Planning Communication & Control.

I was recently asked at a conference - what are the three things that you think we should focus on to be happier and healthier at work - I surprised myself by having the answer on the tip of my tongue…

Planning, communication & control, I said.

I was born a planner, I remember my Dad giving me a wall planner that he had in the office when I was around 9 years old. I could not have been happier. Seeing my year laid out in front of me, filling in the boxes… I was 9 years old! Planning still fills me with joy.

Planning:

I cannot understand people who do not plan. I am with Benjamin Franklin when he said “Failing to plan is planning to fail”. All of us have been given a precious gift of time and get we are so ineffective with the way we use it. Stuff that doesn't matter, people who are not important and tasks that we do not enjoy seem to gobble the bulk of it up. The 1000’s of people that I speak to each year all nod their heads when I talk about doing too much of ‘what we have to’ instead of ‘what we want to’. No wonder people are stressed out, burnt out and tapped out!

• Have regular meetings with yourself
• Document what you have to do
• Add in what you want to do
• Block out time for your priorities - not other peoples!
• Add in blocks of time for preparation & travel - getting places takes time.

*every Monday you can tune into my podcast "Offstage" where I have my "Monday Morning Meeting with Myself for planning inspiration

Communication:

Communication is the single greatest tool that we have and yet so many people fail to use it. We live in a self obsessed world where we assume that everyone knows what is happening in our lives, that everyone can read our minds and then we are constantly disappointed when they fail to support us.

• Tell your family what you have on at work and warn them of high stress times.
• Tell your colleagues if you are under pressure at home so they can offer you support or space.
• Tell the people around you what you need from them - stop the guess work.
• Ask others what you can do for them to help their work load.

Control:

As a reformed control freak, I feel fully qualified to talk about control and its many faces. I used to exhaust myself by literally trying to control everything. What my children wore, what my husband ate, what people around me did, what books my friends read! It was a crazy world…

The combination of getting older and I like to think wiser made me realise that there is actually very little that we can control…. Our behaviour, our thoughts and sometimes our children!

Letting go of trying to control impossible stuff will free up so much? time and energy.

• Put your effort into the things that are within your control.
• Stop wasting your time worrying about things you are not in charge of.
• Pick your battles. Go to war for the important stuff and let the little stuff go.
• Let people do thing for themselves - they will never learn if you do everything.