Personal Productivity

How does the tired old joke go? The one about being too busy to attend a course on time management?

Actually, once upon a time when I was a spin doctor for Thames Valley Police I seem to recall I missed one such course because I was too busy - admittedly with some manner of murder and mayhem, but genuinely too busy!

No such argument when it came to attending Mike Jones' excellent Personal Productivity Programme for the foundation module which was held in Cirencester yesterday.

The training programme had come highly recommended by my Action Coach business guru Sally Rainbow-Ockwell and Carl Ullyatt of The Firepit Company (soon-to-be Carl Ullyatt of the Firepit Company fame). Sally has been using the techniques taught by Mike Jones for some 15 years and Carl did his course a couple of months ago and is positively evangelical about how it has transformed his life.

The headlines from the course would surely be about learning how much we over estimate the time we have available and consequently over schedule. Equally, most of us simply do not comprehend how much time is wasted through interruptions and how this of course impacts on what we achieve.

Once these key points are grasped and the Personal Productivity System becomes your diary, it is easy to see how much time you have available and you should no longer over schedule and take into account the likely interruptions - therefore actually giving yourself enough time to get things done!

There was also plenty of solid advice on how best to handle the ubiquitous deluge of email we all endure, through to the basics of filing the paper that still seems to be generated in this virtual age.

However, one of the most appealing parts of this course is the way that Mike - using his and our own Personal Productivity System - schedules a visit to see me at my office in one month - to see how I am getting on with utilising what I have learned. Then there will be another visit two months after that. How fabulous is that as an incentive not to add the various files and folders we have been given to the sedimentary layers on the rarely touched Training Manual Shelf.

His USP has more to it still though - after completing this course you are invited to take the foundation module again, at anytime in the future, for a nominal fee covering lunch. Sally has been doing this every year since she first encountered the system and calls it her 'spring clean' and I hope I do that too!

So I am committed to using this system and will give it my very best shot. My one hesitation is how much of a slave I am to Outlook that I do have concerns about just how well a paper-based system can replace the Calendar aspect of the programme nor do I want to find myself wasting time duplicating items - then again, if the techniques I learned yesterday deliver on their promise then I will have that time to waste!

Smoking Ban to Impact on Pets? Honestly!

Can you believe how the media lapped up a survey by the insurance company More Than on the impact the smoking ban will have on pets?

Sunday's broadcast media and Monday's print media were full of the 'startling' news that the smoking ban will lead to pets inhaling second hand smoke as smokers shun the pubs after the ban comes into place on July 1st and smoke at home instead.

Obviously these are all people where their local has yet to invest in a firepit from The Firepit Company (see Saturday's post below) but why is it buried in ever report that there are fears that children too could be exposed!

Surely the story is that children are at risk from the ban if irresponsible parents smoke around them instead of heading down the pub is the story? Or parents abandoning their children to go down the pub?

Sadly if you examine the similarity of the written reports it loudly smacks of lazy journalism reproducing press releases and not bothering to analyse if the right story is being written. Sometimes it is - Morgan PR delivers press releases that are already in the right format with the most important angle clearly represented.

From the Dark Side of PR a cynic might say those who might lobby against the ban would benefit from a story like this - or maybe the way is being paved for pet insurance to cover smoking related illnesses... or more likely exclude cover if a pet owner admits to smoking around the animal!

The Firepit Company has Smoking Ban Licked

Surely everyone is aware that the impending smoking ban in public places is looming ever closer with it becoming illegal to light up after July 1st this year.

As pubs and other venues scramble to find a solution to the ban - and try to interpret the new laws which seem to rule out anything immediately adjacent to the pub building - there is a local company here in the Thames Valley which has the answer.

I have written about The Firepit Company and its entreprenurial founder Carl Ullyat on other occasions but as that deadline draws ever closer things are really (brace yourself for intended pun...) hotting up for the business.

Originally the product, dubbed 'The Best Room in the House' was destined for the Great British garden, however the quality and appeal of the product is so much wider.

I spent this afternoon at one of The Firepit Company installations capturing images that will help illustrate the product to the hungry market. The easiest way to do this was for Carl to throw a barbecue and invite lots of friends who were happy to be snapped enjoying the delights of the the firepit.

Here are some of the images: