Your time is a resource, so use it carefully

It has been a while since my last blog post. A lot has happened, good and not so good things. During the last few weeks I have found myself several times in a situation where I have had to carefully weigh how I use my time. An opportunity that first looked good turned out to be a time thief ( = money thief ).

In this article I want to raise some thoughts about how we better can decide what opportunity, occasion, customer etc brings in profits and which don't.
I am an entrepreneur so everything I do has to be profitable - if not immediately, at least in a very reasonable time. Sometimes you need to invest your time, efforts and money and just have patience that your investment will bring in some profits. But if you need to invest a lot of your time and the expectations of profits are small or mediocre - then forget about it and move on.

You are the best person to evaluate where to invest your time. But be critical! We meet everyday some well meaning persons who promise heavens and lands to you. Their product is the one you need to invest in or their business is the exactly right one to make you rich and happy.

I have put a price tag on my time, depending on the type of work I do and I use that to measure where to put my time. I also evaluate where I put my money on, and if the profit expectations are less than 50% in a very reasonable time ( I am growing more and more impatient here) I skip that opportunity. And now I don't talk only about big investments, but also small ones like subscribing a magazine, buying a book or expanding a computer program.

There are so many more useful ways of spending your time, like on a hobby or recreation, than on bad ways of using your money and time, so please - heads up.

Three days on a motorbike

We decided with my husband Esko, to enjoy our short holiday by travelling on a motorcycle in the beautiful lake-district of Finland. Our kids were both on their own trips so we had three days for our own adventure.

We ended up staying over in Jyväskylä after cruising in the incredible beautiful countryside. The summertime pricelevel of the hotels was a really positive surprise. Very affordable.
On Tuesday we continued towards the coast and Porvoo, the city I was born in. We visited all the dear places of my childhood before surprising my sister and her family with our visit. It was so good to see them all again.

The next night we stayed home, but continued our adventure on Wednesday by driving to Ekenäs and Ingå. We found a very interesting road on the map and decided to check it out. Before that we filled our rear box with dangerously delicious malt bread, from the local bakery Wi-Box.
The road to Snappertuna and Fagervik was incredible fun to ride. They were almost as fun as the German roads, said Esko ( that is a huge compliment for our domestic roads ).

Our luck with the weather ended when we headed towards home. It started to rain, and it was not a light shower, as the weather forecast promised. Our suits kept us dry, but our waterproof shoes proved not to be waterproof at all. We ended up with soaking wet feet, but managed to laugh at it.

We spended a good amount of hours on the back of our motorbike, so there was plenty of time for the backseat driver to think. As a result of my thinking comes some tips for biking and why not life in general:

1. Know your bike, and take good care of it, so that you can trust it in all situations.
2. Don't take unnecessary risks. Remember there can be anything waiting for you behind the curve
3. Remember that you are not alone. Even if you follow all the rules, there might be someone who wants to act like an idiot
4. Enjoy the scenenery and surrender to the road and its curves. You have arrived when your butt touches the saddle.
5. When it rains, drive in the rain

To quote Esko, this three day holiday felt much longer. We saw and experienced so much. Finland is a very, very beautiful country and I really recommend travelling here warmly. You don' t necessarily need a plan or a tight scedule, there seem to be plenty of room in the hotels, and the roads and nature can definitely take more passengers and visitors.

Wake up and be prepared

Our daughter Jasmin is a very passionate photographer. I mean really passionate. She carries her camera almost everywhere she goes.
One beutiful morning we went for a walk with her and our dog. And as usual she had her camera with her. The pictures in this blog is mostly taken by her.

While walking in the beatiful scenery it finally hit me. I have known it for long, but not really got it. The "it" is that we really need to wake up, see and "get" the world that is surrounding us and react to it in the right way. Jasmin's way is to see the tiniest details, a small fly resting on a flower, a pearl of dew on a leaf, or clouds gathering to release some rain. And she saves the scenes on the memorycard of her camera.

What do you need to react on, that you now are closing your eyes from? Are you walking past your happiness? Do you loose potential clients just because you don' t ask them if they want to hire or buy from you? Or do you close your eyes from something you need to fix or restore, that actually now is loosing you money?

What if you would make a list of just 5 things that you have closed your eyes from and that really need your attention- Send one of them, as a comment to this blogpost, to me - just one

One thing that I will react on is my bookkeeping...

Get them involved

I occasionally do shadow coaching with my clients. Shadow coaching can shortly be described as when the coach works side by side with the client, eg at the client' s office.
A few weeks ago I worked with a client on his skills on how to lead a team meating. What we discovered was that he did a lot of preparation before the meeting. That is okay, but his team members did bring the same reports to the meeting - so the same work was done twice.

During the meeting my client talked, talked and talked. He went through all the reports, sometimes he asked questions like why is this number low or what are you going to do about it. His team sat mostly quiet and digested the lecture - passively and looking somewhat bored.

After some coaching he made some drastic changes in how he lead the meetings. Now he asks his team members to come really well prepared to the meetings, so that everyone could make a short presentation about their own reports and the action steps they have designed.
The dynamics of the meetings changed immediately to a more active and positive one. Everyone thought this was a good idea, and the leader, my client, was very happy when he dared to let go of the lecture mode and the control. He saved a lot of time and got his team involved and to own their results and the needed action steps.

They decided also to keep the "report" part as short as possible and concentrate on building their businesses, inspiring each other and planning the future together.

Where can you get your team more involved in their own work?

Enjoy the present moment

Today we celebrate the Midsummer festivals. It is a magical day when the day is actually longer than the night. The sun won t go down in the northern Finland, and even here in the south, we only have a couple of hours of dusk - like on a cloudy day. We Finns are used to the light, but tourists often forget to go to bed.

This summer is exeptional for our family, because we are not travelling together. The last five years in a row, we have been travelling around Europe. I love travelling, it is always exciting to explore new countries and places, but I absolutely adore my time here at home. For the first time in years I have a kitchen garden, and I sometime take my laptop out to work on the patio under a big birch with live music from all the birds.

Now it is the time to enjoy the summer, the warm and / or the rainy weather, all the bugs ( we have millions of them here ) without any worries about the holiday coming to an end, the beginning of the schools, cold and wet autumn and... ( gasp! ) the winter.
We Finns keep reminding each other of the days getting longer again and talking about the summer as if it already has ended. I promise myself to stay here and now, enjoy the summer, the light, the flowers and even all the bugs.

It is a perfect time to reload your batteries with energy, by resting, eating healthy and staying outdoors moving your body. I feel extremely inspired by all the rest and the beauty of the nature, so I reload my batteries by planning new and exciting programs for my clients. It is so fun and exciting that I almost can t fit into my skin.

I just love this time of the year......