I am regularly asked what is the secret to doing everything I do with the various professional and personal activities . Besides the gift of ubiquity :), the secret really lies in the organization of personal and professional tasks.
When you are an entrepreneur, creator or business manager , you do not rely on 8am or 9am to 5pm days. We tell ourselves that there are 24 hours in a day and it's not always enough sometimes :)
Personally, I am passionate in everything I do (work, cooking, music, etc.) and love to create but I try to find a balance between the personal and the professional .
The secret is to set life habit goals . We know that habits that are forced at the beginning become a lifestyle and an automatism over time! According to the "European Journal of Social Psychology" ( see details of the study here ), habits that are a little forced at the start, take about 3 months to become real habits . It was thought before that it took rather about 3 weeks before this study which dates from 2009.
You can set and follow your lifestyle habits in different ways:
- A notebook or dedicated paper diary with your objectives to follow up on them
- an excel spreadsheet or google sheet (see example in photo above) which allows you to follow your personal and professional objectives
- an app on your phone or tablet that lets you track your habits and other information like a logbook
When I started tracking my lifestyle habits, I realized that, for example, I spent 7 hours a week on social networks. It didn't really add value to me except for work and product marketing. So I reduced this time to put it on other more essential things like walking outside at lunchtime or other activities with the children.
It may seem very formatted or calculated but that does not mean that we achieve all the objectives and that there is no room for spontaneity . But we try to be as organized as possible to achieve personal or professional goals .
So do not hesitate to start today , you will see a difference and realize the time you spend for each personal or professional activity . This could allow you to refocus on the things that matter most to you in relation to the goals you have set for yourself!
I tried different solutions for tracking and in the end , while waiting for the ZEBOSS mobile application in development :) I use a very simple google sheet and a google task for professional tasks for customers.
Here is my dream app that we are building at Nuage365 :
- Have a kind of personal and professional CRM with all the contacts, family, friends, colleagues, suppliers, materials, cars, etc...
- Be able to log personal and professional activities and link them to contacts or others
- Add and track habits and goals
- Manage tasks and their recurrence
- Have a dashboard with the details of the day (work appointment, children, sports, etc.)
- Manage expenses and budget
- Manage nutrition and sports activities
- Manage physical constants for oneself or for one's children or others
- Website links that interest you by categories
- Integrated articles and advice on management, leadership
- etc
In the end, here are examples of what can be interesting to have in a logbook:
Personal side:
- When one of your children is sick, indicate it in the logbook, how long he was sick, symptoms, medication, etc... In the medium term, this helps you remember what happened at this moment
- Your pool supplier charged you $140 last year to close your pool before winter and now this year they are charging you $450. Looking at the activity history on this supplier, you notice it and say, weird you are charging me $310 more (experienced fact :) )
- Manage your budget and have a vision of future balances based on upcoming expenses, etc.
Pro side:
- Prioritize your daily tasks on your various professional projects
- Have a personal knowledge base on different topics or by category
- When you meet prospects, resources, etc., you can indicate notes or comments with attached files
Do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions , either on my linkedin , or in the contact section Zeboss , or on the website of my company Nuage365 Inc. !
Looking forward to chat with you !!
Dominica
