management grabbed my attention.
What is Self-Management? The Olympic swimmer, author Sarah Connors describes it like this, “Remember, the feeling you get from a good run is (continue reading →)
Posted in: It's Not About Time, Uncategorized |
Posted on July 27, 2017 By
This is name of Chapter 4 of my new book, It’s Not About Time – How to Thrive and Get the Results You Want at Work and in Life!
We know you can’t literally ‘make time’. But you can embrace the practice of shifting your priorities to create more time to do what matters to you. Making time is ultimately about making choices. And all choices have trade-offs.
Here are three questions to ask yourself about time and your choices:
What time is yours?
What do your choices reflect?
What would you trade?
Once you discover the answers you can start to ‘make time’ for what matters to you.
Learn more about how to make time for what matters to you, or try a sample chapter.
Posted in: It's Not About Time |
Posted on June 27, 2017 By
This is name of Chapter 1 of my new book, It’s Not About Time – How to Thrive and Get the Results You Want at Work and in Life! Do you want to halt the busyness commandeering your life? Or maybe you’d like to have more time with the people and endeavors that matter to you? Or maybe what you want right now, is just more sleep? The reality is our wants and time demands often collide. It’s about choices. One of the first choices is the art of self-managing as a primary focus.
Posted in: It's Not About Time |
Posted on May 16, 2017 By
I tried time management, increased efficiency, being more productive, working more hours plus weekends-and-nights during a first-act career that took me from a minimum wage employee, through various management roles, to a Vice President of a multibillion dollar company. At the same time I was a wife, mom, and sometimes elder care giver, seeking to have “balance” in my “real life” while trying to squeeze in time to work on a few life dreams along the way.
Some years I did okay; some I didn’t. For the first decade and a half of that career, I got accustomed to bouts-of-overwhelmedness I held inside, scarfing extra strength Excedrin throughout the day, highlighted with increasing side-trips of anger, frustration, lashing out at those I loved most, plus the occasional health scare.
Maybe I was just slow at recognizing my own stress limits and signs back then. But one day, midway through that career, I found myself unable to get out of bed—overwhelmed and exhausted. I was emotionally spent, with no more to give to anyone. I spent the day in bed, reading and crying my way through a book that sparked my thinking.
That book, and others I devoured after it, served as catalysts for me to see a different path and to gradually transform from being a passenger in my life to being its driver. Years of reading, research, thinking, exploring, self-discovery, reflection, teaching, and learning later, I still don’t presume to know what is best for anyone other than me, and even then I’m not always sure. But, I do know those who get great results, the results they want for their lives, are masters at managing themselves.
Myth: You need employer support for work-life balance
This is the myth of balance: that work is separate from life.
Real balance isn’t something someone gives you. It’s not a program, but a mindset. And it doesn’t come from the outside. Consider that 429 million paid vacation days in a given year are left unused by U.S. employees. Despite cries of “overwhelmed” just 51 percent of employees (continue reading →)
Posted in: It's Not About Time |
