Unwrap the gift of time – tips on keeping on top of the holiday season

http://www.heartandstroke.com/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=ikIQLcMWJtE&b=4016859&ct=11516905

Recently I was featured in an article for the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s Newsletter about preparing for the holiday season.

However, Martin Zibauer of Cottage Life approached me regarding traditional Irish dishes he might write about. I was delighted to be of help. My mother’s Irish Stew came to mind immediately. I dug the recipe up and sent it to Martin. I warned him that though it did seem like a pretty bland meal it was “simply delicious”. Martin made the stew and wrote about it for Cottage Life:

Cottage Life

What was interesting about this article was that the dish was so simple – really just lamb, potatoes and one herb. But it’s simplicity allows the ingredients and the meal delight the senses. And I agree with Martin that culturally now-a-days we have become so complicated with our tastes.

It is the same with our lives. We create homes that accommodate so many purposes and needs. We have kitchen gadgets especially designed for one function and one dish. We have creams for so many different parts of our bodies.

Sometimes simple really is best and sometimes it’s also delicious. This year see where you can simplify your life so that what’s important can really be enjoyed and savored.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

I switched off the engine of the car. I had no idea what to say or if I should remain silent and wait for the dreaded news that I was a hazard on the road. He looked down at the form he had been taking notes on and said “Well, I have to tell you… you passed, congratulations”. Seriously, I was so stunned I didn’t even get excited. I looked at him as if he insane and said “Are you sure?” Apparently it was true. We shook hands and he hopped out of the car. I saw my driving instructor was making his way over to me. I opened the car door and fell flat on the ground – my legs had turned to jelly! I had to laugh then.

I mention this because it made me think about fear and why I had put off learning to drive so long. Well, I knew why. I had been in a few minor car crashes in my youth and also lost a favorite teacher at school because she was killed tragically in a car crash. And the subconscious conclusion I had come to then was that cars are like tanks and they kill people and animals. And this belief stayed with me my whole life!

Recently I started with a couple of new clients who remarked that they had put off calling me because they were too embarrassed or too frightened or waiting till they felt more positive about things. It’s very common for people to say to me “I know this is easy, I should be able to do it”.  Why do we fear asking for help with the basic things in life? Because they are basic and somehow we make the conclusion that if something is basic then it should be easy and not require any help.

I find that men feel less unease in asking for help with their home office or home than women do. As women feel we should have this “keeping house” down pat. But our offices, our jobs, our lives and our homes are more complex now than they were for our parents. Doesn’t mean that life wasn’t harder for our parents but the boundaries of the different roles they played in their lives were clearer. Sunny Bates explains it so well in this video post.

Sunny Bates on Linchpins, Passion and Fear from Seth Godin on Vimeo.

Putting off asking for help because of a belief system that says you should be able to do this on you own is limiting. It limits you from having the environment you need to thrive and relax in and it limits you in that it avoids growth and change occurring. Life always welcomes forward action.

There is SOOOOO much out there! The difficulty is in making a choice and deciding whether you want to pay for it or not. I spent some time looking at what is out there. What I found is only a fraction of what is on offer. And a small disclaimer here: I am not personally recommending any app. – they look good, they have a good rep. and if they are not free they have free trials. Try them out and see what works for you.

I  love the name of this one! It’s free too. Get reminded, anywhere, locate your tasks, work together and share tasks, organize the way you want – lists or notes etc. Add tasks wherever you are.  It’s interface is clear and simple.

Life Balance

Life Balance is award winning coaching software that provides a dynamically ordered To Do List driven by the importance of your goals, your desired allocation of time and effort, and feedback from what you get done each day.

TimeGT is built to make life and tasks handling much easier and more accessible. TimeGT offers numerous ways to organize tasks, ideas and notes. It will suit a wide range of time management techniques used by different people: Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen, important-urgent method by Dwight D. Eisenhower, First Things First by Stephen Covey, and many others.

Organize your schedule and share events with friends. With Google’s free online calendar, it’s easy to keep track of life’s important events all in one place. Share your schedule. Let your family and friends see your calendar, and view schedules that others have shared with you. Get your calendar on the go. Access your calendar from your phone using its built-in calendar or mobile browser. Never forget another event Get event reminders via email or have text messages sent right to your mobile phone.

What to Choose:

The two most effective time-management tools out there are;

1. Paper planner/calendar or

2. Electronic planner hand held/computer sync’ing device.

Desk agenda

It’s that simple. Seriously though what I mean in that statement is that you don’t have any post-it notes on the computer, magnets with reminders on the fridge, scribbles on napkins or multiple cute diaries and notebooks for each subject, room, briefcase or purse. One system, one tool. Effective time management starts with having it all in one place – your planner.

Paper or Hi-tech?

Think about your lifestyle: Honestly I think this is a very personal decision. You may not have a lifestyle that is full of meetings and appointments – your struggle with time is more about prioritizing than juggling. Or you may need both paper and technology. The trick is in defining what gets put on paper and what gets taken care of by technology. And remember when I say technology it’s not just whether you choose a blackberry, a palm or an iphone – it’s the applications you install on these devices that will really make the difference.

How many different aspects of your life are you trying to sync up? Are you juggling a busy career, family, hobby or higher education? If you have complex scheduling, particularly if it’s from different aspects of your life and locations then perhaps technology is the answer for you. On the other hand if you scheduling is not the problem but keeping track of what you’re doing and prioritizing then you may simply need an agenda.

Think before you choose: You need to think about how this piece of technology will work for you and how and where you will be using it.

1. How many people are involved in your scheduling network? Do you need a system that can be shared with others and different platforms? What is your major area of frustration when it comes to keeping your day on track? You need to look at your life before you look at how to schedule it.

2. Making time to keep on time. No system, whether it is paper or technology will work for you unless you routinely communicate with it, sync it with your computer and keep updating it. So, before you choose, think about the amount of time that you need to commit to maintaining it. If you are spending a lot of time co-ordinating your time and contacts then you might need to think about some kind of assistance – be it someone who works with you, or a virtual assistant.

3. Give it time to work! Give yourself time to really get to know all the bells and whistles that it comes with and invest that knowledge into how you use it and hang in there – it will take time.

4. Applications. The actual piece of technology you choose is only one aspect of getting on top of time-management. You need to also think about the applications (apps in tech lingo). You can do way more now than just send email, texts, keep contacts and have a calendar. There are a lot of apps out there and some of them are really cool.

I am visual, I scribble, take notes but until recently my scheduling was pretty simple so I had a desk diary/Notebook. I loved it. My lifestyle has changed now. I do a lot of traveling and juggling of my and my clients time. So, I now still have my paper desk diary which I look at every morning to get a “look” at the day and week (so that I can see the big picture). I also have a hand held piece of technology where all the addresses of appointments, contact information and times are logged. It also has a GPS so that I can have the map directions of where I am going. They are my needs and my priorities.

Apple iphone