time management Archives - Sharon M Weinstein

June 20, 2021 By Sharon Weinstein

The Big Reset…who owns a great work environment?

It’s been more than a year since we pushed the reset button. During this time, many of my clients and colleagues began to be “home-based” members of a team. Moms have been pushed to the limit with work, schooling, child-care, and stress. There was a time when it was taboo to talk about the stressors of work/life balance in the physical workplace. My clients report that now is the time when it is okay to make the personal professional. After all, how many times, when on a Zoom or Teams call, has a child entered your workspace (whether it is a real space, the kitchen island, or a bedroom)?

Some companies pushed reset by shuttering satellite offices, knowing full well that employees are perfectly capable of maintaining productivity in a home setting.

We have become much more flexible, and there are many facets to flexible:

Shifting work hours or job-sharing to accommodate school schedules and drop-offs plus the formidable child-care crisis that occurs between 3 and 5 pm
A shorter workweek which has been successful in Europe for many years
Support for those who work from home, including a budget for a desk, chair, or desktop monitor

Who owns a great work environment? It is a shared responsibility that is owned by the employer and the employee. It’s time to push reset and acknowledge that shared responsibility. The employer can ask direct reports about their preferred styles of working and what support they may need. Continue to schedule remote or hybrid team meetings to enhance engagement. If onsite, maintain a safe setting and reread the three facts of flexibility!

The employee can maintain boundaries, advising kids and partners of dedicated work time, and may need privacy. Keep regular hours, whether remote or in-person. Take the time to take care of yourself, allowing downtime, hydration, and small talk to support your own physical, emotional and social needs.

It’s been more than a year, and we are ready to return to the workplace or to maintain a more flexible workspace no matter where that may be. The Big Reset is here…and we all own the responsibility for making that work environment a great one! Are you ready to push reset?

March 21, 2021 By Sharon Weinstein

Is ZOOM the new fatigue?

Times have changed, and for those of us who spent a fair amount of time in meetings, conference halls, and on the road…we have seen a shift to online meetings, video calls, and so much more! Are you overwhelmed by too many hours in front of the “screen” during your day? Let’s face it…video interaction is the new normal, and maybe the next normal through the remainder of 2021.

Video is great; it is also tiring. How do you cope, and how can you create a strategy for avoiding the new fatigue? Here are 3 suggestions for pre/during/post the call.

Pre-call:

Define a workspace and “own” it; do not allow distractions that are not life-threatening and block the time

During the call:

Remain engaged; let others “see” you; avoid distractions and be present

Post-call:

Go offline and take a break; hydrate and unwind from digital overload

While video call overuse can lead to stress, anxiety, and fatigue, you have an opportunity to overcome the overwhelm by following these 3 steps. Enjoy the interaction and the face-to-face connections. Then, initiate a digital divide and take that much-needed timeout!

March 20, 2020 By Sharon Weinstein

Life as a Balancing Act…working/schooling at home

Coronavirus has given us a new appreciation for our “spaces.” While many of us are fortunate to have a designated home office, others are not. While some have a designated play space for kids that can be converted in to a mini-schoolroom, others do not. What can you do to keep the balance while confined during this pandemic?

Tips from B is for Balance, 2^nd edition offers this advice:

Create a Designated Work Area at Home

When you are in your home “office,” that’s the time to work, to respond to calls, complete electronic banking, update social media, and reply to electronic mail. When you are finished, walk away from the office and computer. Set aside specific times for checking messages. Then, reward yourself with personal time.

Master Efficiency

Many of us are teleworking; keep in mind that many professionals find it difficult to adjust to working from home, even those who have done it forever. The freedom of working in casual clothing (or not getting out of your pajamas), of not reporting for work at a specific time, and of not being directly supervised by others creates an environment that may become lax. You must be responsible for your own efficiency, effectiveness, and efforts. Is your work environment efficient and ergonomically correct? Does it lend itself to a high level of productivity in a short time span? Are you a morning person—someone who works best in the early hours of the day? Set a schedule to plan your work at home, and then work according to your plan.

Manage your Time Wisely

You schedule appointments with other people in your personal planner, so why not schedule time with yourself? Make appointments for regular exercise or meditation (even more now than ever before). Regardless of whom we are and what we do, we still have the same 24 hours in each day. Do you delegate, or you the one who must do it all to get it right?

Know What Is Important and Why

In his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey showed that for many of us, the day is filled with tasks that attract our attention and seem urgent, but they may never need to be done. Weed those out and make time for the important tasks. The important duties that are also urgent require our immediate attention. Learn to prioritize. Know which of the things you must complete today, or this week, are most important and engage in systems that can help you to stick to your schedule. This is a great time to master prioritization; you may be “in” for quite some time.

Identify homeschool space

Perhaps your peers have homeschooled for years; suddenly, you find yourselves in the same situation, and by chance, rather than choice. Identify a dedicated space where your child or children can work on class assignments with good lighting, connectivity, and a sense of ownership. Encourage downtime, and recess; for yourselves and your kids.

And, for those of you out of work, again not by choice, and struggling with what to do to maintain a sense of calm, I offer these tips:

No one knows you better than you; work that to your advantage
Become a master of efficiency
Identify those areas of life most important for your well-being and balance and integrate them within your lifestyle
Know your limits
Treat yourself with kindness

What matters most is, do your best! There is no playlist…hundreds of thousands of moms, dads, and grandparents will be forced to balance homeschooling with their day-to-day work responsibilities. Life is a balancing act─ now more than ever before. All of us need downtime…be sure that you take the time in your day to appreciate life, be grateful, and be kind.

October 28, 2019 By Sharon Weinstein

Let’s talk stress numbers…

What are those numbers?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 60-70% of all disease and illness is stress-related.
Approximately 75 to 90% of physician-office visits are stress-related.
According to the American Institute of Stress, a whopping $300 billion dollars per year is spent on job stress, including absenteeism, turnover, diminished productivity, and medical/legal/insurance costs.

What about you?

If you are busy with a demanding job and family and friends who seek your time and attention, you are blessed, but only if you can handle it. Consider the stressors in your own life, including the things that deplete your energy and bring you down.

When your devices are on low battery, do you plug them in? When your vehicle needs fuel, do you fill the tank? What about your most vulnerable commodity – your body – what do you do for it?

You may be a workaholic like I was; I thought the day was thirty hours long. I tried to fit a schedule into each of those hours to achieve life to the fullest, and my strategy did not work! As one who has reinvented myself professionally throughout my career, I am aware of the challenges of work/life balance. I worked long hours and I always felt as if something was missing…and that something was family time. Balancing a career or business with your personal life is possible. Are You Ready to Recharge Your Battery? offers actions you can take to build the life and career you want, need, and deserve.

We need to recharge- so get set, get ready, and let’s go. We’ll explore the process of engaging in life and work, prepare for change and a charge, manage time and resources, and reinvent ourselves. The process begins here and now, with content and action steps at the end of each section that empower to act, recover, and restore to a full charge.

Now is the time to enjoy Are You Ready to Recharge Your Battery? and then pay it forward by sharing the message with your peers through an amazing Amazon or Good Reads review. For your electronic copy, contact me now.

March 24, 2019 By Sharon Weinstein

Are you a meeting planner with too much to do?

Achieving More by Doing Less…what meeting planners need to know-

Are you kidding me?
Is this even possible?
How can I make it happen?
When do I start?

Work-life or workday balance…what is it and why does it matter? Whose responsibility is it? As meeting planners and team players, we share the responsibility of implementing strategies to ensure work-life balance.

Annual conferences, regional meetings…they spell long days, long weeks, and the need to be on- all the time with multiple responsibilities pulling you in multiple directions! There is so much to do and so little time! How can you achieve more and do less?

Is all this a cliché or is it reality? In today’s environment, it certainly seems that it is indeed our reality – a reality of the times in which we live and our expansive scope of work. Balancing work and personal life can be a challenging task. Are you prepared for the challenge?

Is your performance impaired because you are out of balance? Are you caught up in the balancing act, unable to do it all and care only for others in your lives without caring for yourself? You are only as good as you are balanced! If you do not take the time for yourself – yes, even with the array of responsibilities pressuring you now – you will not be the best that you can be. That personal best includes you as parent, partner, friend, partner, professional, educator or event manager. That personal best is what will enable you to reach new heights in your career, to achieve your goals and to maintain your health.

It will start with a successful conference or meeting, allowing you to achieve more and do less, minus the stress. To learn about the five steps needed for balance, opt into https://smwgroupllc.com and receive the secret tool that will get you to, and through, that next meeting.

To start the process: