Are you giving yourself enough time?
Diary management. Sexy, eh?!
I know it’s not the most exciting of subjects, but get it wrong and it can lead to all kinds of kerfuffle.
For example…
Ever realised you didn’t allow yourself enough time for a thing, and then spent the rest of the day (week? month?) frantically trying to catch up with yourself?
I think we all have!
Well, a few weeks ago I was reminded of one simple thing we could all be doing to help guard against that sort of kerfuffle….
I’d gone to my first online meeting with the ONLE networking community, slightly nervous but putting my best foot forward and ready to meet a bunch of new people.
The meeting itself lasted 90-minutes, but that wasn’t the end of the story. Once the call was over I needed another hour to sort out my notes, connect with people on LinkedIn and send a handful of personal messages.
Thankfully I didn’t have anything else booked into my diary, so I was able to focus on those tasks straight after the meeting, whilst it was fresh in my mind.
Imagine if my diary was full to bursting, with back-to-back calls and an unrealistically long list of things I wanted to get done that day. I’d have spent the rest of the day – perhaps the rest of the week - fretting, stressing about when the heck I’d have the time.
Eventually I’d have told myself ‘it’s too late now, I might as well not bother’, which would have made going to the meeting in the first place a questionable use of my precious time. After all, building genuine relationships takes more than showing up to a meeting once a month, right?
If I'm going to invest time and money in being part of a networking community, I want to do it properly goshdarnit!
And whilst I'm at it, I want to protect time before each meeting too, so I can print the attendance sheet, think about what I’d like support with and make sure I arrive feeling calm and grounded.
Now that I know what I need to flow in to and out of my monthly networking meetings with ease, I can do something about it. I can plan for it, blocking out time in my diary so nothing else creeps in.
I like to think of this as creating a lovely protective bubble around what's important.
Might you benefit from taking this approach too?
If you suspect it might, it's time to experiment!
Take a look at your calendar. Is there anything in there that needs prep and follow-up time? Block out that time now before you forget, and then leave me a comment below so I can cheer you on!
Do you often find yourself making unrealistic plans and then beating yourself up when you don’t tick everything off your list? I currently have space for private clients and would love to help you break that cycle and take action on what’s most important. Click here to find out what it might look like if we were to work together one-to-one, and get in touch if you’d like a chat!