Heading towards the warmer months now in the southern hemisphere – love it!

Review of key tasks for September

Work on saying “no”.
Better than before, but still requiring work. I had some great feedback on my review last month where I spoke about this and it gave me some great perspective. Rachael left a link to this post The Tragedy of Missing Out. The whole article is definitely worth reading, but here is just a taste:

But here’s the bare truth: we will miss out, no matter what. It’s inevitable. We cannot do or try everything in the world, even with lives twice as long. We cannot see every town and city, read every interesting book, watch every important film. We will always, always miss out.

Here’s the second, more important truth: if you always worry about what you’re missing out on, you will miss out on what you already have.

Plan for a restful time during school holidays.
Only one week down at the time of writing, but we have gone out less this holidays than we have for some time and we are having a great time. We have one major activity next week which the kids are super excited about, but the rest of the week is planned to be low key. It is giving us all some much need rest and just time to do our own things.

Take a bush walk or two.
Only one but we did have a wonderful time.

Speaking events.
Had a fab time in Sydney. The panel discussing on bloggers and brands was varied and gave us all a lot to think about. Brenda (founder of Digital Parents), chose an amazing venue Kit and Kaboodle in Kings, Cross as you see in the photos below. For more pics from my very quick trip to Sydney, head to my facebook page.

Key tasks for Ocotber

Once the kids go back to school on 11th October, there really won’t be that much October left!

Continure to work on saying “no”.
Not taking on all opportunities offered to me, has really helped to slow the pace for me. I am still working on the missing out thing too! And I am getting quicker at deciding on no too as I am doing it more.

Kick off my 10 week Christmas preparation plan.
Yes it is almost that time of the year again! I will be sharing my preparations on the blog of course.

Kids clothing reorganisation.
It has still been pretty cool here in Melbourne, but eventually it will warm up and I need to go through the attic and find shorts that will fit the younger two boys etc.

Speaking events.
I have a two in October:

• The first is on Thu 20th Ocotober and is the Mumpreneur Diaries, where I will talk about my journey in creating a business working part time from home. I will be speaking with Antonette Golikidis who is the creator and Director of Little Innoscents – the fastest growing exclusive babycare brand on the Australian market. Tickets are still available.
• The second is the Problogger Training Day and is sold out. I will be on two panels, one of blogger productivity and the other is on where blogging can take you.

What do you have planned for October?

Current Sponsors:

• Bright Star Kids' Name Labels - Super Cute & Durable Name Labels
• Byk KIds Bikes - The first ergonomically designed Kids Bikes

Monthly Review, September 2011 is a post from: Planning With Kids

I am very excited that Spring is here! Melbourne has been kind towards the end of August and given us some lovely sunshiney days – can’t wait for them to become the norm through out September.

Review of August key tasks

A pretty poor performance from me this month. The reason for it is something I am aware of – I find it really hard to say “no”. This in both my personal and work life. There are always so many wonderful things to do and opportunities to accept, but I have to get better and prioritising which ones I accept and simply limit how many I accept.

• Stick to my new four rules. Went well on three of them, but still struggling with always doing the important things first. Will keep trying to retrain myself this month.
• Taking the family out to dinner. – No .
• Visit / call our lovely Nanas. – No
• Begin promoting e version of the Planning With Kids book. Made a very small start.

Key tasks for September

I am very optimistic that I can improve on last month’s performance and with school holidays coming towards the end of the month, I am looking forward to making September a month for recharging.

• Work on saying “no”.
• Plan for a restful time during school holidays.
• Take a bush walk or two – we have a break between football and cricket for the older boys, so this is the perfect time to make the best
• Speaking events – I have a few in September which I need to prepare for. Very excited about this one in Sydney – Digital Parents Unplugged!

How do you go at saying no?
Image by Steve-h

Current Sponsors:

• Bright Star Kids' Name Labels - Super Cute & Durable Name Labels
• Byk KIds Bikes - The first ergonomically designed Kids Bikes

Monthly Review, August 2011 and Saying No is a post from: Planning With Kids

Image used courtesy of Danimezza and Kids Business

As I noted in a post earlier this week, I spoke at a Bloggers Brunch last Friday. Myself along with the other four speakers all talked about different aspects of goal setting and achieving our goals. I spoke specifically on blogging goals, but the key points I made are relevant to any project or side activity you may be working on.

As it is the time of the month that I review my monthly progress towards my goals, I thought I would share with you some of what I spoke about.

*****

During the week’s holiday I took from the online world, I had time to reflect on how I was traveling for my goals for 2011. One thing was very clear – I had fallen into the busyness trap!  Yes I was busy, yes I was doing lots of work, but was I doing the important work that was going to help me achieve my goals.  Some of it yes, but not enough – lots of my time was being spent on other things that while maybe urgent or fun weren’t the best use of my time.

Sometimes you need time away from something you are close to, to be able honestly assess how it is going.  From my time away I have come back with new perspective and and determination to change some of my behaviours and do things differently.  Now these aren’t new techniques and some are things I have done before and know they work.  I had just gotten out of the habit of doing them:

1. Not let my inbox rule my life.  I love my iPhone but the constant connectivity can be addictive! I am not going to check it hourly, but at two key periods through out the day.  One, when the toddler goes down for his sleep after lunch and then later in the evening.
2. Write my blogging to do list each night before I go to bed. I had been only doing a home list really and when I had time to go online, I would not have a plan in my head of what I was going to achieve. As a consequence I would waste quite a bit of time flitting between applications.
3. Do the important first.  When I do get online, tackle one of the important tasks on my to do list first before going on twitter, fb etc. I don’t necessarily have to complete it, but I need to spend at least 30 minutes on it. What was happening often was I would just check email or read a few blogs first, then the next thing I knew toddler nap time was over and I hadn’t really achieved what I would have liked to.
4. Re-energise myself with proper breaks. When I have a few hours of time available on weekends, I will often spend 3 or so hours straight in front of the computer. I need to make sure I give my brain a little rest and my body a shake up. I need to be getting outside for short breaks during this time and having a play with the kids.

It has only been a few weeks, working like this, but I do feel more in control of my work load. I am now feeling more confident that over the next half of the year, that if I stick to my new modus operandi, I will indeed achieve my goals for 2011.

Monthly Review for July

As I undertook a half yearly review at the start of July, I didn’t state exact goals for the rest of the month. The key focus for the month of July were my week off and presentations for the Bloggers Brunch and Blogopolis which I completed!

For August I would like to achieve the following:

• Stick to my new four rules outlined above!
• Taking the family out to dinner.
• Visit / call our lovely Nanas.
• Begin promoting e version of the Planning With Kids book.

What do you hope to achieve in August?

Current Sponsors:

• Bright Star Kids' Name Labels - Super Cute & Durable Name Labels
• Byk KIds Bikes - The first ergonomically designed Kids Bikes

How To Stay Focused On Your Goals is a post from: Planning With Kids