Part 8 - Find ways to do more with less.

14 REFLECTIONS FROM 2016 TO HELP YOU ACHIEVE AMAZING THINGS IN 2017: Part 8 - Find ways to do more with less. Do you ever find yourself wishing you had more hours in the day? Often new clients come to me exhausted and burned out from running around and trying to squeeze mountains of activities into every day. Many of these clients are incredible leaders and high performing women who are already achieving amazing things. But often they feel too exhausted to enjoy the success they’ve created for themselves and their families. As a leader myself, you’ll find me consistently sending out the message that there IS a better way. That is because I firmly believe in working smarter not harder. Some coaches out there promote the opposite; the ‘Just Do It’ mentality of moving forward and charging at your goals without reflecting on ways to achieve the same ends more efficiently. Anyone in leadership or business knows that the way to improve your bottom line is to do more with less. It’s not about working your bum off and driving yourself into the ground with the hustle of it all. It’s about finding ways to get the job done without wasting precious energy. Some of this comes down to prioritising what you are going to work on each and every day. Not overloading yourself with a mountain of things, but deciding what activities are going to make the most impact and help you achieve the goals you’ve set for yourself. If you want to achieve great things AND enjoy your achievements along the way, the key is in choosing your priority areas and working smart on these. Not on spreading yourself thin across lots of activities. To really activate this philosophy in your life you are going to need to approach this consciously and in a planned way. You will also need to set yourself limits so things get done in the time you have available. Set yourself a plan at the beginning of every day. Decide what three activities are most important for you to take action on each and every day. And then decide how much time you have available to spend on each. No more, no less. You may prefer to plan in the evening so you can jump out of bed raring to go every morning. Or you can plan your day out in the morning over a reflective cup of tea and then take action from a calm and productive internal state. This doesn’t have to take a lot of time. The less time spent planning, the more time you will spend acting on the things which are really important to you. Just ask yourself: ‘What three activities are my priority today and how much time will I need for each of these?’ Base your priorities on the things that are most valued and precious to you. What is the end goal you are trying to achieve? And how will you make sure every day is enjoyable and inspiring along the way? My criteria for deciding on my priorities every morning is to ask myself what activities will most INSPIRE me today. Being inspired is the most rewarding state for me. It goes beyond achievement, to experiencing personal growth, enjoyment and long term reward all rolled into one. Though I do have a consistent daily inspirational routine to kick start my day, my priority activities change daily depending on where things are up to in my life and my business. I always know what I need to do each day to feel inspired and gain momentum on my long term goals. Some activities will be more important to me today than they are tomorrow. And vice versa. By focusing and pacing yourself in this way you are able to get what’s most impactful and important done. You will also have the flexibility to build in different activities which not only progress your goals but enable you to embrace and enjoy each day. It’s a highly rewarding experience to become more efficient in your activities. You feel satisfied with what you have achieved at the end of every day, you enjoy what you did do and can congratulate yourself on the very real and tangible progress you’ve made. You feel inspired instead of exhausted because you are on a high, and you are excited about the other things you have to look forward to the following day. Far from needing more hours in the day, you’ll have found a way to get more out of the hours you already do have to be productive AND to fully enjoy life while you’re at it! Have a wonderfully inspiring day!