I Quit!

Last month I double booked my B&B…in the 12 years we have been running, it hasn’t happened before and I have no idea how, given my somewhat flimsy systems! Truth is, it was a very long-term booking that didn’t get transferred from my 2017 to 2018 calendar, and with it came personal mortification, disappointed clients and a good dose of humility!

I often find myself responding to B&B queries in the midst of my consulting work,

and I’ve always believed I’m able to multitask; in fact it gives me a bit of a buzz!

Now that I understand a little of the brain science, I know that my brain is not truly multitasking, but rather flipping from one task to the other and so many of our jobs require that. It struck me when waiting for a client the other day that even the receptionist was fielding calls, while responding to emails and greeting clients – it’s not the advantage of one thing at a time!

I was reminded of what a coaching client of mine refers regularly to what we need to ‘start, stop and continue’. He’s an analytical brain and I think it’s a useful model for reflecting both in the workplace and without.

Similarly there’s an idea that really hit me earlier this year and that is a ‘quitting list’.

“A quitting list is simply a list of things you declare NO to from here on out, to make space for the good things in your life, so you live with intention.”

Admittedly there are only so many things you are able to quit, without being fired or absolving yourself of all your responsibilities! But I think there are things that each of us is able to effect some influence over, to improve our quality of life.

So what have I/will I quit doing?

• I quit keeping social media open when I need to write or design
• I have quit scheduling coaching sessions within half an hour of each other, simply because Cape Town traffic will no longer allow it, and I arrive in a state of mind far from what I wish for my client
• I have quit accepting jobs (okay one so far!) that I think are not going to excite me and which are not going to reward me at a fair rate
• I am working towards feeling incredibly guilty for tiring more easily and needing more sleep than I used to. It has some medical justification but I need my sleep and I need a lot of it!

There are several more I want to quit, like the double bind of having a  home office and veering in there at weekends/ on public holidays, but let me leave you with one question;

What do you need to stop or ‘quit’ doing?

Share your ideas with us;