• Get your priorities straight
• Getting organised
• Setting Goals
• What’s your next action?
• Planning time
• Ask for Help
• Make Choices
• Share the load

 Part of the secret to leading a fulfilling life is being able to maintain a focus on the really important things.  Things like family, your health, personal growth, relationships and community.  Not things like bills, material possessions, tax, politics, status and such.   

We regularly get our client’s to complete a ‘Wheel of Life’ exercise.  The exercise is designed to show the gaps between the clients’ stated ideal and the actual reality across all the important aspects of their lives.  The results are often quite startling and share a theme of neglecting the very things that have just been identified as the most important.   

Getting your priorities straight and making commitments to them in your diary is a good way to make sure you are not wasting your time. 

Getting Organised doesn’t just mean being neat and tidy.  It really refers to a system that works for you and your family.  Having a place for important things, keeping on top of your paperwork and knowing where family members are and what they need on certain days.  For example, which day does Fred need his soccer uniform this week?  Using a To Do list is a powerful way to get more organised. You can download a template from our website that we use with our clients. 

Setting Goals is about having dreams, ideas or aspirations and setting deadlines to them.  Use the SMART goal model to help ensure you have all the ingredients of an achievable goal.  SMART = Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Bound.  Identify the big ticket items in your life then set some goals around them.  What do you want more of, less of, to achieve, to produce, to have or to be? 

What’s your next action?  Spend a few minutes each day focusing on your To Do list and determine what the next action is for every item that will take more than 2 minutes.  For anything less than 2 minutes, try just doing it. 

Planning Time.  Create a schedule and stick to it.  If you’re having trouble, try keeping a time log to see where your time is being wasted. 

Ask for Help.  Don’t try to do everything by yourself.  It’s lonely, difficult, unrewarding and not enjoyable.  Enlist the support of friends, family, colleagues etc.   

Make Choices.  Juggling too many activities often leads to many of them being done poorly and the overall experience being less than rewarding.  Make conscious choices about how and where you’ll spend your time and whether they support your priorities and goals.  One of the biggest time wasters I can think of is the TV.  Try turning it off for a night, or even a whole week.  It’s amazing all that spare time you have. 

Share the Load.  Sounds pretty straight forward right?   It’s surprising really how often people in similar situations tough it out on their own and don’t ask for help.  Think of car pooling as a great example of how busy parents don’t have to spend every weekend driving their kids to sports. 

The following tips aren’t fool proof, sometimes regaining focus and control of your life or career takes prolonged effort and some assistance.  Don’t keep putting it off though, if any of this has been interesting or you hear yourself saying you need to do more of it perhaps one of our affordable short blast workshops might be of interest?   

• Work-Life Balance
• How to Set Goals… and plan to achieve them