Bacon and Bears - Leadership, Travel & Self-Improvement
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Photography

BLOG

Preparation - How to Get Stuff Done

9/28/2019

0 Comments

 
I love seeing people develop and then flourish with their new ideas, confidence and skills. One of the first steps though is simply getting organised: preparation is everything. As the saying goes, every over-night success is ten years in the making. Unfortunately, being organised is more prevalent in one sex than the other: holding my hands up for this absolutely sexist comment <it’s ok, am not about to start the racist’s self-denial sentence starting with “I’m not racist but . . .”>, it seems to me that young women in business at the same age as young men not only seem more driven but far more organised. They are hungry, eager to prove themselves and, although perhaps less confident (call that a thousand years of patriarchy!) they are far humbler. In essence, they kill it.
Picture
To get my mentees on the right path, we arrange half an hour on a Monday to review their schedule for that week. For me, I usually try to do this on a Friday, which occasionally results in working a little on weekends, but it gives my brain a little time to prepare. If you’re a regular reader (hi mum!), you know my brain needs all the help it can get. In our 30 minutes we do the simple things first:
  • Re-arrange any key meetings that overlap, adding in 15 or 30 minutes here and there to prepare for key meetings or if we’re facilitating the meeting
  • We then list out three to five priorities of the week, the key things they need to get done and which can’t carry over to the next week
  • There are then sub-tasks for the week, lots of small tasks (perhaps ten or twenty) that may be achieved e.g. completing your time-sheet on a certain day, prompting Greg in accounts to send the report Gina etc. OK, then comes the fun bit!
  • Mark the ones you don’t want to do: the phone call to Julius in Marketing that you really don’t like; the chat to your boss to admit you missed a task last week. Often these are tasks that have some fear attached or you find less attractive than the other tasks. Congratulations! You’ve just found your priority list. Complete the onerous tasks first, get them off your mind and done. Most probably they weren’t as bad as what you made out.
​For me, there’s nothing worse than the ‘Christ, I still haven’t done that!’ thought that happens mid-week. In this I have a tradition: after the ‘kerrrrissttt!’ thought, my brain reasons that I need tea to prepare for the event. 'Just brew it, you can work whilst it brews!' cries the hamster of my mind. But even that is the procrastination side kicking in, so I reject my mind’s overtures: ‘Make the phone call, then have the tea as a reward – you’re going to need it after the call anyway!’. Tackle the tough stuff first. 
Picture
Image reference:
https://www.girlpowergo.com/Girl-Power-Go-Workshops
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Writing and writing...

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    July 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Photography