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Simple Time Management Strategies

Simple Time Management Strategies

Time management is the key to achieving your goals, increasing your productivity and having time in your life for the activities you love. A good time management strategy begins with reviewing how you spend your time currently then altering your day to spend your time the way you need and want. By taking these steps and removing some of the obstacles in your way, you too can manage your time consciously and enjoyably.

1.    How do you currently spend your time?

“Does this spark joy?” – Marie Kondo, The Lifechanging magic of tidying up

Every day, there are likely to be a few essential activities. Things like sleeping, engaging in money earning activities to survive, eating and caring for those you are responsible for. If you are really honest, you will likely also realise that a lot of your day is lost, wasted, frittered away watching YouTube, sitting in transit or doing activities that you might not need to.

One very telling way to consider how you use your time is to review your device usage. You can see your activity under screen time on an iPhone or Digital Wellbeing on most Android phones. It is not uncommon to find you have lost 2 hours a day to social media, Facebook or Instagram, YouTube or TikTok. Image what you can do with that time if you consciously reclaim it.

Marie Kondo radically tidies homes by asking of every item, ‘Does this spark joy?’. Once you know how you are spending your time, ask this question of your non-essential activities. Large amounts of time spent on activities just because it’s what you do, may suggest you have some room to change.

2.    What would you like to achieve/enjoy with your time?

“It’s never about having the time. It’s about making the time.” – Marie Forleo, Everything is Figureoutable (p67)

Now that you know how you are currently spending your time, it’s time to decide how you want to be spending it. What are your goals this year? Does your current time management strategy allow for time progressing them?

Your goals don’t need to be big. Maybe you want to spend more time playing Dungeons and Dragons or going to Zumba class just because you enjoy it. Maybe you would like to achieve a small housekeeping goal or a career change. Good time management is about using time consciously to achieve what you want to.

We all have the same amount of time in a day. Even small changes to how we use our time can mean big differences towards our goals and daily satisfaction.

3.    What obstacles are in the way of your time management?

The Law of Forced Efficiency says that “There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing.” – Brian Tracey, Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time

Often there are obstacles between how we currently spend our time and how we want to spend our time. Many of us experience difficulty getting organised, managing multiple projects, trouble starting big projects or finishing said projects.

It helps to work out the most important goals or activities. Then schedule the most challenging or  important task first thing in the morning every day while your mind is still fresh and your spoons all available to you.

Now consider why you might be procrastinating your tasks or activities. Are you afraid of failing or overwhelmed by size of task? Do you need more resources to achieve it?

A few quick tips for overcoming procrastination and focussing

  1. Use the ABCDE Method to prioritise your to do list A = Very important – serious negative consequences if you don’t’ do it, through to E = Eliminate it because it’s not important at all and you should free up your time! Now start with the A’s first thing in the morning if possible.
  2. Learn to say no to activities that don’t support your goals – it’s a muscle like any other and gets easier the more we do it.
  3. Limit TV, internet or gaming time – these time wasters are for killing time, not smashing goals.
  4. Don’t get stuck on the small details – most of the time, getting it done imperfectly is better than not at all.
  5. Just start. Focus on one task for 15 minutes. You may be surprised how much you can achieve or how much easier it will seem once you have started.

If you would like to go deeper into Time Management Strategies and how to make them work for you, please get in touch with us today to discuss our course availability.

Smashing Your 2022 Goals with Good Planning Starts Now

Smashing Your 2022 Goals with Good Planning Starts Now

A goal is an excellent planning tool that provides a target to aim for. Having a target ensures that we focus our energy on the right area.

As we approach the end of 2021, it is an excellent time to consider your goals for 2022. What are your big goals? New beginnings, including new years, come with a boost of motivation we can harness to increase our chances of achieving our goals.

If you plan them right, with realistically small steps, and surround yourself with the right people, you can plan, take action and achieve your 2022 goals.

New Year Motivation

Every Monday, every birthday, every new year, we experience a tiny fresh start. A feeling that this time accounting period (week, month, year) can be different. We expect more from ourselves and feel more empowered to see our success rather than past failures.

This motivational spike is incredibly potent as we enter a new year because we are starting a considerable new accounting period. Having an entire year to achieve our goal allows us to dream big and then look at what actions we need to succeed.

Successfully achieving these big goals starts with planning.

Plan your 2022 goals

Start by thinking about where you would like to be at the end of 2022. Are you looking for employment? A new group of friends? Perhaps you would like to finally complete a course of study that you have been delaying? Focus on the most important goal you have right now.

Now, make your goal SMART:

  • Specifically defined
  • Measurable
  • Attainable
  • Relevant to your values
  • Time-bound

SMART goals are more likely to succeed because they include a detailed plan. For example, if you are keen to work in IT and have found the right course that you know only takes six months, you have a relevant and time-bound goal. But it is big, so let’s break it down to more defined, attainable goals. Perhaps, study two hours Monday – Wednesday every week, or four hours every Sunday afternoon. Now you have an attainable goal that is measurable and specific.

However, even SMART goals are not going to achieve themselves. Luckily, there are some tricks you can use.

Achieve Your 2022 Goals

If you can get 1 percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done – Atomic Habits, James Clear

Tiny Changes

In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear talks about habit stacking and the remarkable results of simple small changes over time. Habit stacking uses an existing habit as a trigger for a new one.

For example, if your goal is to exercise more, maybe you made it SMART by saying, 5000 steps a day, measured by my apple watch. Now, you could habit stack by saying, every time I go for coffee, I will walk to the coffee shop just a little further down the block.

Even when making small changes, it is essential to be specific. For example, ‘I will walk to Michael’s Coffee Shop’ will be more successful than ‘I will walk further for coffee’. The aim of habit stacking your small changes is to avoid making the same decisions every day. Less choice means more headspace for action towards achieving your goal!

Surround Yourself with the Right People

Like habit stacking, surrounding yourself with the right people can help you achieve your 2022 goal with greater ease.

For example, if you want to get out of debt or save money – spend more time with friends who meet in a park rather than a restaurant and also value saving money. Spending time with people who share your values or current priorities will make it easier to stick to your plan and achieve your goal.

The people around us are the most significant influence on our behaviour, attitudes and results. So think about the people you most admire or aspire to be like in your life, and take action to spend more time around them – Especially the ones who most align with your values and goals.

If you would like a hand planning your goals for 2022, please reach out to the team here at Self Plus Plus or book a free Strategy Session to see how we can help you.

Building Skills with LEGO® Bricks

The Benefits of LEGO® Brick Build Activities are Social and Practical

You may remember LEGO® bricks from your childhood, or still be an avid fan (like me). A common learning tool of play for children, its popularity has been revived for adults with shows like LEGO® Masters reminding many of us just how much it has to offer.

There is also now a growing recognition of the benefits of building with LEGO® bricks as a tool for building social skills, analytical skills and mindfully relaxing. This is particularly helpful for individuals with autism (including adult autism) or other neurodiverse diagnoses. Many of our clients are surprised to hear just how much it has to offer in terms of social capacity building and problem solving skills, especially while building in a group.

Building on your own is great for improving problem solving, spatial awareness and physical development of fine motor skills. LEGO® Build Sessions like ours use teamwork to add new dimensions. In particular, it is great for levelling up your communication, negotiation and team work skills.

Benefits of LEGO® Brick Activities #1 – Social Capacity Building

Many of our clients, particularly those with adult autism, set their own capacity building goals and work with us for coaching. Often these goals include social capacity building which can be hard to achieve through 1:1 coaching alone. Group projects build and consolidate social skills like sharing, collaboration, problem solving and teamwork.

By working in teams to achieve a common (and enjoyable) goal, you find yourself naturally working to express your thoughts clearly, listening to your teammates and working through negotiation and compromise. These skills can then be transferred into the rest of your life.

Importantly, when building with LEGO® bricks you will likely enjoy yourself so much that you won’t feel like you’re working on anything other than the build itself. You may even make some like minded friends along the way.

Benefits of LEGO® Brick Activities #2 – Practical Analytical and Fine Motor Skills

We all learn differently and at different speeds. Sometimes this means our fine motor skills can use some refining well into our adult years. Building with LEGO® gives you space to practice, strengthen and grow your fine motor skills.

Alternatively, as an adult on the autism spectrum, you may wish to practice your analytical skills. When building in teams, you will need to analyse your build and fine tune your planning to withstand the pressures of life; without the need for the dreaded ‘Kragle’!

At the end of your build you will also have created something tangible. It is rewarding to see physical evidence of our progress and achievements.

Benefits of LEGO® Brick Activities #3 – Relaxation and Mindfulness

Whatever your social, professional or life goals we all need to unwind from the stresses of general life. Reports are now suggesting that building with LEGO® bricks can help do just that.

The simple act of being in the moment, focussing on placing each piece where you would like it (or where instructed) can be incredibly relaxing and provide an excellent antidote to overstimulated days in a busy world.

When you take time each week to relax and de-stress, you will find many other parts of your life begin to ease too. You may be more able to focus, less likely to react emotively and more capable of putting into practice other life skills you are working on.

Join Us for LEGO® Build Sessions Every Wednesday

We invite everyone 15 years and over who identifies on the autism spectrum or with mild to moderate intellectual disability to join us in Queanbeyan for our weekly LEGO® Build Sessions. Work in a team as a builder, supplier or engineer to compete in teams while working towards your goals for social capacity building, analytics or fine motor skills. Contact us today to book.

The Importance of Building Confidence

One of the biggest obstacles I see with the people I work with is lack of self-confidence.  This is also something I’ve experienced myself in the past.  A lack of self-confidence can significantly affect anyone’s ability to perform at their full potential.  In this post, I’ll go through a couple of strategies that can help you improve your self confidence.

Before I go into some strategies to help you improve your self-confidence, I’d like to briefly go into what self-confidence is.  At it’s core, self-confidence is you believing that you are capable of doing something.  This can be specific to a particular task, or it can be in general.  Confident people often share common traits, such as being open to learning new things, recovering easily from setback and not being afraid to ask for help.

Now that we know a bit more about self-confidence, we can go into a few tips that can help you improve yours.  The first tip, and I’ve talked about this in previous posts, is setting goals.  One of the most important things is the ensure your goals are SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.  This gives you the best chance of achiving that goal and making sure it is meaningful as well.  Another great thing about goals is they can be broken down into smaller goals.  This is important so as not to overwhelm you by trying to achieve something so big that it seems impossible.

The next tip is to celebrate your wins – no matter how small.  This includes celebrating when you achieve a goal, which is another reason why it’s important to break larger goals down into smaller ones.  The reason this is important is that it gives a motivational boost that will help keep you moving towards your next goal.

The final tip I’d like to share today centres around the use of positive language.  How do you feel when you say things like “I’m so disappointed in myself” or “other people are so much better at this than me”?  Not very good, is it?  Now say something like “I have many good qualities” or “I am good enough”.  That feels a lot better, doesn’t it?  Positive language is a great way to improve your self-confidence as it helps you feel better about yourself.

That was just a small sample of some of the things we cover in the confidence building course we offer.  If you’re interested in building your self-confidence, get in contact with us to find out how you can enrol in the next self-confidence course we’re running or do some one-on-one coaching to help you build your self-confidence.

Building job interview confidence

One of the biggest obstacles I’ve seen when it comes to people going through the job application process is the dreaded job interview.  Having been on both sides of the interview desk myself, I can also say that for the first few times being the interviewer I was nervous myself, so it’s not just the applicant that can experience butterflies in their stomach.  From my personal and observed experiences, a lot of this nervousness can be attributed to not knowing what’s going to happen and not knowing what to do.  In this post, I’ll give you a few tips and tricks that should help you stand out more against other applicants and alleviate some of those nerves.

When I was younger, I saw the job interview as a one-way conversation where they employer held all the cards and was the be-all and end-all.  As time went on, I learnt that the employer doesn’t hold all the cards, you also hold quite a few cards yourself.  The employer is looking for someone who can help them perform tasks and solve problems so they can provide a service to their customers.  Apart from a pay-day, you’re also probably looking for somewhere you can utilise your skills and help solve problems. So you can see now how you both need each other for each other’s benefit.

How you frame yourself is very important to how confident you feel during the interview.  My younger self lacked confidence because I thought the employer held all of the cards and offered all of the value, even though this wasn’t the case.  As time went on, I started to see how much value I was providing to the organisations I worked for through my unique skillset (everyone has their own unique skillset, by the way).  By the time I landed my last job before becoming self-employed, I knew very well the value I could provide that particular organisation during the application process, and it was my role throughout that process to ensure they did too.

Once you’ve got your mind in the game, so to speak, the next important step is preparing, preparing, preparing.  The aim of the job application process for the employer is to find the best person for the job, and your job (pardon the pun) is to convince the employer that you are that person.  There are quite a few things you can do to prepare for a job interview that will help demonstrate your suitability for a job.  Before we get to that, though I want to emphasize the keyword demonstrate.

When you’re answering questions in the interview, it’s important that you use examples where you’ve achieved something similar in the past.  For example, if an employer is asking about a time you handled a difficult situation, tell them a story of when you dealt with a difficult situation and what the outcome was.  Much like when you’re writing selection criteria responses, I recommend using the STAR method, which is:

  • Situation – the job you were doing (this could also be a volunteer role)
  • Task – what you were doing at the time
  • Action – the steps you took
  • Result – what ended up happening

Now, back to the interview preparation.  It goes without saying that you should also dress for the part, research where you’re going so that you’re on time and so forth.  Below are some of the most beneficial things you can do to prepare for an interview.

  • Research the organisation you’re interviewing with – for example, get to know what their core values are, what is important to them, who their customers are, and what their purpose is
  • Prepare some answers to commonly asked questions – these can be researched easily online
  • Prepare some questions to ask the interviewer – this shows that you’re interested and gives you an opportunity to learn more about your potential new employer
  • Do a role-play of the interview – get someone you know and run through a practice interview beforehand

Now that you’ve got the right mindset and are prepared for the interview, it’s time to get out there and smash it.  Just remember, you and the employer are simply having a conversation around how you can help each other out.  This means you can also use the interview to determine if that employer is somewhere you actually want to work, which highlights the importance of asking questions.  Finally, its not the end of the world if you don’t get the job.  It takes practice to get good at anything, interviews included, and if you blow the first few then there are plenty of jobs out there (even during these tough times).

Where can I find support to start my micro-enterprise?

In my last post, I talked about micro-enterprises and some of the things that need to be considered when starting one.  I also mentioned that there is a lot of support available to help you along the way.  In this post, I’ll go into some of those supports and how they might be able to help you start your own micro-enterprise.

While this post is targeted at micro-enterprise support in Canberra, Australia, some of it does apply to other parts of Australia (and there may be equivalent support available in other countries).  I’ve divided micro-enterprise supports into four categories, predominantly based on their funding source/purpose:

Government Funded Small Business Support

This category involves support provided by state/territory and/or federal government programs dedicated to supporting small businesses.  Often, these supports are highly subsidised, if not free, for people wanting to set up their own micro-enterprise.  These supports predominantly help people create a business plan and develop the skills and knowledge to start and operate a business.

NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) Funded Support

NDIS supports are provided in relation to a specific disability.  For example, most of our clients are either on the autism spectrum or have a mild to moderate intellectual disability, and have an NDIS plan that funds supports that we provide to them.  These supports can range anywhere from a monthly coaching session all the way through to an intentive SLES (School Leaver Employment Supports), which involves multiple sessions per week.  If this is the type of support you need, get in touch and we’ll see what we can do to help you ????.

Self-funded Support

This type of support is often at the premium end of the scale, however it can also have the most impact at times.  Having said that, it is more than likely not going to be cheap (but it is often worth it).  This category consists of business accelerators, coaching and other programs to help you set up your own small business.  Quite often, there are programs tailored to a specific industry provided by people with years of experience to help set up businesses similar to ones they’ve run previously.

Gratis Support

Gratis support is support that can be provided at no or low cost from friends or family.  If someone you know has skills in business administration, then they might be able to provide advice or assistance to help set up and operate your new micro-enterprise.  I’ve worked with participants who have had the whole family involved in the running of a micro-enterprise, with each member of the family contributing their own skills to the planning and running of the business.

Conclusion

As I’ve said previously, running a business is hard, however you don’t need to do it alone.  The amount of support out there is phenominal, and to be honest, without it my businesses wouldn’t be where they are today.  Help comes to those who ask, and these days, more than ever, it’s important to be able to ask for and receive help.