I am just back from a fantastic five day camping trip with my family. We are big camping and outdoors fans so we all had a ball. This trip was made even more interesting by a decision I made before we left.

I decided to totally disconnect from all technology for the whole trip. No email. No Facebook. No Twitter. Even the mobile phone was switched off. Not a scrap of technology for the entire time. Zilch!

Interestingly, I felt quite liberated and actually enjoyed being totally disconnected from all things technology & online. Although I know some people who would feel their right arm had been cut off if they were totally disconnected even for a day!

This experiment raised some important questions:

Do we now live in a world where we are over connected?
And if so, what impact is that having on our business, family life and lifestyle?
Are you over connected?

3 ways being over connected is damaging:

1. Constantly interrupting business activities to check email and/or social media reduces productivity
2. Quality of family time and relationships is reduced if you are regularly distracted by your online activities
3. Having no controls, purpose or strategy over the frequency or duration of being connected means more important things get neglected.

The list could go on and on but the point I am trying to make is this:

Would you benefit from reducing the amount of time you allow yourself to be connected and contactable?

Not just to protect productivity in your business but also protect your family life and relationships.

Tips for setting “connection” policy

• Stop checking email throughout the day. Set times and duration for doing this. Sign out in between.
• Set times and durations for your social media activities
• Ensure you are clear on your social media purpose and strategy. Stick to it.
• Do not allow offline activities (eg business planning, creating new products, playing with kids etc) to be interrupted by online activities.

Being over connected can be very damaging to all areas of work life and personal life. Choose to manage your online activities effectively or they will take over and manage you.

Is it time for you to put a “disconnect” policy and boundaries in place?

Related post:Confessions of a Social Media Virgin!

Is it Time to Disconnect? is a post from: Ali Davies Small Business Success & Lifestyle Freedom

One of the things I hear most from Self Employed Parents is that they feel they can’t get everything they need to get done in the time they have. They feel they are running to stand still. This often results in feelings of frustration, guilt and failure.

There are all sorts of Time Management related subjects that can contribute to this. Things such as procrastination, ineffective planning, lack of focus, to name but a few (those are things for another post).

But what I have noticed is that one of the biggest contributing factors to that feeling of not having enough time to get everything done is this:

Self Employed Parents are trying to do more than is possible in the time they have.

It is not uncommon for parents to be trying to run a successful full time business, be the world’s best parent, be a domestic goddess, taxi driver to every family member – the list goes on.

That is like trying to do more than one full time job each and every day. So here is what I would like to suggest.

STOP. Yes, stop. I know this can feel impossible as I often hear “I don’t have time to stop”. But really, give yourself permission to stop and take stock.

Ask yourself “Is my perceived lack of time the result of trying to do more each day than is possible or reasonable?”

Because here is the reality – often all those feelings of frustration, guilt and failure don’t come from not having enough time. They come from placing unrealistic expectations on ourselves of what we can physically fit into each day.

Try this experiment.

Get a piece of paper and make out a timetable like you used to have at school. Days across the top and hourly slots down the side. Fill in for next week all your priority stuff giving them set time slots. ALWAYS put your most important stuff in first.

Now, if you are trying to stuff more in than your timetable is showing you is realistic you can see where you are actually creating that “I don’t have enough time” syndrome yourself. Run this experiment ongoing. It will help you to stop overscheduling and placing unrealistic expectations on yourself.

What strategies do you have for not overscheduling yourself?  Or do you regularly overschedule yourself? Please share your experiences and views below.

Related posts:

The Problem with Time Management

3 Myths of Multi Tasking

Are You Trying to be a Superhero?

Time Management – the REAL reason you don’t have enough time is a post from: Ali Davies Small Business Success & Lifestyle Freedom

Last week I decided to call a stop to everything I have going on in my business – and I mean everything.

Why I Stopped Everything in my Business

I have a lot of new projects on at the moment and have been trying to fit moving them all forward round my son’s school hours. The results was that last week, I found myself feeling more than a tad overwhelmed and family life was being affected. Now, those of you that know me know that my business impacting my family is an absolute no-no. That is why I stopped everything.

On Thursday I totally cleared the decks, looked at everything I had on and the hours I was willing to work on them each week during the next month. I reviewed my core values, goals and vision and based on this, put the top priority things into my diary as appointments. Everything that didn’t make the cut has now been put off until next month. I am now ready to rock and roll again this week.

How this links to other Home-Based and Small Business Owners

The reason I am sharing this personal experience with you is because I often see the same thing happening for many Home-Based and Small Business Owners – people in total overwhelm with everything they have to do and the most important things often suffering as a result. A common response is to push harder and to keep going. Ironically, this is perpetuating the problem. The key is to STOP. It feels counter intuitive but, stopping is the best way forward.

Here are a few tips for what to do when you have stopped:

• Remind yourself of your core values, goals and big picture vision.
• Make your decisions on what is the highest priority based on that.
• Schedule the priority tasks into your diary so that you can see if you are over-committing.
• Don’t cancel them for any reason. Treat the appointments as you would clients.
• Anything that didn’t make the cut put on your agenda for your next review meeting.

Whatever your situation always remember this

Sometimes stopping is the best way forward.

Do you have any views on ways for dealing effectively with situations like this? If so, please share them in the comments section below.

Why stopping is sometimes the best way forward is a post from: Ali Davies Small Business Success & Lifestyle Freedom

I have concerns about some of the reasons people use time management techniques.

I also think the phrase can be misleading. Here’s why:

Time doesn’t need managing. It’s YOU that needs managing!

The problem for me is that sometimes time management can divert attention from resolving underlying problems permanently that would create lasting solutions that would then no longer require managing.

That doesn’t mean I am anti time management at all. Far from it. The problem with time management strategies is that they are often used inappropriately – and that is what concerns me. What we are often doing is using time management to manage ineffective behaviour patterns and bad habits instead of using them for improving productiveness and effectiveness. An important distinction.

So instead, I chose to focus on, what I call, self management.

Focussing on self management is about finding lasting changes to ineffective behaviour patterns and bad habits. Whereas time management often is about managing these problems. Self management deals with real change that delivers tangible results. Hence my preference for focussing on self management, not time management. You are going to dramatically increase your effectiveness if your remove problem areas totally rather than putting things in place to manage them.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not suggesting you throw out the current methods you use to get things done or that time managment tools don’t have a place. What I am suggesting is this……

Focusing on self management more than time management is more likely to give real solutions, lasting change and effective habits that naturally produce results.

So here is a tip…..the solution lies in your mindset.

Let me explain……

If every time a bad habit or behaviour pattern surfaces your immediate mindset is to put a time management technique or tool in place to manage it, you are going to be forever in managing issues mode, not creating lasting solutions mode.

The key is to create a mindset that looks inside yourself to the source and solution first and techniques to manage issues second.

Remember: always look inside before you look outside! The key to real change always starts on the inside, with you and your mindset.

What do you think? Would love to hear your experiences on this subject.

The Problem with Time Management is a post from: Ali Davies Small Business Success & Lifestyle Freedom