Listen To Your Body and Achieve More

lorraine — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 01:49:11 +0000

Are you one of those people who bounce out of bed at 6.00a.m. and race to the gym for a workout and by the time you leave for work, you’ve showered, had breakfast and organised everyone else in your household. You arrive at work and you’re on fire!

Or do you wake up at the last possible second and drag your weary body out of bed, walk around like a zombie and gradually get yourself organised? You need your morning coffee to snap you out of your sleepy state and finally drag yourself into work.

It pays to listen to your body clock, identify when your peak performance times occur and use that time to your advantage. Hopefully it will be a few times during the day, otherwise you’ve got a problem.

If you are an earlybird, then it makes sense to do the hardest tasks first thing in the morning. That could mean that you work on a specific project, prepare a proposal or follow up with those prospects. It’s a waste of your time to clean up and do filing. Save that for when you begin to feel tired or lose concentration.

Organise meetings and appointments for the afternoon as that’s when you’ll probably run out of steam. You can always wake up when you’re with someone else.Meetings scheduled late afternoon tend to be shorter as everyone wants to get home.You can also make your phone calls and attend to email in this time.

If you’re a late starter, going to the gym at 6.00a.m. is never going to happen. Maybe lunchtime is a goer or after work. You’re likely to be more productive seeing people in the morning and tackling the hard stuff later in the day. However you’ll need to be very disciplined as many distractions can get in your way and prevent you from making your work-out time a priority.

Regardless of whether you’re a morning or afternoon person,you can change if you want to. One of my clients was in the habit of staying up late watching television to unwind and he got caught up in the cycle of going to bed late and sleeping in the next morning. He desperately wanted to change this habit so he could rise early and exercise then head off to his office. John was feeling weary throughout the day and therefore not getting much done.

We worked it out that he was wasting at least 2 hours a day because of his sleeping habits, poor diet and lack of exercise. As a financial advisor he was potentially losing thousands of dollars in lost revenue.

Regardless of whether you’re an early or late starter there are many factors which affect your productivity. Review how you spend your time, what you eat and how much exercise you get.

If you want to feel better and achieve so much more in your business and your life, it doesn’t take much… you just need to know what to do, how to do it and then…do it!

Lorraine Pirihi, The Productivity Queen, is Australia’s leading Productivity Specialist and creator of “The Productivity and Profit System ^TM” the complete one-on-one training program for solopreneurs and small businesses that shows business owners exactly how to work less and earn more! To receive your F.R.E.E. CD & Report “3 Steps to Dramatically Reducing Your Workload and Stress While Maximising Your Profit$! ($77 value) go to www.productivityqueen.com.

6 Ways to Avoid Working Yourself Into An Early Grave

lorraine — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 04:06:56 +0000

Did you know that 60-90% of all doctor visits are for stress-related illnesses? Stress is costly in terms of your health, relationships and performance. When you’re affected by too much stress your body wears down and you get sick.

Highly disorganized people seem to be more susceptible to sickness as they are always under extreme pressure, running from one disaster to another. They fail to realise they constantly repeat the same mistakes by not addressing the fundamental issues that are the cause of their problems and guess what that is? Their own personal disorganisation.

Gary has a business, employs 7 staff. When he contacted me he was at a point where the stress from his business was so bad, that he would constantly wake up 3 or 4 times a night worried about everything …his cash flow, staff, lack of clients and the affect all this was having on his personal well-being and family life. The stress was so bad his hair was falling out!

He didn’t use a diary, had no way of planning and kept everything ‘in his head.’ Often his staff were idle because he hadn’t spent time training them. That ensured the work didn’t get done therefore causing Gary to lose clients. He was also a perfectionist and felt it was easier to do things himself so they would be done ‘right.’

Being overweight didn’t help either. Gary was constantly tired and uptight causing him to be moody and also very negative. His family and his staff would avoid him. He was spiralling downhill quickly, but luckily he realized before it was too late, that it was time to get help otherwise he could lose his business, his family and even his life!

Step by step and week by week Gary got a grip on the stress by using simple ways to reduce the pressure in his life. He works less hours, business is more profitable and he enjoys more time with his family (and they like spending the time with him too.).

Here’s what you can do dramatically decrease the stress in your business and your life.

1. Get Organised
Learn how to manage yourself and your time. This includes how to plan and prioritise. You can do it yourself (good luck, because if you knew what to do, then why aren’t you doing it?) or you can accelerate your results by getting coached attending seminars or reading or listening to material to learn how to improve your effectiveness.

2. Exercise Regularly Exercise daily.
Try swimming, running or walking. Your body needs regular activity. “Use it or lose it”.

3. Eat Healthily
Feed yourself healthy food and drink 6-8 glasses of water a day and you’ll triple your output..

4. Learn to say ‘No’
Become more discerning about what activities you are prepared to do or participate in. If you’re already overloaded, let people know.

5. Delegate or Outsource
Do what you do best and get rid of the rest. Get help. This applies to work and home.

6. Avoid Procrastination
Stop worrying about what may or may not happen if you make a decision, just take action.

I bet you probably knew all this, didn’t you? Well my question is, if you’re continually running from one crisis to another, disgruntled with the results you’re getting in your business and your life then what actions are you going to take to rectify your situation?

Are you like the old man and his dog? There was an old man sitting on his porch in his rocking chair. Next to him was his dog. A stranger walks past and says “Why is your dog whining and howling?” The old man says “he’s sitting on a nail”. The stranger replies “then why doesn’t he get off it?”

The old man responds “He isn’t in enough pain yet!”

You may be so snowed under and overwhelmed running your business that you don’t even realise that you could be working yourself into an early grave. In fact you probably don’t even know exactly what you need to do to improve your situation.

Are You Responding Quickly Enough To Get the Business?

lorraine — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 03:24:25 +0000

I don’t know about you, but I get annoyed when I constantly have to phone or email the same person because they don’t respond to my messages, especially if it’s for products or services that I’m interested in. The impression I form of them can include any or all of the following:

… they’re disorganised

… don’t care

… avoiding me

… not trustworthy (can I believe what they say?)

… too busy to be interested in what I may want (even if it is to spend money with them). There are often other reasons but these are the key ones that come up for me.

Make it a habit to return your calls and emails within 24 hours. By planning your day and allocating time for following up you’ll improve your business. If you’re

unavailable, make sure someone else in your office can be or leave a recorded message on your phone or autoresponder on your email stating when you’ll be available.

Just remember, people aren’t going to hang around waiting. They’ll take their business elsewhere.

You may be so snowed under and overwhelmed running your business that you don’t even realise that you could be turning clients away. In fact you probably don’t even know exactly what you need to do to improving your personal efficiency.

How to Reduce Your Clutter and Increase Your Profit$

lorraine — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 05:04:37 +0000

Have you ever felt totally overwhelmed because you were surrounded by clutter? When you work in a cluttered environment it crowds your thinking and easily distracts you. Not only that clutter wastes your time and your money.

John had an air conditioning business which he ran from his home office.
He found that whenever he didn’t keep his office tidy, his cash-flow would slow down.

When he did his invoicing to clients, he would lose money because he couldn’t include all the costs associated with each job. The paperwork would get buried under all the clutter.

It’s such a simple thing to do …clean up. However many business owners get lazy about doing it. They think it’s unimportant and when they’ve got nothing better to do then they’ll do it.

Being constantly surrounded by clutter causes you to:

Lose things
Waste time searching
Waste money buying what you already have because it’s buried under the mess
Causes stress
Makes you look disorganised and unprofessional

Many years ago when I used to go onsite as a professional organiser and help my clients organise their office, I remember one of my clients who was a litigator in a major law firm.

His office looked like a bombsite. There was clutter everywhere. His assistant said she refused to go in there. Why the directors let Gary work that way was ridiculous. He’d been working there for several years and they had let him get out of control. If something happened to Gary there was no way anyone else could find anything.

The company overall must have been losing thousands of dollars in lost productivity because not only was Gary’s office a disaster zone, so were many other areas of the business.

As a small business owner you cannot afford to waste your time and money on clutter. So here’s a simple and easy plan to follow when decluttering your office. Start with no. 1 and continue clearing out each area until completed:
1. Floor
2. Filing Cabinets
3· Bookcases
4· Cupboards
5· Desk
6· Walls

and after you’ve completed the above, clean out your computer.

Make sure you finish cleaning out one area at a time. And by the way …ensure you have a big bin or lots of garbage bags on hand.

The Final Word

People often think that to boost their profitability they need to work harder or get more clients. If they made small improvements to the way they work and how they are currently ‘doing business’ they could easily pump up their profits without working any harder.

You may be so snowed under and overwhelmed running your business that you don’t even know where to start improving it. The Productivity and Profit Home Study System™ includes everything you need to know to clear out the clutter, free up your time, organise your systems and master your marketing so you make much more money and get a life! It’s laid out in a very simple way so you can easily apply what you learn to take your business to the next level. It’s changed the lives of many solopreneurs and small business owners.

9 Top Tips To Organise Your Money

lorraine — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 05:48:00 +0000

With the end of the tax year fast approaching now is an ideal time to focus on your personal affairs. I’m always amazed that so many business owners and entrepreneurs spend most of their time consumed by their business and totally neglect their personal affairs.

Many of my clients want to get their business organised yet often admit that their personal affairs are in chaos. They have no systems for handling this most important area. The household paperwork is disorganised… piled up in a corner of the house… somewhere. They have no idea where they spend their money and often have no plan for their financial future.

Sure they are busy in their business yet they can lose focus as to why they are doing what they do in the first place… and generally that is to make more money so they can have more choices in life. Whether that be to have more time with their family, make a difference in the world or to have a better lifestyle. Of course, you do want to enjoy what you do otherwise you won’t be happy in the process.

Here are nine top tips to get you started:

#1 Set up a filing system to store your paperwork.

#2 File your papers in categories: Bank, Car, Children, Home, Medical, Insurance, Investment, Tax, Utilities etc.

#3 Organise direct debits for regular bills.

#4 Read, sort and action your snail and e-mail daily. This will avoid a big build-up.

#5 Make a note in your diary when you need to remember to do things.

#6 Check your bank accounts daily or weekly via phone or the Internet to keep tabs on your money.

#7 Allocate a particular day and time each week to review your personal affairs.

#8 Get educated - attend seminars, read books and listen to information on wealth creation. Having knowledge will make it easier to make better decisions and provide you with the confidence to take action.

#9 Be pro-active and take responsibiity. Don’t rely on other people to advise you what to do. Do not wait for your accountant financial advisor or anyone else for that matter to come up with the solutions. You need to have the knowledge to ask the right questions so you can make the best decisions for you and your family.

THE FINAL WORD

If you take control of your personal affairs you will have peace of mind and know that you are making things happen. It’s nearly six months since you probably made those New Year’s Resolutions. Let me ask you; was one of those goals related to money in some way? Have you moved forward, stagnated or gone backwards?

If you do not organise your personal life, you may not have much of a future to look forward to. Avoid the excuses that you are too tired, don’t have the time, and don’t know how. You must learn how to manage your time effectively and get organised otherwise a year from now you could still be no further ahead. If you’re not sure how to get your business organised so you free up your time, make more money and have a life, then take action and invest in a proven step-by-step system that will get you big results. Get a copy of “The Productivity and Profit Home Study System ™”.

Lorraine Pirihi begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting,end_of_the_skype_highlighti The Productivity Queen, is Australia’s leading Productivity Specialist and creator of “The Productivity and Profit System ^TM” the complete one-on-one training program for solopreneurs and small businesses that shows business owners exactly how to work less and earn more! To receive your F.R.E.E. CD & Report “3 Steps to Dramatically Reducing Your Workload and Stress While Maximising Your Profit$! ($77 value) go to www.productivityqueen.com.