Time Managment, be on time.

As the new year has started and all the new year’s resolutions have been made and  err broken....well it’s time to mend them.  If your new year’s resolution was to get healthy and you’ve already had 3 chocolates, crisps and ice-cream, well as you read this get back on the band wagon and start again.  Remember if you are been healthy it is all in moderation.  So a freak chocolate here and there is okay as long as you get straight back onto eating healthy.  The same with exercising, if you miss one run or gym session, get back to it straight away, don’t stay away or leave it for a week. 

A news year resolution I’ve heard a few people on about this year is time management.  I was actually offered a book to read on it the other but as I was busy with something else and am pretty good with time management anyway I declined.  Here are a few tips:

1.        Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today.  Make the lunches for tomorrow tonight while you are preparing the evening meal. 

2.       Set your watch 5 minutes earlier, so you are never late.  

3.       Be on time for work, meetings, play etc.

4.       Set yourself washing days and wash on those days.  Iron straight away.  Do it in front of the tv instead of slouching and eating in front of the TV. 

5.       Get up an hour earlier, if that’s too much get up 30 minutes earlier.  Do some of your toning exercises or clean if it needs doing.  In fact do both at the same time by turning your cleaning into toning exercises. 

6.       Go to bed at a reasonable time, you don’t have to watch all that TV. 

7.       Put your clothes out for the next day in the evening, make sure they’re ironed.  If you have children make sure they are sorted for the next day in the same way.

8.       If picking up after the kids is taking a lot of time, get them to do it and start helping out, you’re never too young as my mom says.  You’ll also be teaching them time management as well.

At work, now this is where the real time saving comes a bit difficult as we don’t like saying no or think we are been rude.  Well......

9.       Be on time for meetings, when you get there, say I have another meeting after this so if we’re not finished in an hour I will have to leave, you aren’t been rude, you are been courteous to the next meeting group. 

10.   If the meeting is over running, excuse yourself. 

11.   If you are in a meeting stick to what the meeting is about, you might have a lot to say but if it’s not related or can be spoken about outside then do so.  The time of the person next to you is just as important.

12.   Answer your emails when they arrive, if they stack up endeavour to have at least 80% of them read and answered by the end of the day.  If a long reply is needed, fair enough but do as much as you can today rather than tomorrow.

13.   Keep your diary up to date, you won’t get over booked. 

14.   If you can’t do something say so.

15.   Stop checking your phone all the time, updating your face book status and tweeting.  Yes its fun if you have the time but it’s not something that needs doing every 10 minutes or even every hour if you don’t have the time. 

At the end of the day time management is also really respect, if we all respected each other and replied to emails, calls as soon as we could and did what we said we would, when we should, then we would actually all have more time because less time would be needed to re-email and recall.  It seems as we live in the age of technology things have gotten faster and time has gotten less. This is especially true if you work in a big city like London I have found.  Been home to South Africa recently I found that things slowed down, which was good also there was less trafficJ Also technology is a tad bit slower and not having wifi everywhere is perhaps a good thing. 

And the biggest time problem is of course procrastination, don’t procrastinate just do.  I remember when we moved into our new flat about a year ago, we needed some DIY to be done, changing windows, painting etc.  As soon as we realised we needed to this I phoned 5 window companies got quotes and it was done in 2 weeks.  I then chose paint and got that sorted in 2 weeks as well.  I had a good laugh when I was asked by a colleague at work, when I was going to be doing all this and I replied that I was done.  He said, “really, I’d still be deciding whether to replace the windows or not and which company to go with.” 

So good luck with the new year’s resolutions and now go get done what you were going to do today!

 

2012....its going to be Fantastic

Happy Belated New Year all.  I've been on holiday, hence the reason I haven't posted since Christmas. 
The good news is I've got lots of fab hints and ideas for 2012. 

Well I went on holiday back home to South Africa and I made my annual trip to the Oral Hygienist to have my teeth cleaned.  I discovered when I still lived in South Africa and with the money percentages at the time for my medical aid that it made more sense to see the Oral Hygienist first and then if she said there was anything wrong I'd go to the dentist.  This was also due to the fact that I used go to the dentist every 6 months and end up paying a fortune for x-rays when there was nothing wrong to begin with.  So I started seeing the Oral Hygienist first.  This year she gave some very good information.  Firstly if you use an electric toothbrush DO NOT use abrasive toothpaste, I'm guilty of this as I was using the Oral B Pro Expert.  The abrasive toothpast combine with the rotations from the electric rotating brush will over time rub off the enamel.   I will be shopping for a new toothpaste now.  Secondly do not use whitening toothpaste, they contain acids and over time can erode your teeth.  Check with you dentist if you are unsure and if you want whiter teeth, ask your dentist.  Forget all these home teeth whitening kits in the long run and in years to come they will do damage!!!  So that's my teeth sorted for 2012 and don't forget to do your leg exercises while you brush. 

My mom and I also came up with a nifty way to clean the grooves in between floor tiles this week.  Use the general house carpet cleaning machine if you have one.  Fill the tank with water no soap, ( I learnt this the hard way).   Then get a spray bottle and some tile cleaner, dilute the tile cleaner in the spray bottle as per instructions.  Now use the carpet cleaner machine on the tiles as you would on the carpets except you spray the tile cleaner solution on and go over with the machine.  As the grooves are cleaned you'll see the water on the tiles will look dirtier than what you thought it would be but this is just all the dirt been cleaned out the grooves.  Then grab a clean cloth and just wipe up the dirty soap and water that is on the tiles. While you do it hold your tummy in and go up and down with your legs doing mini squats, this equals, clean floors, flatter tummy's and toned legs too:)  Now I know this might sound like a lot of work but if you don't have a cleaner and have to do it all yourself this is worth giving it a go.  And remember once the hard work is done of mopping up the tiles the next time you shouldn't have this problem. 

If you are on a new years diet good luck and stick to it no matter what if you fall off, get right back on it. 

And for all of your with babies thought you might like my latest sewing idea, a baby block.....I took all the scraps test pieces of my mom's from when she's run off embroidery designs and then made some different textures of my own and tada, it jingle jangles too but not too loud.