Thursday 11 October 2012

Review - 21 ways to manage the stuff that sucks up your time by Grace Marshall

Got home from work at 4:30pm today, I came in and spent around half an hour with Ollie doing his homework, and then thought to myself "what shall I do next?"  I decided to open the two parcels that the postman delivered for me today which were quite obviously books. I opened each one, took a photo of each and tweeted the photo with a message.  I then spent a bit of time sending a few random tweets and answering some others.  After making a cup of coffee, I decided to check Facebook on my phone and I put a chicken in the oven for this evening's dinner. I did what I call "fannying about" on Facebook and Twitter for a while for no particular reason apart from being nosy to see what my friends had been up to.

I put Ollie's dinner in the oven and responded to a few more tweets as my phone had dinged a few times. Looking at the two books that I'd had delivered that day, and thinking about the pile of books I have next to my bedside table, my next tweet said I wish I could find more time to read!

At this point it was now 6.30pm and I realised that I had just spent nearly two hours "fannying about".




I remembered Grace Marshall's book "21 ways to manage the stuff that sucks up your time" and decided it really was the right time for me to read it and take note!

Chapter 1 was called Batch Your Bits. One of the things it suggested was to set up an automatic reply in your work email setting expectations for your clients and contacts. Something like: "Thank you for your email. I read and respond to all emails every afternoon between three and four. You'll hear back from me then." What a great idea!
 
It also states that  every time your attention is taken from another task, to do something else, it then takes time to refocus on the original task because you probably need to get back into the mind space that you were at previously and all of that takes time and effort.  Grace suggested grouping similar tasks together attacking them in one go, which should allow you to work more efficiently. I tried it out the next day and it really does work! 

Chapter 2 talks about using a timer for many tasks during the day. Social media can be a great tool for marketing and growing your business but only if you use it to help you run your business rather than allowing it to become something that runs your life! Mmmmm!

Grace continues to talk about tons of different ways and rules to adhere to such as handle it once and breaking bad habits.  Say no while being nice, focus with a closed list, do things that beat procrastination.  I could talk forever about the things that I've learned from this informative book to help me to focus on my work and and give me more time.

In a simple to understand way and not filled full of jargon, this book is incredibly easy to read and there are lots of practical methods that you can apply to both your home life and your work life to make life easier, more organised and to create more time for yourself.

I'm off now to read the rest of Grace's book. I do hope The Marketing Room are ready for me at work tomorrow.  And I think it may become a little book that stays in my handbag at all times and I'm already quoting it to people.  I've also in conversation while talking about work, had two people telling me that they've bought Grace's book and are finding it really motivational.  It should actually come with a warning.  WARNING: For the price of £3.97 this book can seriously change your life for the better. 

Grace Marshall is a life and business coach, NLP practitioner, DISC trainer and mother to two children.  She is passionate about helping busy business owners make the most of their time and their talents in both life and business on their own terms.

Grace is the first person to admit that she's not a naturally organised person. She doesn't believe that there is such a thing as perfect work life balance, instead she's learned how to get stuff done in a way that works with her personality, lifestyle and commitments and she now specialises in helping others to do the same.

Grace's website www.Grace-Marshall.com will give you lots more information about her.
You can buy this book via Amazon UK
You can like Grace on Facebook
You can follow Grace on Twitter

 

1 comment:

Serge said...

As a DiSC trainer, Grace must have already guided several people as well as several teams for them to learn a lot more about themselves as a way to be more efficient in the tasks that they perform at their jobs.