1. Design Your Week Your Way

Okay, so remote working has proved we can indeed be effective without physical presenteeism but boy has it triggered intense virtual presenteeism as it’s easier than ever to schedule a ‘quick catch up’. 12 hours of Teams/Zoom calls all day and then having work to do is simply untenable. Don’t do it. Take responsibility for your own schedule. I have 4 children, 3 businesses, 1 mansion and 1 dog. I’m single and there are only 24 hours in a day. I need sleep, to cook wholesome food and to exercise. I am energised by people and by creative output. Therefore my weeks cannot simply comprise video calls. Now, the invites are there in abundance but it’s up to me to decline, postpone or delegate where I can. It’s up to me to block out time for school runs, dog runs, treadmill runs and food shop runs. And so I do. My calendar is a blend of work and personal all carefully organised even down to my planned evening agendas and yes Lavender Bath goes into my calendar. With clients and colleagues in Singapore and LA I could literally be on calls all day and night so I schedule my down time like I do my work time.

2. Check In Mid-Week On How You Feel

So you may have perfected a fastidiously designed calendar which creates time to deliver your goals for the week – personal and professional – and have plotted in your down time but keep checking in with yourself as you progress across the week. You maybe have been too ambitious, others may have missed deadlines so you’ll miss yours, you may have a cold, your kids might be struggling. Check in and reprioritise constantly. Check how you feel physically, emotionally and mentally. Different aspects are ourselves undulate constantly. “What matters most today?” is my daily waking thought. Yes there are extrinsic factors that impact us, but intrinsic balance is always what matters most and it’s up to us to personally take responsibility for that in how we flourish.

3. Invent New Productivity Methods

Can you do your calls in the car? Can you listen to that podcast whilst you’re working out? Could your teenager take responsibility for the food shop or cook one meal a week? We are in the Age of Agility so recreate your home and work flows to suit you and your family. My dog now comes on the school run with me and 8-9am we go for a 10k run along this stunning Surrey hilltop whilst I do my first couple of calls. I come home and decompress 9-10am whilst I shower and rejuvenate for the day ahead. It works.

4. Push Back

As life demands have become seriously intense this past year, I am more dedicated than ever to filtering out the whirlwind of time stealer meetings, tasks, email requests, play dates (and even people) to ensure I only do something if I can wholly see where the effort will impact the broader business/project/children/life outcome.  If I and it will add value then it’s all systems go.  If it can be approached another way, delegated elsewhere, or rejected as a ‘to do’ then away it goes.  Push back intelligently, intuitively and sensitively and watch delicious gaps appear in your calendar.

5. Growth Mindset

Own a growth mindset with a meta-view – focus on strategic personal and business goals by stepping out of the minutiae of daily deliverables. Who do you want to spend time with and why? Where do you want to be when and why? Ensure the raison d’etre of every thing you do ladders up your longer term ambitions and intentions. It’s by connecting in to the higher purpose we find motivation and inspiration to continue along our paths.

It all sounds so obvious really.  Just takes a bit of mindful adoption.  And unbroken resolution of course.  Put it into practice for yourself and enjoy your transformation of time suddenly seeming more abundant!

Author(s)

  • Bianca Best

    Flourish with Bianca Best – writer, entrepreneur and manifestor dedicated to ensuring your life glistens with the work, love and vitality you desire.

    Flourish

    Hey! I'm Bianca! A writer, entrepreneur, mother and unshakeable optimist passionately devoted to ensuring your life glistens with the work, love and vitality you desire. Born with big dreams, a strong work ethic and fervent belief that life holds no limits, I’ve discovered how to unlock human potential.  Through my transformational ESCAPE™ programme, coaching, books, online courses, BB-TV, workshops, keynotes and retreats, I stratospherically catapult gifted individuals like you into the place you’re meant to be. I’m honoured to be a best-selling author and to work with leaders from Amazon to Snapchat, and to have personally learned wisdom first-hand from gurus such as Arianna Huffington. Blessed with abundance, I cherish 4 rapidly growing children, 3 businesses, and 1 English country home which is my creative and spiritual sanctuary. My life’s work represents a chronology of passions explored. From writing, to entrepreneurialism, to corporate leadership, to tech firsts, I’ve experimented, learned, grafted and always savoured the journey as much as the destination. Practice what you want to grow I’m fascinated by neuroplasticity and our ability to build skills that progressively enable us to achieve goals faster and easier. When we respect that life is about choices and consequences and choose concentrated cognitive focus, dreams become reality pretty quickly. Blend awareness of limiting beliefs, value systems, habits and behaviours with a personal definition of success, and you’ll strike gold.  The moment I clarify a goal (and I mean intricately define that tantalising something which has stimulated every cell in my body), and organise my habits, attitude and behaviour to thrust onwards towards it, giving it my unwavering attention, then life clicks into beautiful flow. I want this for you too! First Entrepreneurial Forays Coincided with 4 Baby Bests! After simultaneously blending a freelance writing career with exploratory post-grad advertising agency roles and stints as a presenter, I launched my first business in 2004 taking my creativity and resilience to new heights as I served global customers with a pioneering digital personalised gift company. I enjoyed an exhilarating decade learning that with the right focus, energy and vision anything and everything is possible. By the time I sold this business I’d welcomed 4 mini Bests confidently into the world too, including baby twins. What an unexpected (and time-management!) twist they gave to entrepreneurialism! I definitely live by the mantra “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” (and ironically still reflect on that first year juggling 4 children under 7 whilst expanding my company into an omni-channel franchise one of my most purposeful and joyful ever!)! Corporate Leadership Rigour I see life as a great big, fun experiment and every experience a moment of potential growth. With ‘intra-preneurialism’ now being invited into traditional business realms, I couldn’t resist a global leadership role in a large-scale corporate behemoth fusing my entrepreneurial passions with a legacy world. A truly invigorating opportunity! I’ve thus since set up a third millennium consultancy within WPP partnering with global brands such as Mars, CocaCola, Sony and Uber to accelerate digital transformation agendas amidst the volatility of today’s marketing landscapes. To say I love this work is an understatement, plus the output agendas and relationship dynamics all simultaneously add brilliant new depths to my coaching practice. Escaping the Whirlwind Decades back I suffered immune collapse repeatedly along my undulating, endlessly busy path and in June 2019 the World Health Organisation classified Burnout as a global epidemic. Too many of us have been, or are being, buffeted by life’s whirlwind at the expense of our mental and physical wellbeing. I created my science-based ESCAPE™ programme to combat exactly this. Through six powerful pillars I blend my certifications in coaching, hypnotherapy and NLP with my life experiences to empower ambitious individuals like you to thrive. It is possible to maximise impact without burnout and I show you how to respect your individuality and flourish. Which Brings Me To You Whether you feel stuck in a corporate rut, trapped in an unhappy relationship, constantly exhausted, overwhelmed by the sheer pace of modern life, frustrated by slow business growth, or beguiled by which way to turn next, I can get you moving, shining and smiling again. I’ll share every one of the mistakes I’ve made as I’ve fumbled and grappled and tripped my way through this game called life. Equally, I’ll share the ways I’ve succeeded in realising my own dreams and solving my own problems. It would be my honour to hold your hand through your next chapter and make that vibrant vision I know you hold in your heart a sparkly reality. I’ll give you the confidence to make decisions that are utterly transformational. You will up-level your life and become exactly who you’re meant to be. Let’s have fun together and make now the time you unleash your very best self!! Here’s to your future filled with the love, work and vitality you absolutely deserve! Lovingly yours, Bianca x