• But It’s Quicker To Do It Myself! The Four Stages Of Delegation
  The problem is that very few folk have formal training in delegation and management. Many lurch along, doing their best, often overwhelmed by their own work as well as the needs of their people. They try not to feel resentful at the time it takes to train others. And farming, especially on smaller farms, is such an individual and personal pursuit that it brings another set of challenges.
• How To Hire The Right People
  Some years ago we needed a new part-time administrator. As soon as the paper hit the streets an enthusiastic young woman I’ll call Sue was on the phone. My retiring administrator and I were so impressed with her apparent skills, CV and attitude we didn’t even bother to interview any others, and engaged her with no hesitation.
• SaveTime With Electronic Signatures
  Signatures save time, help promote your business and prevent frustration for your email readers. Your email (or digital) signature is a great shortcut. It's a pre-recorded signature, inserting with a click the words of your choice. In Outlook this neat feature is accessed through Tools, Options, Mail Format, Signatures and then just follow the wizard.
• How to Have Less Email in Your Inbox and get Home Earlier
  Every moment we spend on a repetitious event that could be automated is a moment that could be allocated to something more useful, including leaving work earlier or not taking work home. Email is one such daily task with huge automating functionality – but many folk don’t know how.
• Beware – Email Can Steal Your Best Time
  What work task do you start the day with? Is it email? Many of us think ‘I’ll just get this out of the way and then I’ll be clear for the big jobs.’ And then what happens? Have you noticed that email seems to take on a life of its own? I had another excellent reminder of this the other day. Even though I teach people to start on the important tasks first, I too sometimes get seduced by the lure
• A Smorgasbord of Handy E-mail Hints
  You may have heard people talk about email threads. This means keeping the subject alive, usually with the same subject header. You’ll find it a great way to keep the sense of a discussion. However, there are a few simple techniques to make sure it is truly useful.
• 23 Simple Strategies To Keep You Sane, Happy & Healthy
  "I teach time management because I used to be bad at it! My path has taken some interesting turns. First I was a librarian, then a farmer's wife and mother of six (including an intellectually handicapped foster son). Successful people know when to say ‘no’; how to recharge their batteries; what and when to delegate; and how to be a strategic thinker.
• Why do We Work Such Long Hours?
  Awhile back I was running a series of seminars all around New Zealand for small business owners on behalf of the National Bank. A recurring theme is how to work less hours. Some are doing it, some are looking for ways to do it, others think they’re locked in and have no choice but to work crazy hours.
• What Is Work?
  A couple of weeks back Mike and I took a holiday to the Wairarapa, one New Zealand’s top Pinot Noir wine regions. Because the year’s activities have well and truly started I couldn’t completely ignore business, so on four of those seven days, for an hour or so each time, you’d have found Robyn and trusty laptop tucked away somewhere – in a pretty Bed & Breakfast
• How to Stretch Time - 24 Hours Is Enough!
  As I participated some years back in a live-to-air TV training session on Time Management a caller rang in with a question. He was in the computer industry, and wanted to know how he could balance his heavy and demanding workload with the demands of a young family. The question lingers in my mind - for a large sector of society it is a serious matter.
• How to Keep all the Balls in the Air - Managing Work and Home
  Does it sometimes get all too hard? You've just had a long weekend, or a good holiday, and your heels drag reluctantly back to work. You wish the holiday could go on forever. On the first morning back you wave your family goodbye as they head into their day, and long for the opportunity to spend more time with them. Or you put aside your special passion, lay down your paintbrush
• Are You Wearing Too Many Hats?
  We constantly hear the work/life balance drum being beaten these days. Do you sometimes wonder if you’ll ever stumble across that mystical Holy Grail of perfect life balance? Or does it seem like something that only happens for others? If life is too busy, maybe it’s time to step back and evaluate. Are you trying to fit too much into every day, every week? How many hats are you wearing?
• How to Decide What to Do Next
  Many of the problems caused by information overload stem from trying to absorb and retain too much. Learn to be selective about what you expose yourself to. The people who feel most overwhelmed often have a belief that they need to keep up with every new advance in their field, keep up with every relevant magazine, attend every conference, hold onto every article
• How to always have a tidy office (or house, or garage!)
  I learnt something as I unpacked my bags recently. I'd just returned from a 3-day trip to regional towns around New Zealand. I pulled out some items I needed immediately and then caught myself thinking, 'I'll finish unpacking later.' With a brief flutter of resistance my procrastinating self crept back into her hole. Within five minutes the job was done, the room was tidy
• How to be an effective chairperson
  How many poorly run meetings have you attended? Ever noticed a chairperson who uses their position to grandstand and bulldoze their own agenda, leaving battered and silenced colleagues grumbling into their teacups in the corridor. I'm sure some people think that's their right as a chairperson, especially when they're the boss. However, there are infinitely more effective ways
• Not Another Meeting!
  As I write, the tree outside my window is laden with a flock of multi-coloured rainbow lorikeets. They're having a meeting - is it to discuss the quality of their breakfast, to show off their beautiful orange waistcoats, have a chat about the wet weekend, or because the boss lorikeet said 'Every Monday morning we have to have a meeting'?
• Key Points for Effective Meetings
  "I teach time management because I used to be bad at it! My path has taken some interesting turns. First I was a librarian, then a farmer's wife and mother of six (including an intellectually handicapped foster son). Next I was a solo mother on government benefits. A huge amount of money and time is wasted with unproductive and poorly run meetings, and yet they fill a vital role in modern communic
• Who Controls The Interruptions?
  Have you ever come into work bright and sharp, the work at your desk beckons invitingly, you can't wait to get started, and then the day turns to muck? One thing after another claims your attention; the rest of the world is clearly in conspiracy against your productivity, and at the end of the day you collapse into an untidy heap of exhausted humanity.
• Which Diary or Planner Should I Use?
  For medium to large organisations there are many wonderful time-savers in using a LAN (Local Area Network) and software such as Outlook or Lotus Notes to schedule meetings, turn e-mails into tasks and more. However, I find most companies miss major efficiency opportunities by not training their staff on the fine points of their programmes. Either hire a specialist trainer to run
• Time-Saving Computer Keystrokes
  Some people become almost orgasmic at the thought of yet another new tool, toy, or wizzbang superdooper hooseymaflickit youknowwhat. Mainly, they're young enough to have grown up with the wealth of electronic devices and modern computers and software that populate our world. Or, they’re older but adventurous Early Embracers of technology.
• Time Management? What’s the Guts of It?
  I’ve been there, and worse. Once I’d started to conquer my own bad habits, I was the most surprised when people began asking me for help. Over the last 12 or more years that help has evolved into work with many industry sectors, including agriculture.
• The Magic of Chunking - How to Break the Job into Bite-Size Pieces
  Have you ever looked at a task, shaken your head and walked away feeling overwhelmed? And then you’ve beaten yourself up for procrastinating? Many times the sense of overwhelm is because you didn’t chunk the task out. The good news is – it’s easy to fix.
• That's The Way We Do It Round Here
  I ran an extended time management programme with a rapidly expanding and very successful international security company. One session centered on time challenges. A junior member of staff wanted help on how to reduce the pressure of a routine data-collection and report-creation task, which has been done by the company since Adam was a cowboy.
• Procrastinate! – Who, Me?
  I regularly ask participants at speeches and workshops what their big issues are, and procrastination always rears its ugly head. But – is it always ugly? Did you know there’s such a thing as creative procrastination? In this article, let’s poke a stick at the topic, and see if we can’t find some new angles.Procrastination is not the key problem with time management
• How We Process Time
  We fit broadly into one of two styles when it comes to processing time - we're either in-time or through-time. The in-timers, bless their socks, are great at being fully present, totally in the moment (which is why this style is called in-time, not because they're punctual!), but challenged at getting places or completing tasks on time. For them, it seems efficient to fit in 'one more thing'
• How We Process Time
  Have you ever heard something explained for the first time and gone ‘Yes, that makes sense?’ I believe that we each have access to the collective knowledge and wisdom of the world, but don’t know what we know until the words fall across our ears, in front of our eyes, or we experience something that clicks intuitively.
• How to Read More and Faster
  In any large major metropolitan weekend paper today we receive more material in one weekend than the majority of people living in the 1700's would have had access to in their entire lifetime (apart from the rich and well-educated). So don't be surprised that you constantly feel overwhelmed! Although our understanding of the human brain and our ability to live in a world of dramatic
• How to Manage a Busy Workload
  Has it ever happened that when the summer holidays have disappeared in a hot ball of sun, you catch yourself saying: ‘It can’t be that close to the next holidays already! I’m still catching up with the ‘beginning of year’ backlog!’ Or perhaps you’re one of the truly organised ones, who never feels behind-hand. If so, this article is not for you. We’re going to talk about strategies to cope
• How Long Does it Take to Become Efficient?
  Efficiency is a life-long discipline, and not everyone has it, or can learn it. Some people are naturally efficient and disciplined. Others are not – they need constant supervision by someone who has it. If you’ve got a staff member who needs that extra level of supervision, you have to always know what they’ve got on, keep an eye on their work, make sure that they do what’s required
• Have You Got A Minute? - Interruptions, the Bane of Our Life
  I teach time management because I used to be bad at it! My path has taken some interesting turns. First I was a librarian, then a farmer's wife and mother of six (including an intellectually handicapped foster son). Next I was a solo mother on government benefits. A few long years later I climbed out of the poverty trap (with a dabble in tourism along the way) and become a very successful

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