Setting boundaries and switching off

The summer is a great time to pause, reflect and press the reset button! We all do that in different ways, some find it easy to switch off, others a real challenge, what about you?

We all get the same amount of time, 168 hours in a week, 24 hours in a day, 1440 minutes in a day and 86,400 seconds in a day. It’d be nice to save up time and maybe work 3 days this week and 10 next week! We can’t save up time, we can only use our time as effectively and enjoyably as we can.

Have you ever said, “Oh I didn’t have time?” most of us have, but actually, yes you did have the time, you just chose not to use the time for ‘that’ purpose! We can’t manage time; however, we CAN manage our USE of it. The key is in managing ourselves, having tools in place to help us manage our time and setting healthy boundaries to help strengthen our resolve and protect our physical and mental health.

Learning to set healthy boundaries starts with giving yourself permission to have them, accept them and feel comfortable in the life you create with them. Brené Brown (researcher, author, motivational speaker) says that “Daring to set boundaries is about having the courage to love ourselves even when we risk disappointing others.” Have you ever seen setting boundaries as a way of ‘loving yourself’ or self-care before?

The thing with boundaries though is that we need to communicate the boundaries we set to others, otherwise, they will inadvertently and unknowingly trample all over them! Remember the only people who get upset about you setting boundaries are the ones who were benefitting from you having none!

Do you get bombarded with tasks and requests from others?

Do you check your emails or email out of office hours or whilst on holiday?

Do you find it difficult to say no?

Do distractions dictate/derail your day?

Are you working in an open workplace/office?

Do you often feel tired and overwhelmed?

If you have said yes to any number of these questions, refreshing your boundaries would help you. Creating healthy boundaries is one of the tools we learn in our new Attention Management workshop which we deliver for our clients here at Pro-Development.

Yes, we need to manage time, but in this frantic distraction filled world we live and work in, we need to not only manage our time but manage our attention too. Maura Thomas says that “Attention Management is the ability to control your distractions, maximise your focus, to be present in your moments, engage your flow and unleash your genius.”

If we ‘control our attention, we can control our lives!’ learning and applying some key tools in attention management will change how you work. Here are some of the comments from our recent participants:

• “This course has given me a lot of ideas to implement easily that will quickly and significantly improve my work output and manage my stress and busy mind. Great lunch as always. It was interesting and went beyond what I hoped to get out of this course.”
• “The course highlighted some main flaws in how our office system works along with myself, I will be implementing some of the lessons learnt today and inform others of the course.”
• “A great paced course with time to discuss experiences and learn about useful tools to increase my confidence.”

Our next workshop is on the 25^thOctober 2022. If you feel you or a team member needs help identifying and managing their priorities, handling distractions and focusing their attention, get in touch to find out more or to book on our next Attention Management Workshop, info@1245881.eu11.myftpupload.com or 01904 628838

If you are based in York, North Yorkshire or the East Riding, you might also benefit from the fantastic 40% funding we have access to which is applicable to all of our one-day workshops, so get in touch now to discuss your/your teams needs.