In Search Of Time

Not so happy to say that it is 9:15am on Sunday morning and at first glance I have a full day of work ahead and this is because I am preparing for a week on the road to;

• Speak at Sun Life in Toronto
• Meet with the Sales & Marketing Manager of an MGA Firm in Toronto
• Meet with the President of a Life Insurance Company in Toronto
• Speak at the BFG Financial Conference in Niagara Falls
• Take some time off in Niagara Falls and visit with family in Niagara Falls

Happy to say that Laura will be joining me for this trip!

I did create some Free Time this weekend after disconnecting from work @ 3pm on Friday after delivering a Leading Advisor Coaching Program Workshop to a group of committed financial advisors at Desjardins Financial Services in Victoria.

Still this is not enough Free Time as it is rare for me to work on weekends and I am using this Blog to sort myself out because I am feeling stressed about time.

Back to Desjardins … There will be more to say about my work with Desjardins Financial Services in Victoria in the coming months but I want to take a moment to thank the Managing Director, Rohini Kapoor for the opportunity to work with her again. I feel very honoured for the opportunity to work with Rohini and her team of committed financial advisors in their quest to achieve their goal to attend the Desjardins Sales Conference in Istanbul in 2011. I felt especially honoured when Rohini asked us all to take a break from the workshop to have our pictures taken for the newspaper and when the photographer asked me for my title, Rohini replied; Desjardins Financial Services Victoria Personal Coach.

So even though some of last week was a Buffer Week, a week to work ON the business versus IN the business …

• Monday – Buffer Day
• Tuesday – Buffer Day
• Wednesday – Focus Day – One On One Tele-Coaching
• Thursday – Buffer Day – Prepare Leading Advisor Coaching Program Workshop for Desjardins Financial Services in Victoria
• Friday – Focus Day – Deliver Leading Advisor Coaching Program Workshop for Desjardins Financial Services in Victoria

Where did my time go last week?

Obviously my time went into One On One Tele-Coaching and Desjardins Financial Services and a small part of the balance went into a Planning Meeting with Laura and the rest went into a letter to Advocis regarding CE Credits for my speaking presentations and I’ve been working on this wonderful CE Credits project since March with hundreds of hours invested.

A big part of why I am working today is because I am behind on my One On One Tele-Coaching follow up E-Mails and I have to pack. My stress is related to “I always complete my One On One Tele-Coaching follow up E-Mails within 24 hours” so last week was rare.

Last week was also rare in that BC Hydro installed a new set of hydro poles that runs the length of our subdivision and they had to shut the power off on Thursday so our office was essentially closed last Thursday.

The To Do List for this week looks like the following and I am feeling overloaded wanting to get as much done as I can today.

• Plan Week
• Pack For Week
• One On One Tele-Coaching follow up E-Mails from last week
• ID COI Sales Prospects for follow up
• Monday’s Blog
• Cardio
• Review Budget Cash Flow Report
• Delegate Tasks to Tiffany for the week
• Live Meeting Preparation
• Sun Life Power Point Preparation
• BFG Power Point Preparation
• July E-Newsletter
• Empty My Mind / Debrief Week At End

But wait a minute, what about my Free Time Blocks for this week? How many hours of creative time do I have?

Honestly, I am no different than my clients and we can at times pour lots of time and energy into certain projects which in my case was CE Credits and disconnect from others leaving ourselves feeling over whelmed with the mistaken beliefs that we have too much to do and that we will never get it all done.

With going from PT to ET and my office calendar being set up in PT, I like to use a TIMANAGER week at a glance time management system to give me the big picture of my time management.

So after plotting out my sleep, personal time, exercise, travel, coaching calls, meetings, speaking presentations and business dinners and coming to the realization that Laura and I have two days on our own in Niagara Falls … here is the free time that I have this week;

• Monday – 8 hours
• Tuesday – 2.5 hours
• Wednesday – 5 hours
• Thursday – 4.5 hours
• Sunday – 6 hours ( optional )

Total; 20 – 26 Hours

By free time I mean creative time when I am not committed to coaching calls, meetings, speaking presentations and business dinners … loads of time to complete the projects that I am working on … ahhhhhhhhhh – so having said all of this I’m practicing in Stephen Covey’s Quadrant II of Time Management … thanks for listening.

So today’s work is reduced to;

• ·         Plan Week
• One On One Tele-Coaching follow up E-Mails from last week
• Pack For Week
• ID COI Sales Prospects for follow up
• ·         Monday’s Blog
• Cardio
• Review Budget Cash Flow Report

I have loads of free time to work on;

• Delegate Tasks to Tiffany for the week
• Live Meeting Preparation
• Sun Life Power Point Preparation
• BFG Power Point Preparation
• July E-Newsletter
• Empty My Mind / Debrief Week At End