To Sol Solo, “Building foundation means practicing your values rigorously so that you can always respond according to those basic beliefs. The development of a foundation, you believe, is under-practiced today because the way to achieve it is not recognized or fully valued. People limit themselves by not believing that they can live with greater virtue in their lives.
• Match tasks to your concentration curve, or deliberately mismatch them.
• Turn the pop-up off email.
• Choose when to turn your mobile off (or instead put it in silent)
• Build extra time into your day
• Use headphones or quiet rooms
• Practice focusing on specific periods of time
• Pay attention to exercise and what you eat
• What tactics will you use to estimate your time more accurately?
• How will you match your tasks to your varying energy levels?
• Which tips will you use to create your focus?
• What tactics will you use to plug the time drain?
• How do you remind yourself of your to-do list?
• Bring sufficient energy to whatever you do.
• Make conscious decisions about what you do and when.
• Match tasks to your concentration curve.
• Put techniques in place to help you focus.
• Employ tactics to tackle your energy-draining behaviors.
• You are in control.
• Loehr, J. and Schwartz, T. (2003) The power of Full Engagement Simon and Schuster Inc
• Kreitzman, L, Foster, R.G. and Wolpert, L. (2004) Rhythms of Life: The Biological Clocks That Control The Daily Lives of Every Living Thing. London, Profile Books
• Get things done
• Get organised
• Make it happen
• Keep a list of your goals close to hand and use these to decide whether to say yes.
• Work out how long the task is going to take before saying yes
• Figure out where in your schedule you can fit this in. If there is no time, decide and explain which task takes priority
• Redefine what you are saying ye to. You just take on half of what they are asking you to do
• Soften your “no” by telling a story that illustrates your reasoning, then offer alternative solutions
• Identify your goals and make them your focus
• Set up an hourly ‘question time’ twice a week
• At the start of s project, clarify who is responsible for what and when you’d like to be consulted or informed
• Help people to help themselves
• Wear headphones and limit email checking to every hour
• Make it known what you are focusing on; ask others to help you keep that focus
• Clarify with others exactly what your focus is
• Regularly pause and ask yourself: do I need to be doing this now, at all, or in this way?
• Devote the first hour of every day to an important, longer-range challenge –before you start your routine
• Create routines to reduce the time regular tasks take
• In situations where you usually rush, and anchor feelings of calm to an object you’ll notice
• Learn to love time by yourself
• Decide upfront one key thing you want to achieve; regularly remind yourself of this
• Replace ‘I should’ and ‘I must with ‘I’d like to’ or “I’d prefer to
• Complete the “need to have” items and leave the ‘nice to have aspects until later
• Collaborate on what standards you can expect from others
• Schedule non-productive time in your week
A – I am replacing my old habit of………………………….
B – With my new commitment of……………………………
Time Management Tools and Techniques
Understand the Eisenhower matrix and how to use it. The Eisenhower matrix is a time management tool that will help you to sort your tasks and prioritize them effectively.
Discover the Pomodoro technique. The Pomodoro technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo. Once you’ve sorted your priorities, it will help you to carve out time and focus.
Learning Styles
Mumford and Honey Learning Styles Questionnaires: Discover what kind of learning style and technique best suits you with this free online test. Takes around 10 minutes to complete.
Personal Development Planning
Understand how to create a personal development plan
CMI Knowledge Bank – Personal Development Planning
We often move through our careers without taking the time to step back and think about what’s important to us and what we’re great at. This may mean we never really reach our potential. This workout provides the chance to explore our motivations and interests so that we can shape our roles and truly be the best we can be.
• Don’t lose sight of your passion and values
• Understand what flourishing means for you
• Take responsibility and own it
• Seek out learning at every opportunity
• Live the BE(YOU)FULL mindset
• You are in control.
• Focus on what’s in your control. Sol Solo focuses his time and energy on what he can influence and control.
• Start with what you have. Sol Solo always looks for opportunities close to home.
• He also enlists others in his cause. Because they may help him see things from a unique perspective, provide introductions and open doors, and keep him on track.
• He plans for when the going gets tough, finding ways to stick with it.
• Empower himself to acknowledge, accept, and then release the root cause
• Being accountable Keep’s him on a course toward achieving your long-term goal
• Sol Solo never waits for the perfect opportunity. They often don’t exist and, in the time, spent waiting, you can pass up fruitful avenues of exploration.
• Say ‘yes and more’. Find ways to run parallel tracks so you can try out many things at once.
• He creates mini-experiments, texting and learning incrementally and on a small scale to find out what he likes quickly, and this way he minimizes the feeling of unacceptable risk.
• He also Learns from everything, good and bad. (Reflect deeply on what he can learn from every situation).
• Sol Solo creates a daily habit. Never wait for the motivation or the right feelings, (just start doing something by way of routine no matter what happens).
• He reframes ‘no’ to ‘why not’. Asking himself what opportunities could arise, even if there are downsides.
Be true to yourself; spending time in contemplation and being clear about your purpose is vital if you’re going to stay true to yourself and experience a deep sense of satisfaction in your life.