Category: Time management

  • Have you got the email habit?

    So, who’s in charge of your email in-box? You are. Who gets to decide when you look in there? You do. It’s as simple as that. Interrupting what you’re doing to check emails breaks your thought flow and throws your planning out of kilter. You also allow yourself to get caught up in the idea…

  • Get organised with your emails

    Do you keep all your emails in one never-ending list in your in-box? That’s a bit like having an overflowing pile of project papers, magazines, business cards, and letters from months back in the physical in-box on your desk. It’s cluttering up your desk and most importantly – cluttering up your mind. Many of my…

  • Banish email overwhelm – from ‘oh no’ to zero

    I was recently asked to help one of my favourite third sector clients with handling in-box overwhelm. This is such a huge issue in our sector I’ve decided to share my ‘Banish email overwhelm blueprint’ here on my website. Please share the love, and send this link to friends and colleagues also struggling under the…

  • The right way to delegate

    Your in-box is overflowing, you have a million unfinished jobs, there’s a huge deadline looming – so, it’s time to delegate a few bits and bobs, right? Um, no… you may feel marginally better about how much you have to do, but this approach is not a great strategy in the long term. How engaged…

  • Make it up – make it happen

    The pressure is on me at the moment. And it’s all of my own making! At a recent training day, I challenged participants from the charity I was working with to choose a task they’d been procrastinating on and make a pledge to the group about when they would get it done. I found myself…

  • 10 good reasons to get on the phone

    We’re all busy, so it’s tempting to whizz through your to-do list firing off emails and ‘getting things done’, but I encourage my third sector clients to take a break from the digital world every now and again, and make use of the old technology. Here’s why… 1. You really do get the job done.…

  • If emails cost 60p

      Were you amazed by the recent rise in the price of a stamp? 60p for first class!? Charities are rightly worried about the impact of this bombshell – from the increase in the price of direct mailing to the cost of communicating with often elderly volunteers who may not be on-line. This price hike…

  • What is a good work-life balance?

    My third sector clients often seek help with restoring their ‘work-life balance’. They’re mostly very committed. They have heavy work loads, put in long hours and take work home – often. But what are they really asking for? What do they mean by a better work-life balance? Most people would say that a good work-life…

  • How to stop procrastinating

    “Just do it!” One of the greatest ad campaigns ever, and brilliant advice on how to stop putting things off. Or is it? I don’t know many people who find this approach to getting things done particularly helpful, certainly not the hard-pressed third sector clients I coach. If they could “just do it”, they would.…