Recently, I was on holiday and when I arrived at my destination there was a copy of Mitch Albom’s book The Timekeeper in my room. I’ll let you read the story yourself, but the book is all about man’s obsession with time. How many of us tortured our parents or teachers with ‘What time is it’? or ‘Are we nearly there yet’? Think of all the games we played as children concerning time. One of my earliest memories at school for example was playing ‘What time is it Mister Wolf’? As adults we have time constraints put on us, but we are also very adept at putting them on ourselves.

What time is it Mister Wolf-children’s game

Once Upon a time

Once Upon a Time there was The Speaking clock (this service still exists!) where you phone a number and a human voice tells you the time. I have a 3-yr. old nephew and I could just imagine his reaction if I told him to phone the speaking clock to be told the time.

Nowadays, there is no way of escaping telling the time. Every device we own is constantly flashing it at us. Not only can our devices speak to us and tell us the time, but they also remind us

· where we are supposed to be

· what we are supposed to be doing at that given time.

· how many calories we have burnt in between, and the new Apple watch monitors your rate heart too!

Slave to Time

Are you a slave to time?

Time is our most precious commodity and many people joke you never go into a graveyard and see written on someone’s grave stone ‘I wish I’d spent more time in the office’!

But are you using it to its full advantage?

Are you filling your days with things that you actually enjoy doing or want to do?

Or are you filling it with time-sucking administrative tasks?

Could you outsource those time-consuming admin tasks to a Virtual Assistant like me so you can concentrate on 1) the strategy for your business 2) making new business connections?

The range of services that I provide is listed on my website . This list is by no means exhaustive and every business has a different pain point so don’t hesitate to contact me for a free initial 1-2-1 consultation.

No-one can conquer Father Time but there are things you can do to ease the time you have:

· Try not to measure out every second of your life. Leave time for relaxing and for emergencies and this may seem counter intuitive but set aside some time when you are doing nothing! Be that staring at the sky or the ceiling or simply Being

· Implement Limits. If your children or partner or relatives are constantly reprimanding, you for spending too much time on the phone then guess what? you are spending too much time on your phone! There are lots of apps now you can install to track how much time you are actually spending and will impose limits on you, so you can spend quality human 1-2-1 interaction time instead. Check out Moment for Iphone and QualityTime for Android

· Mind your Time. If you don’t hold your time precious no-one else will either. All those free ‘can I just pick your brain’ coffee meetups add up. Suggest instead speaking on the phone or doing a Zoom or Skype call so you can still see each other, but just remotely!

· Engage yourself in an activity where you actually lose track of time. I love reading where I can lose myself for hours at a time . I also did house arts painting class with The Art and Design Factory recently and that’s another fantastic way to lose yourself totally (I didn’t drink the whole bottle of wine in front of me by myself by the way:)).

House Arts-Art and Design Factory Painting Class

Making Space for Time

I worked on the client side of a construction project for 5 years and there was a lot of consultancy work around a dedicated creating space for different tasks and for different teams. Every year I try to take 4 days in a row where I go way somewhere quite remote by myself and just have time for me with no plans other than getting to my destination. I love places with big wide-open skies where you can let your mind roam free and have literally the space to think. Obviously, we can’t jet off every time we need the head-space to think, so create a space closer to home. Change your habits and have your breakfast in your local coffee shop or do as I do now and work once a week out of a co-working space . Often when you are in a different environment you are motivated to be creative and suddenly lose that writer’s block that was suffocating your latest blog or podcast content.

Wishing your Time Away

I attend yoga once a week and the teacher always starts the class with the warning if you are doing something and its painful then you are not doing it right!

The tagline of my business is ‘Taking Away your Admin Pain’ so if painful time-consuming admin tasks are stopping you concentrating on high value strategic tasks contact me today to discuss how you can outsource them.

No one can turn back time so don’t live to regret those moments never taken to attend a child’s school pantomime, to travel to the back of beyond to a friend’s wedding or to pack your bags, switch off your phone and just forget time exists for a week!

Alison-VirtuAli Admin Solutions Email: alison@virtuali.uk T: +44 (0)77962 40677