Spinning

Each weekend as I sit to write my blog I reflect on the week gone by and what I have learned. And believe me, I am a life-long learner – there is always something. I am also fortunate to meet some pretty amazing women who have stories to share and whose tenacity I applaud.

So what was the lesson this week? I need to plan my time better. In our recent survey, time management was flagged as a big challenge for women business owners, especially solopreneurs where they have to do everything.

While I am fortunate now to have staff, managing my time is still a struggle and at times I feel like a “hot commodity” and everyone wants a piece of me. Take last week – I was barely in the office at all and this is not good. Yes, I can delegate but I am still the person steering the ship and I still have tasks that I have to do.

I always start my week with a list of what has to be done. But I find that if I don’t have a concentrated piece of time behind my desk, I start to feel scattered and that nothing is getting accomplished.

And it’s not just the business meetings that have to be scheduled, it’s the self-care appointments – like the dentist, the ophthalmologist, doctor, etc…, all part of a woman’s life and I haven’t even got into what we have to juggle on the home front or stealing time to see friends.

Feeling exhausted? Well that was my week – two rigorous sessions with my fitness trainer; a medical appointment that had me out of commission for three hours; a Company of Women dinner; four one-on-one sessions with women; a night out with girlfriends; a retirement party at my husband’s office, a dinner party this weekend and one meeting with a potential partner that was cancelled (thank goodness) And that’s just the face-to-face time I had with people, never mind the phone calls, the emails etc… You get the picture.

I think I need rescuing from myself. I am beginning to feel like the hampster on a treadmill. It’s time to come off and hit ground zero.

No – I either have to clone myself or start working smarter. Any suggestions?