Giving yourself a bit of “space”

Have you looked at your schedule lately and found it difficult to fit something else in?

Sometimes we carry on carrying on – not realising what we are doing until suddenly we are pulled up …

Think about this like a bookshelf.

If it is packed full of books there is no space to put new ones in so you have a choice

- take some out ( sell them/pass them on) to make space for the new books

- don’t buy any more and forego the learning/enjoyment that might come from the new books

Now applying that principle to life – what can you take off the shelf? Maybe you could pass a meeting on to someone else to manage giving you time to spend on more pressing issues? Maybe you could collaborate with others in sharing the spread of client business to allow you to develop new relationships for more profitable business? Maybe you could schedule regular meetings further apart…or by Skype instead of including travel – allowing you to spend more time with your family or just chilling?

A colleague and I were talking about how our perception of work – inherited somewhat from our parents – was that sitting at the desk  9-5 ( or even longer) was how things were done but we decided that in most cases that’s not necessary now.  Developments in technology help…and hinder! As a recent recruit to Blackberry I know how easy it is for me to start checking my email on the go when I could use travel time to simply collect my thoughts to prepare for my meeting or indeed just chill afterwards to let things settle.

Space allows for new ideas to  appear. Let’s you see where there might be new connections. Gives you time to think about what’s going well and why that is. Shows where some work might be needed .

It might even allow you to recognise and understand how you feel – physically and emotionally.

To add yet another metaphor -without the space we  are more likely to stay on the same path  ( treadmill?) because we don’t have time to lift our heads and see what junctions are coming up to choose from.