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time managment

Do You Need to Fire that Client? Your Peace of Mind May Thank You For It

2012-01-07 By Monica 4 Comments

Peace of Mind

“Real Peace of mind has no ups and downs; it cannot be partial in adversity and whole in prosperity.” ~Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Do you have a client that continually drains your energy and saps your peace of mind?

It can happen in many different ways, including clients that don’t respect your time, are hypercritical, have unrealistic expectations, or by just generally being a difficult person. These clients, while maybe well meaning, may not be worth their overall cost to you or your business.

I once had a client that met all the criteria above. She would call, text, or email requests and questions at all hours of the day and night, including weekends. There was always some emergency, something frantic that needed to be completed right away. Her problems quickly became my problems. If I didn’t respond immediately, a text or email was often quickly followed by a phone call asking why I hadn’t responded yet.

At first, I tried to accommodate the requests even when I was spending time with my daughter, at the gym, or trying to take some of my very little time off. It became clear that these continuous interruptions were hurting my overall productivity, service to my other clients, and my personal and family time.

I tried to establish boundaries, setting up times to respond to requests during normal  business hours but the requests kept coming. It got to the point where every time my phone chirped with a new message, I would cringe.  I felt trapped, after all, I was trying to build a business, I needed to be responsive.

When I took a weekend off and was relaxing and walking along the beach on New Year’s Eve, I received a text message with some requests and questions from said client. I realized right there and then that the cost of having this client was too high for me personally, my peace of mind, and my overall business. I finally made the decision to fire that client. Immediately, I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

If you have a client like this that saps your energy, constantly pulls your attention away from your path, doesn’t respect your time or abilities, or worse, consider the following:

1.) Set boundaries – it’s easier to do this from the beginning but it’s always worth a try later on as well.

2.) Realize you can’t please all the people all the time – that’s an old saying but is so true. Some clients, no matter how hard you try, will always want more.

3.) Communicate – try voicing your issues and concerns with the client.

4.) Try shifting your own energy – if you are difficult or disregarding your own time, your clients will too.

And if those things don’t work, consider firing that client. Your peace of mind, your business, your family, and your bottom line will thank you for it.

Have you had difficult clients? What solutions did you try and did they work? Share your thoughts below.

Filed Under: Career Tagged With: balance, boundaries, business, client, difficult, fire, goals, life, life purpose, people, success, time managment, work

Finding Focus in a World Full of Distractions

2011-07-08 By Monica Leave a Comment

Finding Your Focus“Our thoughts create our reality — where we put our focus is the direction we tend to go.” ~ Peter McWilliams

Finding focus may be the biggest challenge individuals face in our time. Information streams non-stop from our radios, televisions, computer, social media sites, and our mobile phones. With this almost never-ending noise, it’s no surprise that many of us feel stressed and overwhelmed at times, wondering how we will ever keep up with everything. The truth is, we can’t.

Pablo Picasso said it best, “Without great solitude no serious work is possible.” We all need time away from the noise, time to reflect and time to create. In Leo Babauta’s new book, focus he says, “Our ability to focus will allow us to create in ways that perhaps we haven’t in years. It’ll allow us to slow down and find peace of mind. It’ll allow us to simplify and focus on less — on the essential things, the things that matter most.”

In focus, Leo, author of one of my favorite blogs, Zen Habits, goes on to give ways to simplify your life and schedule, and find a greater focus. A few of these include:

  • Disconnect: Find time each day, and possibly for an entire day or week, to just disconnect from technology.
  • Separate your day into times for creating and times for consuming and and communicating, “and never the twain shall meet.”
  • Develop focus rituals such as morning quiet time or starting off the day by putting together a simple to-do list.
  • Clear distractions: remove unnecessary distractions from your work environment, and from your life. We got rid of cable television almost a year ago and have no regrets, we can still watch movies occasionally without a television being on all the time.
  • Only use email during pre-set times, constantly checking your email and responding to others is a time and energy drain. Establish set times for this task and communicate it to others so they know when you will respond.
  • Simplify, simplify, simplify – Just like Thoreau used to say, simplifying your life will make it easier, more enjoyable, and allow room for you to focus on the important things.
  • Do work that excites you – When you wake up in the morning, think about the things you need to do and allow yourself time to work on those projects that excite you.

What things do you do to help you focus? What are the challenges you face?

Filed Under: Do More in Less Time Tagged With: Age of Information, attention, distractions, focus, habits, Leo Babauta, purpose, simplify, stress, technology, time, time managment, work, zen

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