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Planning

Bathroom Design

Do you ever walk into a hotel bathroom and think, ‘ooh this is nice – roomy, nicely decorated, shower and a separate bath!’?

And then you start to use it and wonder what the designers were thinking?

Photo by Steven Ungermann on Unsplash

A vast expanse of wall to use but the toilet roll holder is put somewhere where you can’t easily reach it (usually behind you). Toilets wedged in close to the shower for no apparent reason. 

Towel holders are on the other side of the room to the bath/shower, even though there is ample wall space to have them closer.  I love staying at Mal Maison – they have lovely rooms and their bathrooms always look and feel luxurious. They do fall down on easy to reach towel holders.

Sinks are frequently designed to look good, but not to use.  At Champneys I had a lovely looking sink, however it was so wide that it took forever to fill as it was so wide.    Often you get those deep, but small square or oval sinks, with taps which come out so far into the bowl that you can’t  wash your face without headbutting the taps or hitting them with your hands.

Photo by Jennifer Latuperisa-Andresen on Unsplash

Then you get the taps that were not designed for the sink.  Taps that don’t reach far enough into the sink so that you can’t  wash your hands under running water.

When you re-do your own bathroom you probably spend ages looking at how best to maximise the space.  You have a good think about what you are going to need where, and how you will be using the space.

Is it me, or does this not seem to happen in hotel design?

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Task Overload

Ever had one of those days where, in your head, the number of tasks to complete appears to outweigh the time available?  We all go through this at some point, but how can you deal with it?

One option is ‘head in the sand’ and jut plough on its what your memory says needs doing first.

Another option is to take some time to review your tasks and review agains priority and ongoing tasks.

I recently went through this process and  ended up limiting all my clients and the amount of time I spend on them monthly.  I then added time for my own company admin and even time for lunch breaks.

This showed that, even allowing for travel time, I have enough time each week to do everything I need to.

This was good news for my panicked, overloaded mind.

My next step was to create a quick visual to show what work I can do and when.  This was only an high level view as, apart from a couple of clients who I visit on specific days, no week is the same.  

This has helped me come up with a strategy for planning my weeks.

In addition to this I use Asana to track all my tasks.  It is a great tool to use to help track projects, one off and repeating tasks.  It is also free to use or up to 10 members.

Having completed this review, and put a task tracker in place, I now feel that I can handle my current or load.  I also now have a way of identifying when the work load is becoming too much, and I need to get some help, before it becomes too stressful.

How do you plan and manage your time? Would love to know your top tips and apps that you use.

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Brain Meltdown

Some days you get home and just feel as though your brain is in meltdown.

Today was one of those days.

My first client today is a lovely lady who I visit once a month.  The main aim is to keep her up to date on dealing with her paperwork and supporting her to navigate a complicated financial situation and also sorting out care for her elderly relative.  Today’s challenge was to keep her on track.

Due to a family health scare, her mind was understandably elsewhere.  As usual I started by asking her what tasks were top of her priority list, and started working on these.

The first one was easy and soon dealt with.  The other was a bit more tricky. It involved confirming a seat on a flight and printing a boarding pass. Normally this is quite straight forward, however a strange alert came up when I tried to reserve the seat.  I rang the number on the site and soon all was sorted. I then went back in to print off the boarding pass. This time it showed the seats I had booked but still wouldn’t let me pass the seat reservation stage. Alarm bells started ringing.  My client then recalled an email she had received the day before saying that the flight had been cancelled. She had dismissed it as a scam email as the the email address didn’t look correct and there were numerous typing errors throughout the email.  Added to the fact that we could still go ahead and log on to confirm the flight, with no mention of cancellation, it was put down to being a scam.



Photo by Matteo Vistocco on Unsplash

We found another phone number and rang it.  This took us through to a a customer service centre and a lovely chap who confirmed that the flight had been cancelled and apologised that he could not rebook the ticket for the time that was needed.  He also took on board that the email looked fake, and gully explained the reason for the cancellation. Not much help for my client who was travelling for work, and could not rebook to a different destination.  I was more taken back by the fact that one part of the same company did not know that the flight had been cancelled.

After this the rest of the tasks were soon dealt with and I was soon on my way to my next meeting.

This I knew would be more challenging.

I have a mentee who is just starting up a business. The business idea is sound, and my mentee has a lot of experience in the area.  But my mentee is an over-thinker. If any scrap of doubt can creep in, it will. Our first meeting was quite intense – my mentee swinging from complete confidence to giving up her dream in the space of every twenty minutes or so.

This meeting was to discuss the content for her new website.  I had previously had a panicked telephone call the week before as my mentee became over anxious about what she was writing and again felt like giving up.  Twenty minutes later I had managed to calm her down and get her back on track. It was her desire to get everything right first time that was holding her back.  And if she couldn’t think of the perfect thing first time then she seemed to go into a spin and start questioning everything.

So it is fair to say that I was going to this meeting with a little trepidation. My mentee was all smiles and looking relaxed when I arrived. She produced the pagers of copy for her website and I started reading.  It was all good stuff – covered everything it needed to, from the background of the company to services and charges.

I was half way through the first page when it started.  A barage of questions and doubts and ‘is this right?, or should I change this?’ To be honest I really wanted to shout out ‘will you shut up and let me read?!’, but I thought better of it – the genteel patrons of a Waitrose coffee shop probably wouldn’t survive it.

By this point in the day I was tired and trying to concentrate on what I was reading, whilst being asked questions about sections I hadn’t read yet, just didn’t work. I stopped what I was doing. My brain stopped. I just stared at my mentee – paralysed by the amount of things I was being asked to do and not managing any of it.

A few moments later I was back in the room.  Putting my game face on and getting my mentee to calm down.  We calmly went through each area she was having issues with and came up with alternative wording, or put her fears to rest.  An hour and half later we said goodbye and went our separate ways.

When I got home I just felt exhausted.  My brain felt soft and mushy. I looked at the kettle – I knew what it did but had no idea how to use it.  How could this have happened to me? I have had days where I have been pulled in various different directions by different clients (and the same ones!) and had to field multiple interruptions, but never had I felt like this.  Part of me wanted to feel angry at my mentee. Surely if she has this amount of doubt on the finer points of her business then she won’t be able to sustain the business. Should I tell her to stop aiming for her dreams and go an get a job?  But her background and experience says differently. And the business idea she has is really good.

I resolved to put it down to experience.  I can’t expect all mentees, or clients, to be calm and not sweat the small stuff.  Or to realise that things can usually be changed in the future – websites updated when the perfect wording comes to mind, or business cards and flyers changed when the first batch runs out.  I just need to find a better way of dealing with this situation in the future.

My biggest issue now was to tend to my mushed brain and get myself back on track.  A task which involved something slightly stronger than a cup of tea.

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Getting Prepared

Do you spend enough time getting prepared?  Prepared for what? It could be the day ahead; the important client meeting, job interview, special occasion.  Anything. Or do you know these things are coming up but somehow end up spending less time preparing than you thought you would, or thought you needed?

 

I do a bit of both.  Usually successfully, but sometimes I sit there and go ‘oh damn, I really should have put a bit more effort into this’.  Sometimes events and situations that appear to be straight forward, turn out not to be and you have to think on your feet.  Or prepare in a different way.

 

I go to a lot of networking events and have prepare for each one, usually the day before, by writing my 60 seconds (if required), thinking about my goals for the meeting and making sure I have business cards with me.  Just occasionally neither of these actions happen. So what do I do? Well, being the daughter of two hoarders, I usually have a stash of business cards in my handbag and wallet and keep a box of them in the car. This last one has bailed me out on numerous occasions, and helped when a casual conversation in a queue, or at a social occasion, has led to some new business.

Getting Prepared
Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash

But what about not preparing for the meeting?  Well I do keep in my notebook a ‘stock’ 60 seconds that I can pull out and use.  In these situations I also hope that I can do my pitch half way round th group. That way I can pick up on themes or complimentary services that I can provide.  This also gives a double whammy of showing that i have listened to those before me , or understand the other skills in the group, and appreciate what they have to offer.

 

Some people are naturally good at preparing.  My partner prepares for meetings and events weeks in advance – planning out what he needs to do each day to get ready.  I find myself both in awe and dismay of this at the same time. However, whatever he is doing, he always does it well. Fail to plan, plan to fail as the old adage goes.

 

My problem with planning is that I used to plan for everything.  I had a reputation for being prepared for things, but also felt this made me come across as inflexible – as though if circumstances changed at the last minute I resented the change after all the effort I had put in.  I realised that even if you put a lot of effort into planning, most people don’t realise or appreciate it. I spent a long time trying to free myself up to e able to ‘go with the flow’ and just enjoy whatever happens next.  Be in the moment. Enjoy the moment.

 

So now I am in a weird no-mans land of being mostly prepared and occasionally not, but then making the most of each situation.  Some days I find this refreshing and congratulate myself on how I did. Some days I give myself a good telling off, and promise to do better next time.

 

Where are you on the preparedness scale?

 

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