Party planning made easy – How to be a great host without even trying

September 6, 2010 Leave a Comment

Party PlanningSome people panic at the idea of hosting a party or having guests over to stay. Worse still, some people don’t put in any effort at all and think they’re doing a great job. Even more infuriatingly, some of those people (supposedly not putting in any effort at all) are actually the best hosts ever. Well, I want to investigate what it takes to be one of them.

First basic step to dinner party planning: Have a clean house. Not fastidiously clean to the point of obsessive compulsive disorder. Just clean. Actually clean. You don’t want to have to do dishes before your guest can have a drink. That can be kind of uncomfortable for the guest and annoying for you. But, moving a newspaper from the table after they turn up is alright, you know? You still have to live in the house.

Now, you need to be able to offer your guests nice things to break the ice. Tea, coffee, fizzy drinks, juice, cordial, wine, beer or something even more interesting. Your call – just have something available. The more choice the better. And be generous! If they drink all your wine they’ll probably bring a bottle to share next time if they’re nice. Same goes for nibblies: Cheese and crackers, olives, bread, chocolate biscuits. Offer whatever you have and put it on the table. You can always put it away later if it’s not eaten. Relax. The magic trick with drinks and nibblies is to prepare early. Buy things well before you think anyone will be dropping in and don’t eat them in the meantime! The next magic trick is to make everyone feel at ease by ensuring it looks like no effort at all to put on a nice snack and drink for everyone. The only thing I can say there is if you are prepared it will feel easier. So, just be prepared. Easy!

Right, well now we’ve got your guests onto nibbles and drinks it’s worth thinking about a meal. Again, preparation is the most important thing. If they turned up spontaneously then they’ll be less trouble than if you invited them deliberately, since spontaneous guests don’t really expect to be fed a real meal. So, you’re doing great if you can offer a meal.

For all meals though, consider any dietary requirements. Have you got any vegetarians? Any wheat intolerant people? Diabetics? Chilli intolerant? Get the details before you start cooking. If they are unable to eat something in particular they may offer to help you to come up with something they can eat. Something vegetarian or very light on meat could work especially well if you are on a budget. If they turned up unannounced it is perfectly reasonable to say “I have nothing to eat. Let’s order pizza”. They’ll get over it. They’re your friends.

While you’re cooking, make sure that there’s ample nibbles on the table, drinks are topped up and some appropriate music is on in the background. In fact, continue topping up drinks, replacing nibbles and ensuring the music is appropriate until the night is over. Music is something you’ll have to adapt to the crowd, but generally put on something quiet that the people there like. If you have no idea what people will like then something quiet and hopefully without lyrics is probably best. So, jazz or lounge music (fairly quietly) is great. Because, unless you want this to turn into a raging, drunken party it’s probably best to avoid your favourite 80s collection of stuff people want to sing along to. No, really it is.

So, we have the basics covered. People are eating and drinking and having a good time at your place. But what if you have the chance to plan who is coming? Who do you invite? Well, start by deciding who the important people are. Who have you been meaning to see for ages? Start with them. Do they have a partner? Add the partner. Right, what does the partner do? Hobbies? Work? Whatever? Who out of your friends (or your partner’s friends) might get along with them? Invite them and their partner. What do they and their partner do? What do they like? Who might get along with them? Etc. Etc. Now, which of your friends are good at getting along with just about anyone? Maybe invite them too. And add a partner. Get it? Easy!

You might want to mix it up a little more by having a part of the evening dedicated to a particular activity and invite anyone interested in that, ie games night, wine and cheese night or a cocktail party. Invite anyone interested in said activity and ensure a few of your “social glue” socialite friends are definitely coming. Put less thought into the people and more though into the activity if this is what you’re doing.

So, now we get to the end of the night. Is anyone unable to get home? If you have people staying there are a few nice things you can remember to do. This could be the unplanned “too drunk to drive” stay or it could be (in another style of scenario entirely) having rellies over for a week. And again, it all comes down to planning things that can be ready long before you even know there’s someone coming over. This is far easier with a guest room. If you are without a guest room then at least make sure you have a space with some blankets or a sleeping bag for each of your guests. Not many people mind being left fending for themselves in the morning as long as they can easily get a shower, breakfast and leave if they require. So, put a list of things people might need to know on the side of the fridge and/or in the guest room. Let them know where the towels are. List any quirks of the house that might hinder them from flushing the toilet or getting out the front door, etc. Make sure they know if any of the clocks in the house are wrong. Let them know how to use your washing machine. Let them know where to find breakfast food and bowls. Make sure your phone numbers are listed so they can write it down and call if they forget to take something home.

The rest of this is really dependent on how long they are staying and how well they already know your area. If they’re staying a while, then give them a key to the house! Your phone numbers are even more important for longer term guests – just in case they get lost or want some advice. Let them know a little about the local area too, like where to find the bus stop and shops. If you’re really good, you might get a copy of the bus timetable for them or info on where to hire a car. If you’re an angel then you might lend a car or a bike. But no-one expects you to be that good. Other info people might want if they’re staying a while could be on the location of parks, swimming pools, beaches, dry cleaners, takeaway places, pubs, libraries, theatres, movie hire places, cafes and night clubs etc. If they’re from far away they might even want some info about sightseeing in the wider surrounding area. Oh, and if they’re even the teensiest bit geeky they’ll love to know passwords and details for your wireless network or computer so they can get online. Handy hint: If you’re renting a house out it’s a good idea to write a similar list for your tenants too!

Having guests over regularly is a great way to avoid the TV, generally slow your life down and stay in touch with your favourite people, so being ready and willing to host small dinner parties is a talent that goes a long way towards a great life.

Basically, if your guests are self sufficient they will feel more comfortable and won’t be relying on you to entertain them and look after them all the time. You will be more relaxed and reassured that they are happy and entertained. It’s not rocket science. It’s just a teensy bit of planning. Get organised!

Image Credit: Bob Walker

Filed under Bootstrap #1: Survive & Build, Budget, Frugal, Happiness, Home life, Organisation, Quality of Life Tagged with

8 to be great!

August 27, 2010 Leave a Comment

Richard St. John gave a TED speech which summarised how to be successful perfectly in under four minutes. Watch this!

He’s also made nifty wallpaper for all sorts of devices of his “8 to be great” cycle.

Filed under Bootstrap, Bootstrap #1: Survive & Build, Bootstrap #2: Design & Plan, Bootstrap #3: Re-Assess Position, Bootstrap #4: Maintain Success, Business, Career, Organisation, Quality of Life, Success, Work

Using LinkedIn Effectively – Write An Online Resume

August 3, 2010 1 Comment

I’ve spoken to a few people recently who are worried about using services like LinkedIn because they are embarrassed about their work history. They don’t want to admit to prospective employers that they took a job way below their qualifications just because the rent needed paying. They also don’t want to admit that they kept those jobs because it was some sort of security, even though it was doing nothing for their career path. Other similar people might be looking to make a career change, but don’t want to admit that they’re new to their chosen field.

But seriously, don’t worry about it. Most people have jobs like that in their history – and sometimes that actually reflects well in the employer’s eyes.

Resume writing online can be tricky, because you need to impress the right people at the right time while maintaining honesty. LinkedIn is a great way to showcase both what you have done and what you can do. You just have to look at it the right way and to carefully design your profile to show the right parts of a professional resume at the right time.

I researched many online resumes to try to ascertain what made some look so impressive and others so drab. I found that the most impressive resumes were the ones with the least clutter. They basically had a good summary and showed future directions.

Remember that the better you are at something, the less you need to mention other skills. For instance, people who had done really well with a particular entrepreneurial activity rarely bothered to mention the jobs they had before it. I mean, why would they?

Make sure your headline epitomises what you want to do. If you’ve never done it before, don’t be afraid to be a little candid: Say “Freelance writer and Aspiring Novelist” if that’s what you want to do.

The “Summary” section is a place for you to mention everything you really want people to know about your resume and plans for the future. Think of your dream job: What would you like the head of that company to know about you? Maybe consider an actual job specification similar to one you would like: What would you write in a cover letter? This is your summary! Tell people what you want to do, what you’re really good at and give a few key examples of things you’ve done which will help you get the job. Craft it well, because this is the primary thing you want people to read. Also, if you can subtly explain away any of the anomalies with a quick interesting statement about what you have been doing, then do that!

Fill out the rest of your profile with all the same jobs you would mention in a resume you would submit for your dream job. Also add any jobs that are impressive, but not necessarily relevant, and jobs which you worked at for a long time (to show you weren’t unemployed).

List your blog and Twitter profile if they are well-written and relevant to your future work plans. Add the applications for blogs and Twitter. Look at other available applications, like Slideshare, and see if you can showcase any other skills well by using these tools.

Remove the clutter in your public profile – Keep your best information in your summary.

Here’s the gold nugget in this online resume advice. With LinkedIn, there’s an option to show a public resume. In “Edit My Profile”, look on the right for “Edit Public Profile Settings”. For your public profile, you have the option to turn on/off many sub-sections of your full profile. Use it to de-clutter your public profile so that only the very best information is shown to someone taking a first glance at your resume.

Take off your past positions, education, awards, interests, details for current positions and anything else that makes it too cluttered. Ensure that anything important you would like people to know from those sections is clearly stated in your summary. Keep your picture, headline, summary, current positions (if you’re working). Keep your groups if you can be bothered to ensure that only the most relevant groups feature on your profile (you set this up on a per-group basis).

Now, check out your public profile. Tweak until you think it’s the perfect page to show the recruiter for your dream job.

Also, think ahead when using LinkedIn. Don’t just connect to colleagues – connect with family, friends and acquaintances too. These connections help when you want to approach someone for a job (or to help other people get a job). And pay it forward! Write references for people you have worked with. Write character references for people you studied with. Some of these people may decide to write a reference for you too. Then you’ll be ready to apply for your dream job – or if you’re really lucky they might find you!

Image Credit: SocialIsBetter

Filed under Bootstrap, Bootstrap #1: Survive & Build, Bootstrap #2: Design & Plan, Business, Career, Work Tagged with , , , , ,

Continuous learning

May 17, 2009 Leave a Comment

Recently, I’ve become keen to ensure I make use of the quality information available online for free. There’s a lot I want to learn more about and it would be stupid to just ignore the experts out there. I found myself searching for reputable RSS feeds on generic school topics, so that I could continue my life learning online.

To make things easier for the rest of you, I then created an OPML file of About.com’s educational feeds and have made it available to anyone. It has all the current About.com Education RSS feeds, plus a few other About.com feeds I was interested in. Trust me, If you’re interested in more than three of these feeds, it’s easier to add the OPML file and then delete the feeds you’re not interested in than it is to add them individually.

All feed readers are different, but for most feed readers all you need to do is save this file, then navigate to “Import feeds” (in your reader) and choose the OPML file you just saved.

So, If you’re keen to become a well-rounded individual, I’d suggest you start by reading these educational RSS feeds and see how it goes. Easy!

Filed under Bootstrap #1: Survive & Build, Bootstrap #4: Maintain Success, Organisation, Well-Rounded Tagged with ,

Get Organised!

March 10, 2008 2 Comments

Get Organised – Start using a decent task manager and use it religiously.

I could rant and rave about how good remember the milk is. But I won’t. I have compared it to many task managers and project management systems and found it far superior to all of them. Just go check it out, okay?

Filed under Bootstrap #1: Survive & Build, Bootstrap #2: Design & Plan, Bootstrap #4: Maintain Success, Organisation Tagged with

Take charge of your life NOW!

March 10, 2008 Leave a Comment

Are you drifting along doing jobs you merely like? Are you settling for a relationship that isn’t what you dreamed of? Why are you doing that? You need to be in charge of your own life because if you leave the direction of your life to other people it will never be what you really want.

Work it out!

You might think you don’t know what direction you really ought to be taking. But you probably have an inkling. What are you dreaming about while you wait for the photocopier to finish printing? What are you doing when the afternoon just flies by? When someone asks what you do for a living what do you wish you could tell them? Set clear goals for yourself!

Make a path

When you realise that you know what you want you must act on it! Do some research. Maybe you need to study and re-train. Maybe you have the technical skills and now need to learn about running your own business. Don’t just leave it all pie in the sky – Work out how you are going to get there!

Do it!

That’s a pretty big step just there. But the real step is the next bit. Doing what you love. Having what you want. For real. Taking charge of your life just about the single most exciting thing you can do for yourself this lifetime.

Put away all your insecurities. Set aside your self doubt. Get rid of all your excuses: You are not too young/old to start (Look, An 84 year old man is learning to read at primary school), you are not too overweight to be slim again, you have willpower. If you find it too hard to believe in yourself then surround yourself in people that believe in you and let the fan club do the talking. (Just make sure you return the favour, okay?)

You would never have got as far as you have today if you had believed you were incapable of changing yourself. Learning to walk, read, ride a bike are all huge undertakings. When you first sat on that bike and saw the ground a long, long way away you were probably scared to death. Scared that you weren’t going to be able to ride and scared that not being able to ride was going to hurt a lot. And for a long time you couldn’t ride. And it hurt. And it damaged your confidence every time you fell off. But you believed it was possible. You believed you could do it. And eventually you did.

What happened to your childlike self-belief? When you knew nothing about anything and you had everything in the world to learn why did you believe you could? Why can’t you do that for yourself now?

So, what’s stopping you from having it all? Why have you not taken that step? Do you have a plan? Is the path achievable? Are you able to visualise yourself achieving your goals? As a happy, successful person? Yes, it can be you!

Take the first step.

Filed under Bootstrap #1: Survive & Build, Bootstrap #2: Design & Plan, Bootstrap #3: Re-Assess Position, Quality of Life Tagged with ,

Keep an eye out for good business advice

March 10, 2008 Leave a Comment

So, you’re running a business from home? You need a little help? Sure you do. Because all that time by yourself leaves you a little lost for feedback and you’re merely hoping you’re still on the right track. Sound about right?

I read a fantastic book called “Your Home Business – Helen Chryssides”. I was a little sceptical about this book when I picked it up. I thought it may be one of those wishy-washy books and I was very pleased to find that it had some useful advice for small business in it.

Sections of the book are anecdotal evidence of how you might make your home business work. Helen has asked many successful home business owners to contribute tips and ideas which she then also utilises effectively when giving advice. Apparently, Peter Goldsworthy (South Australian author) also has problems with his fridge being a major distraction.. so I don’t have to feel like a failure for doing the same. *phew*

Helen has a very realistic view of the advantages and disadvantages of working from home. She really thinks about the disadvantages and how you might overcome them.

The main disadvantages of working from home are:

  • isolation from peers
  • friends and relatives not taking your business seriously
  • people perceiving you as unemployed
  • people thinking you are available for social calls
  • loneliness
  • lack of professional image
  • distractions (Like the fridge and TV)
  • not being able to stop working/turn yourself off
  • lack of work or irregular income
  • lack of capital to pull you through
  • insufficient planning
  • not separating work environment from home environment

Now, I’m not going to tell you all the secrets of avoiding or overcoming the down side of running your own business. You’d never buy the book and that’d be cheating. However, I will offer some of her more general tips for working effectively in a home business.

Things to help your business:

  • Take regular breaks
  • Keep a professional image
  • Always be prompt and reliable
  • Get good advice – see a local business centre
  • Separate work from non-work (Perhaps by setting work hours)
  • Get out and see people
  • Deal with your stress
  • Prioritise tasks in order of financial viability – keep the money coming in!
  • Evaluate your progress
  • Stay motivated
  • Don’t procrastinate! Get on with it!

Remember, just because you work from home doesn’t mean you are to be taken any less seriously.

Don’t become a statistic. Make your business work. And enjoy doing it!

Filed under Bootstrap #1: Survive & Build, Bootstrap #4: Maintain Success, Business Tagged with

Learn to manage your finances

March 10, 2008 Leave a Comment

Take a read of “Rich Dad, Poor Dad – Robert T Kiyosaki (with Sharon L Lechter)”. I thought this book was great! Along with being a very pleasant read it had many valuable financial lessons to teach us. I’ll quickly go through some of the very important points.

We really don’t get taught anything about financial management in school. I’m shocked at how many of my friends know nothing about how their credit card works, let alone how to use simple accounting to correctly assess their financial position. We need to have financial literacy to survive.

The book explores the types of financial management lessons the rich teach their children. These are the lessons that the poor and middle class miss out on. They are simple and basically revolve around learning as much as possible so that you can make educated decisions about money. Most importantly, this book gives you some basic ideas of things you will need to learn more about.. so you’re not just learning useless facts and you are in fact learning the right things to become financially literate.

A most important thing to learn from this book is that you don’t get rich working for money. Wages will only keep you just above broke. Seriously, how many times do we have to be told this before we believe it enough to change our lives? Get out of the rat race!

“Most people never see the trap they are in.” — Robert T Kiyosaki

Most people work because they are afraid of not having money or they desire things that they think will make them happy. Then they are stuck working for fear of losing that income. They want security. The aim is to not let money run your life. Curb your desires and don’t be afraid of having nothing. Beware of the hole in your pocket. Don’t let your emotions rule your decision making. Think with your head!

“With each dollar bill that enters your hand, you and only you have the power to determine your destiny. Spend it foolishly, you choose to be poor. Spend it on liabilities, you choose to be middle class. Invest it in your mind and learn how to acquire assets and you will be choosing wealth as your goal and future. The choice is yours and only yours. Every day with every dollar, you choose to be rich, poor or middle class.” — Robert T Kiyosaki

Learn to correctly identify assets and then buy assets. For most people, a home is a liability not an asset. Assets put money back into your pocket. Make every dollar you get work for you. Invest it. Then it will come back as more income. Easy!

“Build and keep your asset column strong. Once a dollar goes into it, never let it come out. Think of it this way, once a dollar goes into your asset column, it becomes your employee. ” — Robert T Kiyosaki

Always make sure you pay yourself first – and that means assets, not splurging! If you invest your money wisely it will create the income you need to pay the bills later. Plus, it will scare you into making your brain think about how to create some more money in the meantime. Forbid the words “I can’t afford it” and replace them with “How can I afford it?”. You’ll turn your brain on and force it to come up with a solution.

Learn legal ways to avoid paying so much in taxes. Protect your investments through corporations. Corporations pay less in tax than the highest income brackets. Now, due to the tiering structure in Australia you’d have to be earning quite a bit before a flat 30% tax rate was less expensive than your tiered rate. But the point is to LEARN. Find out about taxes and legal ways to minimise them. Talk to an accountant about your current situation. Hire intelligent people to help you.

Don’t just do what everyone else does. Educate yourself and then take educated risks! You’ll get better at it every time you try it.

“Sometimes you win and sometimes you learn.” — Robert T Kiyosaki

Ensure you have enough money not tied up to be able to take advantage of good opportunities. Just like when you are playing Monopoly, you need to ensure you have sufficient cash to buy properties in auction or you could miss a bargain.

Young people should develop investment portfolios before deciding to own a house. The benefits of the extra years on the portfolio are phenomenal. What are the best types of assets? Things that make money by themselves: Businesses that don’t require your presence, managed funds, stocks, bonds, royalties and income-generating real estate.

“Money is only an idea. If you want more money simply change your thinking” — Robert T Kiyosaki

To start off with, most people need to earn a wage to get their initial funds for investing. This doesn’t have to lead to a career. Choose jobs according to what you will learn from them. Groom yourself as a CEO would groom an young, rising star. Learn a little bit about everything and try not to over-specialise. Specialisation is a risk in itself. What happens if that profession becomes redundant? Where will you be then?

Get over your fear, cynicism, laziness, bad habits and arrogance. Fear of losing, rejection, lack of money. We learn by making mistakes. Make some! If what you’re currently doing isn’t working you have to change it. Stop being a cynic and ask wealthy people you know how they did it. Find role models. Read books. Look for new ideas. Go to seminars. Learn! Beat laziness by asking yourself “What’s in it for me?”. Get off your butt and do something about your situation. Now!

“A person needs to sit down and ask, ‘What’s in it for me if I’m healthy, sexy and good looking?’ Or ‘What would my life be like if I never had to work again’ Or ‘What would I do if I had all the money I needed?’. Without a little greed, the desire to have something better, progress is not made.” — Robert T Kiyosaki

To receive you must give. Give generously. Teach others what you know as you will learn more also. Help others to have what you want as you will gain also. Give money to charity. Smile at people. Help others gain contacts and sales. What you give will come back.

  • Curb your desires and get rid of the hole in your pocket
  • Make every dollar work for you
  • Always think “How can I afford it?”
  • Change what you’re doing to something that works
  • Learn about finance, accounting and taxes
  • Learn about business communication, sales, advertising and PR
  • Learn about management: cash flow, systems, personal time management and people
  • Get over your fear of rejection and fear of failure
  • Work with people smarter than you are
  • Work to learn
  • Give generously
  • Learn about investment options
  • Learn about how to raise money to finance good opportunities
  • Keep your finances ready to take advantage of a great deal
  • Always keep your eye out for good investment opportunities
  • Make offers
  • TAKE ACTION!!

“Action always beats inaction.” — Robert T Kiyosaki

Filed under Bootstrap #1: Survive & Build, Bootstrap #2: Design & Plan, Happiness, Money Tagged with , , , ,

So, how exactly do you stop procrastinating?

March 9, 2008 Leave a Comment

How do you get off your arse and just do something? It seems the more important the task the harder it is to start. This is because of fear. The people who relentlessly get stuck into massive projects do this because they know the fear can be controlled.

“He who deliberates fully before taking a step will spend his entire life on one leg” — Chinese proverb

So, what are you afraid of? Afraid that it won’t work. Afraid that you can’t get it done in time? Afraid that you don’t know enough? You’re not good enough? Or is it your attitude to the task?

Matt Inglot theorises in this article that school engraves a mentality that “work needs to be put off as long as possible so that play can occur”. He’s right.. and for that schooling has a lot to answer for. But once we acknowledge this we can get over it. You have to. What you are procrastinating about could change your life.

Starting something is risky. So is not starting something. What’s it gonna be?

Bill from Unleash your potential writes in his article Don’t let fear steal your dream: “Every successful person I know is a risk-taker. If you are honest with yourself, every successful person you know is a risk-taker as well.”

Planning is hard. You’re always torn between the dream and the reality of what you can achieve. Eventually you also have to decide that you have planned enough and it is officially time to do something.

Busy people have it easy in this respect. Busy people see the task at hand and mull over it while they’re in low brain-usage moments: in the shower, on a bus etc. Then they work out when the only feasible time to get this task done is. Then when that timeslot comes up they just plow on into the task. They figure it’s now or never so it just gets done. On that note, if you ever have something important you need to delegate give the job to a busy person. They’ll get it done.

A monster article, is procrastination a gift?, tries to see the positive side in procrastinating. For some, I guess, the stress of leaving things to the last minute can provide the adrenalin required to get it done. I mean, that’s how most people finish their thesis. But the adrenalin forced last-minuters are always jealous of the people who could make themselves prepare and do it earlier. Face it. Stress just isn’t that much fun.

“He who has begun the task has half done it” — Horace (Roman Poet)

Starting to do things is the hardest bit. Once you get going you can use the momentum of doing to keep doing. And you can watch the task head towards completion. It’s undeniable feedback of your good work.. and that’s hard to ignore. Positive feedback always makes you feel great about getting on with more of what got you the feedback.

Jessica Robinson has some great pros and cons here on whether to tackle a new task with “baby steps” or a “massive action”. She also notes that sometimes jut by making a baby step “you could flow gently along with the tide and not only use it to your advantage, but thoroughly enjoy it.”

So, the basic steps to overcoming procrastination are:

  • Get over your fear of starting by understanding that the consequences of not starting are risky too.
  • Calculate the risks involved.
  • Plan.. but then move on.
  • Understand that it’s not “work” you’re procrastinating about. It’s your study. It’s your business. It’s your promotion. It’s your life.
  • Get busy. Schedule a time to complete things.
  • Look forward to the momentum and positive feedback that doing it will bring.
  • Adjust and try to enjoy the idea of doing it.
  • Make a start, however small. That first step is the hard step.
  • Do it today. Tomorrow never comes.

Now, bugger off and get on with it!

Filed under Bootstrap #1: Survive & Build, Bootstrap #2: Design & Plan, Quality of Life Tagged with , , ,

Slow down and get your life back!

March 9, 2008 4 Comments

Why more people are down shifting.

Folks are doing so much these days that we are at breaking point most of the time. We rush from home to work and appointments, then have no energy for house work, cooking, hobbies, family and friends at the end of the day. What are we doing and why are we doing it? This is madness!

Why work? For money? So you can buy nice stuff for your family who you never see? I’m sure they’d prefer to see you. I’m sure you’d prefer to see them. Get real. How much do you really need to earn? Work it out. Then get a life!

Or, if you have no family, why else do you earn money? To spend your free time well? Working hard to earn money purely to give you quality leisure time is a bit of a farce. How expensive are your hobbies anyway? Can you make them cheaper? Do you have other hobbies which don’t require much money? Reading, cycling, running and walking are just a few examples of things people often wish they had more time for and don’t cost anything to do. What else do you want to do? Think!

So, what if your favourite pastime is related to your work? You could be on to something here. For example, the people who take tandem parachuters on jumps are really living their dream. To get that job they had to do LOTS of jumps tandem, then complete a course and do LOTS more jumps solo. Basically, they loved it so much they turned it into a job. Now they get paid to do exactly what they do for fun. It doesn’t get much better than that, does it?

Then there’s the age old story of the fisherman. A businessman tries to get the fisherman to see the merits of working harder and catching more fish so that he can sell to others and make a lot of money. Then, when the fisherman has his made his fortune he can relax and do whatever he wants to do with is time. Which is fishing. I’m glad the fisherman sees the pointlessness of all the hard work. Most people don’t. Even when your profession and leisure are in no way related, the premise is still the same. Why work hard so you have more free time? Why not just work less? Or get a job that feels like leisure? Obviously, we need to draw a line somewhere. We need some money to survive. But don’t kill yourself by working. There’s no point. Live a little.

I often found when working full time that I had little free time for myself. I constantly felt I had to “reward” myself for putting in long hours. So, I spent lots of money in the short amount of time I wasn’t at work. I actually would have preferred to have less hours and less money. There wasn’t an option of dropping my hours. So I quit. That company then had to retrain someone to do my job, just because the company ethos was to have fewer full time employees over many part time employees. They have a lot to learn about changing mentalities and the needs of people today.

Today, we have many people who want to downshift or go part time for various reasons. Some want to have more free time. Some want to study while they work. Some want to start businessSome want to have portfolio careers (with more than one career at a time). Yes, even people building portfolio careers can work less than full time hours. But mostly, people downshift so they can start families.

With two parents working part time hours you have created an ideal situation for bringing a child into the world. Both parents can stick to their chosen career path without either feeling like they have lost all their work skills due to years of parenting. Both parents continue to have adult contact and the mental stimulation of their career. Both parents get one-on-one time with the child. There should also be plenty of overlap where the whole family can be together.

Without even considering parenting, the average couple has a big problem with both people working full time hours. In fact, the same problem is noted by single people working full time hours. What is the problem? Well, think about it. Who gets the shopping done? Who does the cleaning? Who goes to the post office? Who goes to the bank? Who runs the errands?

If you work full time it can take weeks to get that tiny errand done because the places you need to visit are only open the same hours you work. Some places have call centres, but not all of them are open very late. And not everything can be done over the phone. Also, you can’t palm everything off to a well meaning partner, family member or friend. A lot of places (especially banks) require you to conduct your own business. There are privacy laws in place which mean no-one can do these things for you. And in the meantime that unfinished errand will bug you and stress you out further. This is the sort of thing that leads you to a mid-life crisis.

We have created a world which doesn’t actually work. If we’re all working full time no-one can get anything done. Everyone rushes to the post office at lunch time and wonders why the queues are so big. Worse still, the post office staff have lunch breaks too. So there’s less staff on at peak time. Companies that have responded to this demand on hours are responding only in one dimension. They increase the amount of hours they are open. Which means people are working longer hours! Even less time for living. Why not respond by letting more people work part time hours? It would also increase the amount of jobs available. Wouldn’t that be great?

So, we can all see plenty of reasons to change to part time work or start businesses. Downshifting is great! More time to go get a life! So, if this is what so many people really want they why is it so hard to get? Have a think about who runs most of the companies we all work for. Most of them are older men, probably from an era where it was expected that they would have a wife who ran the household while he was the breadwinner.

Simply put, the managers of this world just don’t realise that work-life balance and flexibility are an issue. They’ve never had those needs. So the company has continued with the same structures it has always had. Only these days people don’t fit the mould so well. Governments are also run by men of this generation. They continue to push unemployment policy that aims for full time jobs for all. This may be what generations before us wanted but it doesn’t suit most of us now.

We need to stand up for ourselves and ask for what we need. If you want more time then ASK for more time. If you can’t get more time then go to a company that will let you have it or start your own business. Make sure your exit interview details exactly why you left. Help to induce social change by talking to your local MP about promoting shorter and more flexible hours. Eventually, these companies and governments will catch on and life will also become easier for those too meek to ask for what they want. But if you want things to change before you’re too old to enjoy it then do something for yourself now. Life’s too short to waste.

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
– Ferris Bueller

Filed under Bootstrap #1: Survive & Build, Bootstrap #3: Re-Assess Position, Happiness

← Older posts

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.