Do you want to get the best start to 2022?
The last couple of years have been really tough for so many of us, and I’ve watched my coaching clients struggle to separate work and home life. I’ve seen them struggle to take time, to just go to the toilet during the working day because the meetings have either overrun, or at worst they’ve had two or three meetings booked in for the same time slot.
Although it’s been really great to see the increased importance and profile of looking after our mental health, it’s only because our mental health has really gone downhill. We need to find ways to look after this and we need to find ways to take back control.
I’ll be writing a series of blogs to not only help you understand why some of these changes have been so hard but also to create better habits so that you are in a better place to make decisions that are going to help you, help your success, help your performance and help your mental health as well.
Stay tuned because that series will be coming up soon and you don’t want to miss it!
For now..
Here are three key changes that you could make that are going to set you up for a much healthier, more productive and better all-round 2022.
Assert Control Over Your Time
Now you’re going to be saying to me that you have no control when everybody books into your diary. Well, there are things that you can do:
• If you had a commute to work when you used to go to the office, take that time that you would have been commuting and use it for exercise, for reading, for meditation, for meal prep, for whatever you want to do. Take that time back as your own.
I had a client who did this and it took her a week to instill a new routine and get back some time for herself. She never believed that she could because she got herself into a place where she thought that the company’s expectation was that she was there at seven o’clock in the morning AND at seven in the evening, if not later! I asked her to do an experiment and do it for a week.
And she took some time either at the beginning of the day or at the end of the day that she would normally have been commuting, for her exercise. It only took a week for her to realize that this was more than possible and that this expectation came more from her than from the organization.
• The other thing that you can do is block out time in your calendar. Block it out for time with yourself, for time between meetings, for actually getting some work done, and make sure that those are not moved.
You have control over your calendar. Well, there will be exceptions of course! But if you can get a few blocks every week to work, to actually get stuff done, rather than being in one meeting after the other, life will be much better for you and a lot more productive for the organization.
Communicate Your Intentions
You may think that people know what you’re doing. That people can see what you’re up to, that people know that your intention is to do an amazing job. But unless you tell them, they will be too busy with their own stuff to notice.
This happened to me when I was working at Marks and Spencer’s eons ago, ( a big retail organization in the UK). And I thought that everybody would see what I was doing and would see how hard I was working. But they were too busy to notice. So unless I told them what I had done, told them what I had achieved, they just didn’t see it. What you need to do is make sure that people know that your intention is to be productive and your intention is to be successful. And your intention is to get the work done.
This means that when you have to ask for some time for you to take care of some personal things – the children, elderly parents, or any other responsibility you may have, people know that you’re a person who delivers, who’s successful and who wants to do a great job, as well as a human being with a need to take care of things in your life. And that you can do both!
So make sure, particularly in this time when we’re not always seen, to communicate what you’re doing, what you’re achieving and how things are going.
Prioritize Your Wellbeing
It’s the last one, but definitely not the least. I have so many people who have said to me
“Ohh, my organization isn’t really looking after us.”
“They don’t really care about us!”
What I want you to understand is that your wellbeing is yours.
And if you don’t prioritize your wellbeing, how on earth can you expect anyone including your organization to do it for you? Can organizations do things better? Yes, of course! But the priority is for you to prioritize your wellbeing.
So if you need breaks between meetings, fit them in. If you need time to exercise, fit it in. Because at the end of the day, if you are physically and mentally looking after yourself – your performance for the organization, your performance in your business will be so much better.
Now to help you with all of this, I have taken Dr. Dan Siegel’s Healthy Mind Platter, and I’ve created a little download for you that will help you prioritize your time, prioritize your wellbeing and allocate time to the right things.
It’s a free sheet that you can download here
It can help you make the changes that you need to make to have the best possible 2022!
Which one of these habits would you start with today? Which one do you think will make the most impact on your well-being and performance?
I really would love to know, so please leave a comment. Promise I read all of them!
