How I Spent My Summer “Holidays”

How I Spent My Summer “Holidays”

In among the pavlova eating, champagne drinking and presents opening of Xmas, I spent a significant portion of my summer holidays planning for 2016, improving workflow processes and implementing better systems within my business. .

Within that time I also read a book called Work Smarter : Live Better by Cyril Peupion which I highly recommend. As a result of that book I now run a zero inbox and have an organised and clutter-free office space.

I cleared out my filing cabinet and all the paper around my desk that was driving me crazy with distraction. The clutter was messing with my mind and I couldn’t find things when I needed them.

I shredded three rubbish sacks of paper. Things I was keeping “just in case.” Things I’d forgotten I even had. Recruitment files from job applicants for a prior business (why on earth was I keeping them?!)

If I thought I might want to refer to it someday I scanned it and saved it to Dropbox or Evernote and then shredded it.  I was ruthless.

Now, sitting at my organised and clutter-free desk following a paperless workflow process that ensures nothing is forgotten, that everything runs smoothly and that my business is well planned… I am so happy!

I freakin’ love this stuff! I love the process and I love the result. I consider it to be holiday time very well spent.

What a difference it makes to my state of mind.

I have always worked better in a well-organised environment. Years ago when I was responsible for all of the Accounts Payable for Chelsea Sugar, a busy and demanding role, there would often come a time where I was surrounded by paper and files with deadlines to meet.

Always the best course of action for me was to stop and to take the time, regardless of the pressure I was feeling to meet a deadline, to tidy and make sense of the workload, after which time I was able to proceed in a much more efficient and productive way than had I tried to work within the chaos.

It sounds obvious, but so many times I see people working at a desk surrounded with piles of paperwork and an inbox with hundreds of emails in it, feeling overwhelmed and hugely stressed.

Cyril Peupion writes that “stress is not linked to the amount of work we have to do. Stress is linked to the way we handle it.”

For a better way to handle your workflow have a read of Peupion’s book and take some time to implement his suggestions. If it all seems a little bit much for you and you need some guidance and coaching to keep you on track, I would be more than happy to help you.

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