Slow Down, the end of time managment   

Slow down and enjoy life. It’s not only the scenery you miss by going too fast – you also miss the sense of where you are going and why. Eddie Cantor

Effectiveness is critical in hospitals, especially when we are talking about the emergency room. Diverse effectiveness studies have shown superior results when the doctors walk to meet the patient than when they run.  

When a doctor runs to meet the patient, adrenaline fills his body. He’s a container of fear. When he reaches the patient he needs a couple of seconds to calm down, catch his breath and process all the information given to him before the meeting and now during. The time “gained” running is several times lost whilst he regains composure and starts to focus and process information.

When a doctor walks to meet the patient, he has already started to process the available data and has certain options in his mind before he reaches the patient. He’s a container of solutions. He has a list of questions he misses answers to in order to make an accurate diagnostic. When the doctor meets the patient his questions are answered one by one. The time “lost” walking is several times gained by thinking and asking: preparation.

The doctors who run do so because they want to help as many patients as possible. The doctors who walk do so because they want to help all their patients in the best possible way. That is the difference between efficiency and effectiveness.

Being busy is a form of laziness,

lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.

T. Ferris

We have been seduced by the idea that more is better, that fast is better. We accumulate more and more tasks. We think that multi-tasking will bring us success. We believe that it’s the only way! We drive our car whilst also trying to drink coffee, answer phone calls and study a foreign language. We sit in meetings and reply to our e-mails and prepare for the next meeting and for the one after that. We fill our lives with countless to-dos without realizing that many of these activities shouldn’t be done by us and some of them shouldn’t be done at all.

Our identity is built by our choices:

by the books we don’t read,

by the things we don’t do,

by the people we are no longer with.

B. Vergara

A controversial Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) developed a principle that changed my life. The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, 80% of the effects comes from 20% of the causes. Vilfredo Pareto observed that 80% of income in Italy went to 20% of the population. He then carried out surveys on a variety of other countries and found to his surprise that a similar distribution applied.

It is a common measurement in business; e.g., "80% of your sales comes from 20% of your clients." It also applies to a variety of more mundane matters: one might guess approximately that we wear our 20% most favored clothes about 80% of the time, perhaps we spend 80% of the time with 20% of our acquaintances. It is a common rule of thumb in many areas: 80% of your results comes from 20% of your efforts.

What gets measured gets managed.

Peter Drucker

How to stop doing that 80% of to-dos that are not contributing to your success/happiness/effectiveness?

1. Learn to say no. Refuse to do. Saying no can be a rather complex matter, as we have been wired to please: to please our parents, our teachers, our spouses, bosses, neighbors. We are missing a person: ourselves. To selectively choose what you want and don’t want to do is to honestly be who you are. The most charitable thing you can do is to offer to the universe who you really are.

Exercise: Review your to-do list and identify actions that you will not take and inform the affected parties about it. Eliminate one item a day.

A mind too active is no mind at all.

Theodore Roethke

2. Information fasting. We are bombed by information. We take the tram and there is a TV with news. We go to the airport and there is also a TV, there are newspapers and the internet. There is so much information that we are unable to digest and process it all. Thinking seems to have evaporated from planet earth. We just consume information. We don’t think any more, we don’t create anymore. Let’s stop the cycle.

Exercise: Have a news fasting day. For 24 hours do not read, watch or listen to the news. That means only listening to the music on the radio, not watching any television and not reading newspapers or internet articles. Instead, you might have a memorable dinner with your spouse. You might read old love letters you forgot existed. You might take a walk in the park. You might just hear your inner voice and create something new. Just 24 hours! I promise you it will be worth it.

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can let alone.

Henry David Thoreau

3. Ask for help/delegate/outsource. If something needs to be done, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to do it. We all have a network of helpers: our subordinates, our suppliers, our spouses, our friends and our children. They are interested in us. Helping us is a gift for them. Accepting help and delegating are very helpful tools for building trust and meaningful relationships with others. Let’s open our hearts and minds to their help.

Exercise: While reviewing your to-do list, ask yourself which activities could be delegated/outsourced and to who. Delegation/outsourcing is not simple. For it to work you need to match the task with the ability of the responsible, along with all the necessary information for the task. If the task is not well done, you need to assess how to improve your delegation next time. Did you give all the information needed? Did you assign it to the right person? Did you give them enough authority to carry it out successfully? If things do not work out the first time, try again. They will be grateful for the opportunity and you will contribute to their growth.

The future is here. It’s just not widely distributed yet.

William Gibson

4. Automate. Computers can be a blessing. You don’t need to be a slave of them, make them work for you. E-mail can be managed with automatic responses. Bank payments can be automated with the facilities of Internet banking. You don’t need to type all the telephone numbers, you can program your phone or mobile to push just one key. You don’t need to write every single occurrence of events in your diary, you can make them automatically recurrent. You can ask your supermarket to bring you a defined set of products every week. Automation can be a blessing and a dramatic time saver.

Exercise. While going through your to-do list, ask yourself if those chores could be automated. Chose one, automate it and enjoy the efficiency.

Now, you have successfully eliminated 80% of your tasks. How are you going to do the remaining 20%?

Undoubtedly, we become what we envisage.

Claude M. Bristol

1. Being aware. Don’t sleep - wake up! Don’t survive - live! To keep your commitment to running your own life you have to life consciously. There are many practices available for this: meditation, yoga, running, etc. However, my favorite is journaling. If you write three pages every morning on waking, your life will be transformed in unexpected and wonderful ways. You don’t need to be a writer. They don’t need to be “intelligent” thoughts, just your thoughts. Don’t worry if at first you seem to be complaining, you cannot keep writing about the negative elements in your life forever. Writing about them will move you into action. Write, wake up and enjoy a new life.

Like an ability or a muscle, hearing your inner wisdom is strengthened by doing it.

Robbie Gass

1. Dating your favorite person. Have you noticed that your best ideas come whilst you’re having a shower or taking a walk in the park? The brain works differently during those times. When we don’t seem to be concentrating on something specific, but are present in the experience itself, we are open to new perspectives. Our minds invent, create and solve. Let’s do that on purpose. Schedule time for yourself. Go for a walk, cook, paint, dance, cycle… This time will bring you perspective on your projects, your relationships, your life. Make an appointment with yourself every week. This is not time to be shared with anyone else, no matter how dear they are to you. This is “Me Time.”

When the soul wishes to experience something she throws an image of the experience out before her and enters into her own image.

Meister Eckhart

1. Build your own environment. Plants grow better in certain environments. However they have little say in where they are planted. We, in turn, have more possibilities to influence our environment. Sure, we cannot move to Paris with just a blink of an eye. Nonetheless, we can bake croissants. Building your own environment is not a matter of dramatic changes, but small ones. What we eat, what we wear, the music we listen to are all variables that can make us smile and feed our soul and WE can choose them . Creating your own environment will help you grow and renew yourself.

Slow dance

Have you ever watched kids

On a merry-go-round?

Or listened to the rain

Slapping on the ground?

Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight?

Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?

You better slow down.

Don’t dance so fast.

Time is short

The music won’t last

Do you run through each day

On the fly?

When you ask: how are you?

Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done,

Do you lie in your bed

With the next hundred chores

Running through your head?

You’d better slow down

Don’t dance so fast

Time is short

The music won’t last

Ever told your child,

We’ll do it tomorrow?

And in your haste,

Not wee his sorrow?

Ever lost touch

Let a good friendship die

Cause you never had time

To call and say, “Hi”?

You’d better slow down,

Don’t dance so fast

Time is short.

The music wont’ last

When you run so fast to get somewhere

you miss half the fun of getting there

when you worry and hurry through your day,

it is like a unopened gift thrown away

Life is not a race

Do take it slower

Hear the music before the son is over

David L Weatherford

May you find what you are not looking for,

Kind regards,

Blanca L. Vergara

My mission is to change the world one person at a time. I am there to facilitate my customers to re-tune with their personal vision and make it happen. To deliver on this mission I provide a set of services. Depending on the assignment sometimes in collaboration with other professionals, but always working with a reduce number of customers to ensure quality and truly personalized services.

Our Services are,

• Coaching
• Leadership Development
• Seminars

Coaching

I believe (and have experienced) that coaching can facilitate the transformation of latent potential into real results. The relationship between coach and client is highly collaborative. Therefore, it's critical to choose a coach who is right for you. Naturally, finding the right coach requires some homework and common sense. In selecting a coach The Hudson Institute of Santa Barbara, a premier coaching school, recommends that you ask yourself the following questions:

• What is this coach's process and approach to coaching?
• Do I feel comfortable with this individual?
• How well do the training and experience of this coach apply to my needs and background?  

I welcome you to contact me with any questions you may have. 

Leadership Development

Leadership development is the cornerstone of my practice. Leadership usually contact us when they have exhausted  their support resources to continue growing as persons and leaders; when their business environment and personal network cannot be objective enough to promote their development.

Frequent reasons to support leadership development are,

• Moving into a leadership role
• Losing faith in the system
• Joining a company
• Working internationally
• Understanding and accepting your legacy

I welcome you to contact me with any questions you may have. 

Seminars

Your Looking Glass offers a wide variety of in-company training sessions and workshops. We customize and personalize them according to customers needs. Some recurrent themes are:

• The Cycle of Renewal ®
• Innovation and Creativity
• Managing others for higher performance
• Action leadership
• Strategic (life) planning 

For more information on the programs described here or for designing a more bespoke program, contact us. 

President and founder of Your Looking Glass, Blanca is a highly respected executive and life coach and business consultant.

During the last fifteen years, Blanca has committed her passion for innovation and knowledge of change management to the support of managers and high achieving professionals, frequently changing her binoculars to enjoy an overall view.  Companies that have benefited from Blanca’s professional support include; start-ups, family businesses, large multinationals and European institutions. Blanca’s clients belong to the IT industry, aerospace and banking and are individuals encompassing all social backgrounds, nationalities and religions.  Her knowledge of Business is supported with an MBA from Rotterdam’s School of Business Management.

Blanca is a frequent speaker on personal and professional development, on women, on leadership, on growing, on living purposeful careers and lives… 

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