TIME JUGGLER

[Karan]:  I was asked yesterday how, as a mother of two very young children, and a business owner, did I manage my time: how did I get everything done? 

I would hasten to point out that the question could have been equally asked of Ian, as a father of two young children and a business owner; as the dilemma is ours together and not mine alone.  Ian struggles as much as I do to make and find quality time with the children, whilst also focusing on our ambitions for the business.  Needless to say it's far from easy.

My answer to Claire's question yesterday began with me telling her I've given up on the crazy sleep habit I had become accustomed to prior to having children, and prior to our business really moving up a gear, and beginning to grow significantly. 

I then explained that, as I'm more productive in the morning, that I will get up as early as necessary to complete important tasks before "The Stuff of Days" kicks in.  By getting up early and before everyone else, I am able to apply concentrated effort for 90 minutes (2 hours maximum) - without interruption or distraction - and get a whole lot more done, as it really focuses the mind.  If you follow the principle that work will expand to fill the time available, you have to limit the time available with deadlines; and then stick to them!

I have learnt many new and more effective ways of working this year, thanks in no small part to Nigel Botterill, but one of my favourite methods is the following.  If you have a task to complete in e.g.: seven days, ask yourself this: if I had to complete this task in four days, or I would die, could it be done?  If the answer is "yes, but I'd have to work really hard, rescheduled this, postpone that and not watch TV for four days" well then, do it!  Nigel doesn't do flowery, but this method really works.  And remember, there's no point cheating, as you're only cheating yourself.  Push yourself harder and you'll be amazed by the outcome. 

The more routine and not-so-important tasks of the day can then be completed amongst "The Stuff of Days" like impromptu telephone calls and meetings etc.  I tend to leave the easier and not so brain-draining matters for the afternoon, when my energy levels are beginning to wane.  I do tend to have a second wind after the kids have gone to bed, but if I'm going to be up, about and productive early next day, there's no point burning the midnight oil.  But I do, as the routine and domestic stuff takes time too.

Claire and I swapped notes about how our houses aren't as clean as we'd like them, how in an ideal world we'd like more food in the fridge and who had the tallest pile of ironing.  At the moment Claire and I seem to be trading the same stuff, because with only one of us each, not everything gets done; we're prioritising on a day-to-day basis.  Throw in Christmas and we're both running around like our hair's on fire.  It can't all be done.  There are only 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week, and unless we're going to be cloned for Christmas, something's gotta give. 

Consider the VALUE of one of your working hours.  You can probably work out your hourly rate easily enough, but what value has it for you?  I attended a BNI meeting recently where a self-employed book keeper stood up and presented a case study: in essence, she had earned her client £10,000.  How?  By paying his book keeper £120 for keeping his books (funnily enough) and completing his quarterly VAT return, the client was able to dedicate his time to doing what he did best; sales and marketing.  As a result he was free to be in the right place at the right time to handle a sales enquiry that eventually became a £10,000 sale.  Would Claire's and my time be better spent growing our businesses and paying another entrepreneur to conquer the south face of our ironing piles, or ensuring we're not knee deep in dust when we get home?

Of course there is the expense of hiring someone to clean, iron and book-keep for you, but is it a false economy not to?  What else could you be doing, whilst this is being done for you?  Could these services be effectively earning you money, whilst assisting the growth of your business?  These are questions I am going to ask myself early in the New Year, as we have big plans for 2011 - which is going to take a lot of my time and energy - and I'm not going to allow pesky laundry to sabotage them! 

SCRABBLE'S LIFE LESSONS

My name is Karan and I love playing Scrabble.  They say the first step to recovery is admitting that you have a problem, although I don't see this as a problem; it's only some other people who think I'm uncool; but their opinion of me is none of my business, is it?

I generally play online, as it allows me to play with far flung friends and family, in addition to random strangers who may, or may not, become regular Scrabble buddies.  I love words (you may have noticed) and I love the challenge, whilst keeping my brain and vocabulary well exercised.  It's not as cool as being plugged into an Xbox 360 I grant you, but I don't care, as I'm learning new words all the time.

Recently I was involved in two games simultaneously, which were nearing the end, and both results were looking bleak for me.  In fact, I was certain I'd lose these games, as I had a single low scoring tile left in both games, and absolutely no opportunity on the board to place them well and win.  It crossed my mind fleetingly to forfeit both games, to save time, but my opponents both had their penultimate turns to take, before my seemingly inevitable loss.

Following the dictum "Don't quit. Ever. Do. Not. Quit", I decided to play on, hoping my opponents would hit the "Forfeit" icon themselves - in error if nothing else - stranger things have happened at sea.  And this is where Scrabble taught me a life lesson: as both opponents laid down their penultimate tiles they created an opportunity for me.  I now had somewhere to put my single low scoring tiles, which was basically at the end of the words they had just created.  Both single low scoring tiles landed on Double Word Score squares, which meant that I won both games, unexpectedly and from nowhere, by one single point, and within minutes of each other.  I laughed.

What I took from this bizarrely timed experience is this: in business you can never second guess what your opponents and competitors are going to do; in some ways it's none of your business what they do - you have to play your own game with confidence, until the end.  Don't quit. Ever. Do. Not. Quit.  Your opponents may make mistakes and create opportunity for you.  They may even be successful and create opportunity for you; you never can tell.  All that you can do is be patient, persevere, and actually be around to pounce on the possibilities when they eventually present themselves.  I'd have lost these games if I had quit, but I always had a chance (that led to eventual triumph) whilst I was still in the game.  Losing is not inevitable and you always have to play to win despite the odds.

If anyone fancies a game of Scrabble with me, please let me know via our Facebook page as I'll play anyone - but I'm obviously going to play to the death and would expect you to, too!  May the best uncool Scrabble geek win!

SHOWING MY AGE!

[Karan]:  Our daughter, Mia (aged 7), thinks dinosaurs roamed the earth when I was at school, and once asked me what we used before cars were invented, when I was little.  I kid you not.  It's a bloody good job you can't sell kids on eBay, is all I can say!  Cheeky little Minx.

I am keen to point out that I wasn't born in the Mesozoic, or any other prehistoric era for that matter, but I am a child of the 1970's; which is feeling more and more like the Mesozoic era the older I get.  To make matters worse, I saw an online article recently celebrating all the "must have" toys of my bygone age, and Mia took pity on me as though I was neglected as a child or something.  What I have tried to explain to Mia is that SIMON was our version of her Nintendo DS, and I was thrilled when I got it for Christmas in 1978: my parents may have lived to regret their repetitively noisy present choice, but I most certainly didn't.

Another of my all time greatest presents was the Stylophone.  Now, as a mother of two rampant and rambunctious children, I can only assume that my parents were clinically insane to have given this to me in 1976 - what were they thinking?!  Have you heard the God awful noise this contraption creates?  For those of you denied the special privilege of having heard the special tunes created by a tame Stylophone, I can only describe it as sounding like a bag of cats being slammed against a wall.  But I loved it as it allowed me to be "creative" - along with my banging wooden spoons on pots, pans and my brother!

My deepest regret, the one thing I always wanted but never got was the Raleigh Chopper bike, complete with a gear lever.  My friend Simon Hodge had a red one and I coveted it unashamedly, but I was bought a girlie Flyer instead (no, I hadn't heard of one until then either) - a brown one at that - BROWN?!  No nine year-old child asks for a brown bike, and you should see the groovy haircut I had at the time when photographed on said brown bike.  No, I'm not showing you.  The Raleigh Chopper was the epitome of a bike, it was the ultimate - you were somebody if you had a Chopper - everyone was your friend, mostly so they could get a ride on your bike.  I didn't get any requests to ride my brown Flyer [sniff].

May I also take this opportunity to register my utter disgust that when the Chopper was relaunched a few years ago it was sans gear lever - how could they do that?!  I know why they did that; on Health 'n' Safety grounds, but we children of the 70's survived, and there's nothing (much) wrong with us...I heard that!

My brother and I were not in the least bit neglected at Christmas, whatever Mia may think; we had great Christmas', where our parents went all out for a wonderful day, with great food, mountains of presents and our family around us.  Our parents subjected themselves to hours, days, weeks and months of Stylophonic Greensleeves, because that's what parents do at Christmas, isn't it?  It's in the children's charter that they are required, by law, to be noisy and rampant on Christmas Day, so that their parents are fraught and exhausted husks by nightfall. 

Stand by your beds fellow parents, the day is almost upon us.  This is where our own parents laugh at the memories of how we used to be, and delight in the deliciousness of karma, as our ears ring from the cacophony and our last nerve strains to hold out: I'm looking forward to it already.  Good luck people and please remember me fondly.

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN!

[Karan]:  And no, I don't mean Christmas.  Of course it is Christmas soon, (however hard I try and deny it), but what I mean is: it's that time of year when [gasp] it snows!

It never ceases to amaze me how this country comes grinding to a standstill at the first glimpse of snow.  Already we have had news reporters dispatched to Hemel Hempstead so they can crouch in the snow to show us how deep it is.  Already three major airports have closed, with no news as to when they might re-open, whilst disappointing thousands of travellers.  I've still to hear the AA advise us only to travel if it's important, but I'm sure that little nugget is on it's way soon.  Politicians have been "braving it into Westminster" to ensure our stocks of salt are adequate to keep the country moving, whilst my TV is now covered in muesli at the nonsense of it all.

I'm now sitting here, having threaded my way carefully into work this morning because the roads are icy, and fully anticipating having to collect my daughter from school before lunch, because the current snow flurry is expected to drift and the school must close!  How in God's name do they cope in Alaska, Russia and Norway - let's find out and copy what they do, because I'm pretty sure their schools don't close, their trains still run and their airports remain open, always. 

We have a serious obsession with the weather in this country, but whatever the weather may throw at us, it leaves us bemused and often times, scuppered with the wrong kind of rainfall (!) or leaves on the line.  In summer the very same news reporters were crouching next to a melting road surface, whilst the rest of us were unable to refresh our scorched patches of earth due to a hosepipe ban.  It's the current snow that really amuses me.  If we lived in Barbados, snow would be a genuine surprise, but we don't and it shouldn't be.  Have you noticed that the phrase "global warming" is always substituted at this time of year for "climate change".  Climate change my arse, it's winter, it snows; we just all need to be grown ups and learn how to adapt better, rather than be caught out by what we know is coming.

I saw a television programme earlier this week about the snow, road gritting and the likelihood that the UK will run out of salt before spring arrives.  A comment was also made that to import the salt we need is very expensive "at this time of year".  Hmmm, okay, well what can we learn from this?  Well, in the UK it snows in winter.  We experience winter weather from November to February EVERY YEAR, so why not buy/import salt in June when it's cheaper, hello?! 

As for melting road surfaces, I'll leave that for the engineers to work out, but perhaps they could observe how the roads in Arizona and Melbourne survive their searing temperatures.  There is a solution to every problem, and we in the UK need to respond better to what happens to us, rather than react.  And can the media please stop whipping these issues into more than they really are or need to be; it's only snow: keep calm and carry on!  

That is all.