Loughborough

#24 – 9th August 2008

Plan Time to Reflect

Running a business is not easy. Getting bogged down by the day-to-day emergencies and issues that crop up all day every day when you are trying to earn an honest pound is very easy. So easy in fact that many business-owners lose sleep at nights worrying about the problems that they did not solve whilst they were in the office, factory or workshop. This failure to resolve things turns even quite modest problems into something to worry about.

Any number of self-improvement books and business tips hand-outs will tell you the importance of defining personal and business goals. Most of them go on to explain that once you have these goals, many of the stress factors in your life will be better managed and placed in a more appropriate context.

Equally important is making time in the first instance. Time to clear your head from the day-to-day crises and priorities for long enough to ensure that your goals are rational and balanced. Balanced in this context means that your combined goals include the right emphasis on family, personal and business issues.

Invest Down-Time
The really hard part of all this, is making the time to think, uninterrupted, for long enough to place all the conflicting pressures into context for long enough to create clear goals.

One way round this dilemma is to ensure that time which you otherwise consider to be wasted is invested in reflection. We all find ourselves in situations where we know we could be making more productive use of our time. In most of these instances, it is impractical to start making detailed notes (in the queue to pay for petrol, whilst walking the dog, driving, ……).

Make Space for Reflection
Plan an hour or so away from the interruptions when you can get on with some of the things that are making you lose sleep. I always find that going and sitting somewhere else – even a different room in the same building – makes a real difference to my ability to think things through. Make notes as you think – mind-maps work for some people – and start breaking things down into manageable chunks.

Use Tools
For bigger problems, you might need to use a structured problem solving method – there are lots to choose from. Things you might want to type into a search engine include:

• Cause and Effect – The fishbone diagram;
• Asking Why – keep asking why until you arrive at something that you can do;

Practical Tips

• Be aware of when in your day you have your best ideas – and where you are at that time.
• Use a pocket notebook to jot down key thoughts as they come to you – whenever possible.
• If it is safe to do so, use a pocket dictation machine to record important points and then transcribe your thoughts to a notebook at the end of the day.

 

Paul Fileman MIET CEng MCIM
Chartered Marketer
paul.fileman@talktosps.com
Tel:  01509 854447
Mob: 07969 188820
www.talktosps.com