Email Overload
Business people are plagued with numerous distractions at work. We deal with email, the internet, phone calls, unexpected meetings, unorganized and cluttered work spaces, changing priorities, annoying cell phones, pagers, PDAs, and constant interruptions. Senior executives and managers report that the biggest distractions are the crisis of the moment and e-mail.
To better manage all of these crazy distractions at work, people are arriving at work earlier, staying later, closing their doors more often, and setting clear boundaries. However, email continues to be a growing problem for just about everyone. The email overload can come from both inside and outside the organization, including customers, colleagues, superiors, family members, lists, and spam. There has been an explosion of e-mail in offices across the country, and not all of it is spam. Answering 50 or 100 e-mails a day — or just wading through them — can disrupt workflow and cost money. Get some real useful tips for managing your email better from Marilyn Paul, Business expert and author of “It’s Hard to Make a Difference when you can’t Find your Keys”.
The real issue is the perception and beliefs that people have. Why do people believe that they “have to” be available 24 hours a day? Why do they “have to” be involved in all the details of every project? Why do we “have to” attend so many meetings?
Reassess the “have to’s” and “should’s” and you may make different decisions!
Manage self not Time
For years I’ve been hearing about Time Management. However, time is elusive and really can’t be managed. Instead, manage yourself. The real key is that effective self managers define their priorities and schedule activities, they don’t manage the clock as there are only 24 hours in a day, 168 hours in a week. If you manage it, it will not grow or accumulate, so you really must manage how you use time, manage your work, and control your actions.
The trap that most super busy people fall into is believing that he/she can do it all. You might be able to do it all, but perhaps not at the same time or not with the same focus, tenacity or results. Everything doesn’t deserve equal time or attention. Therefore, you really must make conscious decisions about what’s really most important. Multi-tasking has been proven ineffective in numerous studies, so make choices and focus on the most important tasks first.
Time is a precious commodity. However, many people waste valuable time getting stuck in one or more of the following habits:
Being a Perfectionist: Believing that work or output that is anything less than perfect is unacceptable. This belief is often marked by low productivity as individuals lose time and energy on small irrelevant details of larger projects or mundane daily activities.
Procrastinating: Putting off, avoiding or deferring actions or tasks to a later time.
Crises Management: Reacting to threats, elements of surprise and urgencies but having no time for the routine matters that might be more important.
Being Unfocused: Lack of concentration on a particular task or activity which is evident usually by switching, floundering or multi-tasking.
Allowing Interruptions: Distractions and interruptions are costly to individual performance and the bottom-line. In fact, unnecessary interruptions consume about 28 percent of the knowledge worker’s day, which translates to 28 billion lost hours to companies in the United States alone (“The Cost of Not Paying Attention: How Interruptions Impact Knowledge Worker Productivity,” Jonathan B. Spira and Joshua B. Feintuch, Basex, 2005). At an average cost per hour of $21 (U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics June 2005), that costs U.S. companies $588 billion per annum.
Emotional Blocks: Boredom, daydreaming, stress, guilt, anger and frustration all reduce concentration.
Unexpected Occurences
My son broke his right wrist on Friday when we went skiing/snow-boarding beings they had the day off for a teacher’s in-service day. So, not unlike any of you who are also Super Busy Parents, I needed to rearrange my schedule so that I could get my son to the doctor on Tuesday.
As working parents we are often faced with the challenge of taking care of our personal/family life when we have commitments at work. Fortunately, I have made the choice 11 years ago to have my own business. This gives me extra flexibility but sacrifices the steady income and benefits I was receiving in the corporate world. I was able to re-arrange my individual coaching clients, participate in a meeting via conference call, and still attend a meeting I was scheduled to attend that evening. I called in my support network!
Building a strong support network is important for any working parents success, especially the Super Busy Parent! Having a support network allows you the option to call upon people and resources as needed. I phoned the Orthopedist’s office from the ski lodge to get their recommendations as to our best course of action for my son’s wrist, I called the Pediatrician to let her know what happened and get whatever referrals I’d need to get him the appropriate care in a timely fashion (here in America President’s weekend is a holiday weekend and most businesses are closed for President’s Day on Monday!), we called my daughter’s friend’s mother to inform her we were on our way home (and she offered to take the girls as soon as we arrived), we called my mother-in-law to have her let out the dog beings we didn’t know how long we’d be detained at the hospital, and over the weekend I called/emailed my clients to reschedule appointments.
Communication and a support network are crucial. So is keeping things organized so that you have what you need when you need it. Anticipating what you think you might need, may also save an extra trip (I got a copy of the xray while I was at the hospital this time and it saved me a trip back!)
How can you be better prepared for the unexpected??
Sleep Deprived??
What an experience!! I met Charles Osgood from CBS Sunday Morning news today when we taped a segment set to air on Sunday March 9th about sleep deprivation. We filmed the segment here in my office and home. They will also interview some sleep experts and a client of mine who certainly lives a very busy life.
The piece centers around the fact that people today are so busy they often fail to take time for adequate sleep. Many of my clients, friends and family survive on too few hours of sleep. This doesn’t normally effect them immediately, but eventually they experience grogginess; may fall asleep driving, at work, or while watching TV at home with their family; find themselves losing patience and becoming less effective in their numerous roles.
If you are one of the millions who don’t get the sleep they need. What are you doing instead? Are you bringing home piles of work, catching up on bills, cleaning the house, surfing the Internet, taking care of a new puppy, or something else? Are these activities really more important than your health and well-being?
Do you have a real sleep disorder, such as sleep apnea, that really needs to be addressed?
Here’s a challenge for you if you frequently get inadequate sleep…
choose 1 night this week to commit to getting a good night’s sleep. On that night, bring no work home, turn off the phone and TV, have someone else take care of the kids or pets, etc. and focus on getting a good night’s sleep.
You can do it! It starts with realizing that your habits are not working for you any longer. Then it takes your conscious effort to change that habit. Start with 1 day, then make it once per week over at least the next month. Once you have a regular pattern, add another day.
Realize there’s always something else you can be doing…but your sleep is of critical importance!
Pat commits from good to great!
Pat is a business coach and professional speaker. She shared that after years of buying books and products to help her market her business better and realizing that she’s now amassed so much information that she could probably write her own book, she will start implementing the tactics and strategies she’s learned about. That’s how Pat is going from good to great…how about you?
Janet goes from good to great!
Janet wrote to me requesting to add her friend to my free e-newsletter subscription list. She decided to share tips with her friends to help herself and them go from good to great.
What have you done today??
From Good to Great in 2008
Wow, I can’t believe my last BLOG was posted back in July! I have been super busy myself and focused on other parts of my business and personal life. But now, it’s a new year. I’ve challenged the readers of my e-newsletter to join me in my journey to go from good to great in 2008. I’m raising the bar. I’ve asked readers and clients to share their stories on how they’ve raised the bar in their super busy lives. So, check back here often to read what others are doing and use it to inspire yourself to go from good to great in 2008!
(I like catchey rhymes because it helps me remember things better)
Drop me an email at natalie@nrgcoaching.com with your commitment and actions you’ve taken. Just let me know how you’d like it posted on this BLOG to share with others.
Work? Life? Must we Choose?
Business Week ran an article on June 28, 2007 titled, “WORK? LIFE? MUST WE CHOOSE?”
In essence, this article was about a speech Mike Bloomberg made as he spoke to graduates of City University of the NY College of Staten Island. Mike told these graduates and their familes that…”If you’re the first one in in the morning and the last one to leave at night and you take fewer vacation days and never take a sick day, you will do better than the people who don’t do that. It is very simple.” And he joshingly admitted that the parenting thing wasn’t his bag. He said “I’ve managed to raise two daughters who have turned out very well, thanks to their mother, no thanks to me. …”
In my opinion, this success is geared toward financial gain and more about workaholism than work-life balance. Of course, I’m not earning anywhere near Bloomberg’s earnings, yet I can proudly say that both my husband and I are actively involved in raising our children and doing meaningful work that we mostly enjoy. We live a comfortable life and have a pretty solid marriage.
So, for people like Michael Bloomberg, their strong work ethics combined with innate abilities and passion, are really their idea of success. Even when many of them don’t have to work that hard anymore because they have more money than they and their great- great-grandchildren can spend, they continue working long hours because work gives them an incredible sense of balance and joy.
Bottom line, it’s all about using what you’ve got to leverage the success you define you want. Make choices based on what’s most important to you both today and in your future! Realize that many of the financially successful pay a big price of divorce and lonliness because they lack true meaningful relationships.
That’s my 2 cents worth….do I get change?
Sincerely yours,
Coach Natalie Gahrmann
natalie@nrgcoaching.com
Dream Jobs for Working Moms
A new survey just realeased from Pew Research Center finds that only about 21 percent of working mothers with children under 18 view fulltime work as the best arrangement, down from 32 percent just 10 years ago. Of the working mothers surveyed, a whopping sixty percent, prefer part-time work, up from 48 percent in 1997. And, about the same amount of women, about 19 percent, say they’d prefer to not work at all.
This survey was conducted by telephone this past February and March to a national sample of 2,020 adults with a margin of error of about 3 percentage points for the full sample.
Based on the latest federal figures in the US, 70.5 percent of American women with children under 18 work outside the home–including 60 percent of mothers with children under 3. Three quarters of the working mothers are currently working full-time jobs, although this survey reflects a preference for part-time work.
What’s your schedule look like in your dream job?
Email Coach Natalie at natalie@nrgcoaching.com to share your views.
Sincerely yours,
Coach Natalie Gahrmann
End Sleep Deprivation in your Super Busy Life
Super Busy Parents too often sacrifice sleep due to their busy lifestyle. Over time, this can result in sleep disorders. According to the Institute of Medicine, up to 75% of people with certain sleep disorders go undiagnosed. Many more are misdiagnosed. Fact is, seven out of every ten American women say they frequently experience a sleep problem.
I’ve read that women are more likely than men to experience sleep problems. Why??
Women tend to be the nurturers of their family and have more family responsibilities. Plus biological factors like menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause contribute to the gap between men and women who experience sleep disorders.
Many symptoms may be signs of more serious sleep disorders. If you suspect you may be suffering from a sleep disorder, it is important to seek help from your doctor or a trained specialist. Watch for dizziness, headaches, lethargy, forgetfulness, and other key symptoms.
Dr. Carol Ash, DO, Medical Director of the Sleep for Life center in Hillsborough, NJ is frequently a guest expert on local and national media speaking about good sleep habits. Her sleep tips for someone with a behavioral type of disorder include:
- Maintain a regular bedtime and wake-up time, even on the weekends.
- Establish a restful bedtime routine, like soaking in a hot tub, listening to soothing music or reading a book.
- If you wake up in the middle of the night, don’t watch the clock or toss and turn–try sitting and reading in another room. When you begin to feel sleepy, go back to bed.
- If you have racing thoughts at night, write them down and reflect on them in the morning.
- Avoid eating and exercising up to three hours before bedtime. Avoid caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol close to bedtime.
These tips may not be easy to implement in your super busy life. But, if you are committed to making changes and getting more restful sleep, you need to take action and start making changes now!
Pleasant dreams!!
Yours truly,
Coach Natalie Gahrmann
