Two weeks ago I flew to Cape Town and Durban to speak at some Discovery award functions.

I flew in and out the same day which meant lots of time in airports and lots of time on aeroplanes.

Even though my main goal for the day was simply to show up and do an inspiring talk, I found that I actually had exceptionally productive days aside from the talks.

Let me show you what I got done:

On flight

1. Wrote out thank-you cards for the babies’ birthday presents
2. Read 3 ebooks I’d downloaded
3. Reviewed my notes for the talks
4. Planned out my How to say no without feeling guilty teleseminar (If you missed it, I now coach on this topic in 30 and 60-minute segments)

At the airport

1. Responded to all emails
2. Completed this expert interview
3. Returned and made telephone calls
4. Chatted to fellow passengers and tourists still in the country from the Soccer World Cup

The one thing which saved me such a lot of time and energy was using Platinum Parking at OR Tambo airport. Their service truly was fantastic and I will definitely be using them again. No question!

P.S. I’m not being paid to write about Platinum Parking

You may think, as a time management expert, that I have a perfect life as far as time goes.

Wrong!

I’m human and in addition to being late sometimes, I’ve also had some major bloopers, like the time I missed my flight from Dublin.

We were travelling from Dublin back to Johannesburg via London. At Dublin airport, we missed check-in by 5 minutes even though we were in the queue on time.

I must confess that I broke down and SOBBED!

As a result, we had to take a later flight from Dublin to London… that landed at a different airport, Gatwick. Our taxi broke many speed limits getting us to Heathrow on time for check-in but again there was a mad rush to get us on the flight leaving for Johannesburg. It was like The Amazing Race as we ran through the airport terminal for 20 minutes, only worse, as we were also out of shape.

If memory serves me correctly, we were in the last batch of 4 people who managed to squeeze through the aircraft’s doors on time. What should have been a stopover of 7 hours turned into a second, nearly missed flight!

How on earth does this happen, you ask?

Well, let me share the 3 critical mistakes I made:

Not leaving enough buffer time for the number of people involved

The more people you have to accommodate, the more time you need. We had been staying with a friend who was also going away that weekend and we (mistakenly) assumed that he’d take the same amount of time to get ready as we did.

We usually leave enough time to get to the airport and then add on another 30 minutes’ buffer time. In this case, we should have added on an hour.

Assuming that things are the same on weekends

At the time there were major roadworks in Dublin. Our friend was used to the detours during the week but not over the weekend. On this particular weekend, the highway was worse than it was during the week. Maybe it was the best time to work on the roads, but not for all of us travellers.

Not planning for different cultures and/ or countries

In South Africa, I’d had many, many customer service interactions where I could talk and reason with the people and get my way. South Africa is known for hospitality, friendliness and helpfulness.

The ground staff at the Dublin airport were not having my logic (that we WERE in the queue on time) and didn’t care that we might miss our flight to South Africa and that it was the last one for a whole day. I even started crying from sheer frustration and those cold-hearted ladies didn’t budge an inch.

This whole experience cost a LOT of money (had to get new tickets and pay a taxi to take us 50 miles to the correct airport) and time with friends (with our Dublin friend as we had a very unsatisfactory, quick good-bye and we totally missed meeting up with another friend at Heathrow), and was really not worth the extra 30 minutes it would have taken to let things work out perfectly.

Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes because I can assure you, you NEVER want to go through an experience like that.

I flew internationally twice after that incident and both times left an extra TWO hours’ buffer time as I never, ever, ever want to go through that again!

Have you ever missed a flight? Share in the comments.

Want to use this article in your ezine or on your blog? You may, as long as you include this complete blurb.

Marcia Francois is a time management and organising coach who empowers small business owners and other busy professionals who want to make the most of their time. You’ll get simple, practical organising and time management secrets to help you work less and enjoy life more! Visit http://takechargesolutions.org for your free Organising Success Pack.

There’s nothing nicer than having an empty Inbox and a computer that is quick, organised and efficient. All it takes is a bit of work now and you’ll reap the benefits for months to come!

How often do we think about organising and decluttering our cell phones?

Almost never…

I like to use time spent in queues to go through my phone and delete what I no longer need. 

On your cell phone

1. Contacts
Delete all temporary numbers and those belonging to people you don’t know.

If I get a call from a potential client, I save the number immediately so the next time they phone I can say, “Hi Adam” and wow them with my organising skills so I end up with quite a few numbers. If I don’t take the time to go through these contacts regularly, my phone can get cluttered very quickly.

2. Inbox
Delete all old text messages unless you really need to keep the message.

If you’ve been keeping texts as reminders to do something, save them to your calender and let the phone send you a reminder to action them.

* If you have a Blackberry (crackberry ) or PDA, please follow the same steps above to get it all organised.

On your computer

3. Programmes
Go to Control Panel and click on Add or Remove Programs to remove all those trials you downloaded that you no longer need.

4. Photos
Burn your photos to disc (for back up) and delete the files from your hard drive.

Remember to label! I label each disc with a number and then I put that same number on a round piece of paper in the CD sleeve with a list of the events, like Christmas 2009, Babies party 2010, Ireland 2008, etc.

5. Files and folders
Delete any files you no longer use. If you need to keep any documents for reference, burn to disc and free up the space on your hard drive.

Resolve to apply the one in–one out principle. For every file you download, delete one. Drastic? Maybe, but it works. I go one step further and even delete the file once I’ve read the e-book.

6. Inbox
Delete and then archive your emails.

Delete old folders. Go through your Sent Items and please make me happy by deleting the items from your Deleted Items!

Conquer your email will also help you get your email under control.

7. Contacts
Delete any old contacts, especially if you can’t even remember who they are or why you have their details Otherwise, take the time to reconnect!

Please use this list as a checklist and get cracking. I’m joining you this week to declutter my files and folders.

Are you up for the challenge?

Have an (electronically) organised week!

I spent this last week travelling to two cities here in South Africa doing some speaking and you know what I realised?

That people really are the same everywhere.

In Johannesburg, we like to say those in Cape Town are more laid back and they, of course, think we run around like headless chickens.

I think both of us are right

Of course, those from Durban would never survive these tough Jhb winters whereas I literally wilt in their heat. I did find the Durban drivers extremely courteous though

Based on what some of the ladies at the talks came to chat to me about afterwards, I can honestly say that people all over (the world) have the same difficulty in saying no to requests for their time, energy and help.

So I’m really, really looking forward to sharing with you in this week’s teleclass how to say no without feeling guilty.

Are you joining me?

This teleclass is priced so low it’s practically free. I’ve done it like this so that it won’t be a barrier for anyone.

Will you be on the call on Thursday?

Read more to see if this class could help you

As always, I’ve picked the best time of day for MOST people in the world…. BUT if the time doesn’t suit you, you will have the downloadable recording in your inbox within 24 hours.

Do you know how to say no without feeling guilty?

Do you struggle to say no, even when you know you should?

Or if you are able to say no, do you feel guilty for ages afterwards?

Join me for a teleclass on Thursday 22 July to finally learn exactly how to say no without feeling guilty.

I will show you how in a comfortable, step-by-step, manner that won’t make you squirm or cringe inside.

Date and time Thursday 22nd July at 1 PM EST (7 PM South African time)

(If you can’t make the time, the recording will be available within 24 hours)

Book your place now

What do you find most difficult about saying no?

P.S. If the link is not clickable, type http://tinyurl.com/saynoteleclass into your browser

When I coach people or do speaking engagements, I always stress the importance of writing things down.

Why?

When you write things down, it frees your mind for more big picture thinking and you don’t have to worry about the details.

So these are the 3 lists I suggest you absolutely should use to manage your time more effectively:

1. Master list

This is a place for a “brain dump”, a place for ideas you might want to pursue in the future or possible projects you need to tackle.

You can work off one master list for months, like I do with my business or blogging ideas. Or you can have a master list for a certain period, like a week, and then rewrite it at the start of the next week.

I have a master list of things to do in the house which I’ve been working on since we moved in four years ago. Honestly, I think there will always be items on this list.

2. To-do list

This list can be monthly, weekly or daily.

The difference between this list and the master list is that this one has a time deadline to it.

I have a monthly to-do list – I keep this one with broad goals like go to the gym 10 – 12 times – a weekly to-do list with about 5 – 7 business tasks to get done and then my daily to-do list which spreads out those 5 – 7 tasks so that I have only 1 or 2 to do daily.

I want to caution you to only put a maximum of 6 items on your daily to-do list so you don’t become overwhelmed!

3. Checklist

This is a place with a list of items which you check/ tick off.

This list is ideal for anything you need to do regularly, like a list of weekly cleaning tasks, office supplies, routine business tasks, etc.

Once you start using the right list for the correct task, you’ll be flying!

You can download free master to-do and other lists at http://takechargesolutions.org or http://organiseyourbusiness.com

Do you use lists? Which are your favourite ones?

P.S. Mine is my weekly to-do list

My babies turned 1 on Wednesday.

My husband and I were very undecided as to whether we wanted to have a party or not (him, because he doesn’t like crowds and me, because I don’t like mess ) but then we decided to do it because, well, we survived the first year!

As a friend wrote on my Facebook status update, that’s the worse of the sleep deprivation behind you. And I said, “amen to that!”

Anyway, I thought I’d share some things that worked well, and also those that didn’t, in the hope that this list will help someone out there.

Decide on exactly what you want and stick to your plan

Not only is there less stress when you know what you want (and more importantly, what you don’t want) but the focus helps you “see” your theme everywhere.

We knew that we wanted a small and intimate party and that made it easy to decide on a small number of people. We also decided on a polka dot theme and I saw suitable foods, etc. everywhere – marshmallows, cupcakes, Salticrax with toppings, etc.

Decide on a budget

This is the part I did very well. And I still could have done better (see food story below).

I planned everything beforehand and was not swayed when I got to the party store as I had my list and knew I only needed x, y and z

I normally don’t like the “waste” of paper plates and polystyrene cups but felt it was a necessity to save me time and energy later.

Get creative

Google is my best friend!

I googled ideas and found beautiful, beautiful parties by much more creative people than I am, or ever will be.

But they inspired me to get a little bit more creative than I would normally be.

Also, ask your friends for ideas – you’ll be surprised at what pops up.

Make a gift list

We didn’t have one initially because we really didn’t want people to feel obliged to buy two of everything or even one bigger item but after about 3 – 4 requests within hours of my email invitation going out, we got cracking.

Even so we only had about 4 items on the list – clothes and the sizes they currently wear, baby hot water bottles and some age appropriate toys.

Yes, a gift list can seem a bit mercenary but it seems my friends are super-practical and the babies were blessed with some fantastic gifts that are SO useful.

Don’t over cater

I sucked big time at this. I love food and I hate to run out so I had STACKS. Literally. Only 4 people were not able to come at the last minute but still, STACKS of food left over. Yes, I handed out food parcels but my freezer and fridge are still full of food.

(I have a thing against throwing away perfectly good food when there are so many needy people so that is not an option).

Accept help – don’t feel the need to be Super woman

Asking for help is not my strong suit at all.

But I soon realised that just running around after my two would mean I wouldn’t be able to socialise with my friends or be as hospitable as I’d have liked.

I got our nanny in to help us with the babies and in between running around, she also helped with washing dishes!

My MIL baked a yummy pudding and my SIL baked cupcakes so that I could focus on baking the small cakes for the babies.

Confession - I did microwave cakes as I didn’t see the need to do a proper baked cake for kids who would eat maybe a fistful or two

My children don’t ever eat sugar and this was the first time they were allowed some – individual chocolate cakes with a caramel topping. They didn’t know what came over them but (Connor especially) just DOVE into the cake. Too funny!

One of the best things we did was

Put up a Happy Birthday banner and balloons on the gate. It helped guests find our house easily once they were in the street.

While party planning is still fresh in my mind…

Please share your best things to do and not to do so I can be well prepared for next year

This week, I want to give you a good, old, coaching challenge.

Are you up for it?

1. Grab a piece of paper and a pen.
2. Make a list of all your different roles in life. For example, wife, mother, sister, manager, church committee member, friend, blogger, etc.
3. Circle the one that you feel needs some work.
4. Write down 3 concrete actions you can take (the smaller the better so you don’t get overwhelmed)
5. Post your actions in the comments. Go on – I dare you