How To Take Control Of Your Time By Estelle Carroll

I’m going to share with you something that helped me view my time very differently. What I’m NOT going to do is share with you productivity tips that will give you 5hrs extra in a week.

Because just like I WON’T give you a marketing strategy until you have plugged up the holes in your business and I’m confident you are going to keep the clients you already have, I’m not going to give you 5hrs extra a week until I know you are going to do something good with them.

I could bet if I gave a lot of people 5hrs extra each, nothing much would change until you know the strategy, I’m sharing with you today.

MY STORY

I’m a salon owner from a regional area and it has always been very important to me where my time was spent. My parents both worked long hours, one on our dairy farm and the other in our Hair and Beauty salon. I’m so thankful for all the opportunities they have given me throughout my life. My mum is an anxious person - so she sent me to theatrical, singing and speech lessons so that I would be confident - because she wasn’t. By doing this she wanted to guarantee I was confident to speak on stage, hold a conversation and do all the things I would love to do with my life without limits. And I am - thanks mum and dad. This is what we do as parents. We want to make sure our children have greater opportunities. I do the same for my children.

Time is a precious commodity

You might hear people say “Oh your kids are young, just work hard now and you’ll have time to spend with them later” - I call RUBBISH on this. The time is now!

They will never walk their first walk, share those little stories of things that have happened that day on their car trip home with you - that’s the gold nuggets. I’m so grateful that I get to drop my kids off and pick them up, each day for every day and hear all those amazing stories that no amount of money could ever get me. I could earn plenty of money, find more opportunities in my business but never get that time back. So, STOP thinking that that day will come where you can spend with them - later… they grow up fast. YES, it sounds like something your grandma or mum said - and it’s true.

Decisions and you

The key message is about all of the moments in your life where you need to make decisions There is not just 1 thing you need to do for the whole day. There is 1 thing in every choice in every moment. It could be. - How will I make sure my team member will feel really confident in this moment - How can I give my partner my undivided attention right now Choosing those moments wisely.

The greatest trick of all time

There is a book called Outwitting the devil. The book was written by Napoleon Hill, and it was written in 1938, yet published in 2011 because of the controversial topic in the book (speaking with the devil). In the book Napoleon interviews lots of entrepreneurs to identify what makes someone successful, and one of them is the devil. He asks the devil. “What is it that you do that ensures that some people never get to fulfill their dreams? Some people never get to do what they always wanted to do when they were a little kid- they never achieved them?” He said.

“It’s my greatest trick of all time - You see what I do is let them drift, I let them get into a hypnotic rhythm, then I let the passage of time do its thing… they drift away from what’s important to them."

Drifting or Deciding

How many times are you drifting from what’s important and filling your time with nothingness? You see, where you are now and where you could be is a choice between these 2 things.

1) You could SWIM towards your goals

2) You could DRIFT away from what’s important

When we have conscious awareness of our decision to DRIFT or DECIDE - we take our control back. The devil wants you to go backwards and drift. Ask yourself often “Am I moving towards where I want to be or is this a drifting moment, and how many drifting moments am I having?”

Deciding is when we move forward through decisiveness we have accurate thinking, clear decisions and action.

Drifting occurs through distraction, lack of discipline and poor habits.

My latest addiction has been TIKTOK. Sometimes I have been guilty of thinking and doing these things. - “I’ve had a big day; I just want to scroll here on TikTok for a few mins - I’m not in the mood to listen to my son read his readers - it’s been a big day…. I’ll do it another day”

You can’t control time, but you can control your choices.

the salon owners we work with to help time block important tasks. Deciding doesn’t mean because we have allocated time to do a task today - we have to do it, we can move it to another day, that week. That is a conscious decision that you control and make.

Get off the Floor

If you want to enable yourself to get off the floor, often we appoint a salon manager. I’ve even heard of salons with several of them - everyone’s got the badge; however, no one is doing anything. There are lots of moments when you can make a decision to move forward towards that goal like. - Delegate - Involve a team member when you are working with a client so you can share the knowledge - Have that uncomfortable conversation with a team member - Create systems - Regular meetings to ensure your communication and expectations are clear

You ARE making choices every day, but often you’re not conscious of them.

The uncomfortable truth is hiding in your everyday thoughts and behaviors - and it’s the reason why you are or are not where you want to be. Decide more often than drifting and these actions bring incredible self-fulfillment and confidence. When we decide consciously more often, it creates momentum.

Drifting behaviours.

- I’ll just do this client myself - I’ll just do ‘it’ myself rather than showing someone else - it’s faster that way - I’ll just scroll social media for a bit…. - I’ll delete out the one on ones this week - we’re fine… - I’ll tell her later… - I can’t be bothered addressing it…. - If it’s to be done right, I’ll have to do it

Deciding behaviours.

- What’s a priority right now - How can I make sure that I only have to explain this once? - Is there a way I record it, write a system on it so that in future we have a training resource - I’m going to time block the most important tasks in first so I make sure they happen - I’m going to allocate time for my annual leave - I’ll have that courageous conversation with a team member so I can help them - I won’t step in, I’ll let them work it out so they can learn from it

Remember in every moment you can be drifting or deciding.

If you’re not where you want to be, your actions have been drifting away from what’s important to you.

Stop and take a moment of reflection to acknowledge the lessons in the drifting behaviors.

Start - asking yourself “am I drifting or deciding right now” and watch how things change.

Estelle Carroll is a Business and Leadership Coach with The Zing Project. For further information regarding her Leadership in Management short course please contact Estelle on. estelle@zingcoach.com.au www.estellecarroll.com 0428 443 404