Tony skinner 00:02
Hi and welcome to the podcast for podcast my business and we’re now doing video which is great. Somehow my lighting has gone a little bit skewed which is what happens sometimes. Anyway, We Welcome Christie from florandorder that’s F L O R and order.com love the name Christie. How you going?
Christie 00:27
I’m very well thank you. Yes, things are going well I’m in Melbourne so a bit different to Sydney folk. But I can definitely relate to what what you’re going through at the moment having been through our many lockdowns here over the last a year, year and a half now. Gosh,
Tony skinner 00:45
yeah, it’s interesting, isn’t it? And I think like I said, we’ll start off and say what Christy does with florandorder and I love the name flor as opposed to law and order. Very good. And Christy helps businesses with time management. So you are Melbourne’s best time manager, and trainer and goal strategist. So well done to you, and yeah, we’re talking about? Well, let’s just get it done. When I first started doing this a year and a half ago, I didn’t want to talk about covid because I thought well, evergreen content, meaning you don’t talk about current events, but it’s gonna be talking about for the next 15 years. So this is deep dive into it.
Tony skinner 01:29
So you’re right, so here is Sydney, we are in lockdown. We haven’t been in lockdown for a year. And we’ve always I’ll be upfront. We’ve always smirked a little bit about Melbourne going in and out of lockdown all the time. What do you know you have as well? Well, I haven’t said it directly to anybody. Because I know it’s tough. It’s a tough struggle. But dictator, Dan is who we’ve been taught meant phrasing or mentioning the premier down there. But it’s only important. But what is important is that being organized and having goals and strategies is really important for your mental health as well. Especially during lockdown.
Christie 02:06
Definitely, it’s not something anyone can ever prepare for. And there’s definitely no handbook on how to handle a pandemic or how to be in one. So yeah, we’re all doing it differently. And, and working from home. People have been doing it for a while. But for many people, it was this was their first experience of it.
Christie 02:28
And it brings its own challenges, you’ve got to be disciplined in a way that you is very different from going to an office and it’s, it pulls on a lot of personal strength to get stuff done. Yeah, and then also managing your time around when to switch off from work when to you know, waking up and not just going straight to to work but going out for a walk or having a bit of a morning routine that makes it feel like you’ve got a bit of me time and then get into some work. And yeah, and then finish for the day.
Christie 03:02
And then make that evening, a little different to the daytime. And then also to make to remember that your weekends are still a weekend to try not to touch work or, you know, balance that out. So you’ve got some downtime as well. Yeah. It’s different. It’s very different.
Tony skinner 03:22
Well, I’ve worked from home for a few years now. And when I started the business as another business clicks for profit, which is coming up to six years ago, I knew what was important was to have something to do each day to get out each day. And of course, it’s difficult in lockdown. But what I also set up from I think it’s a good strategy is no domestic chores during office hours.
Christie 03:53
Yeah, it works for some people. I personally like black to shake it up and have a mixture of things. And especially, you know, writing against the clock of the washing machine, I always found quiet. It kept me on task. So yeah, it’s a personal preference. There is no one way to do this.
Tony skinner 04:14
Okay, so what would be some, I guess, strategies to help when things keep changing so much. And the future is uncertain?
Christie 04:29
Yeah, really great question. I mean, I’ve been talking to a few clients of mine who are experiencing lockdown in Sydney and then clients here in Melbourne when we were going through the same thing that sticking to your sort of your touchstones. So whether that’s journaling, writing, you know, getting out for a walk, yoga, so having those things that are a constant through your life, making sure you get enough sleep those constants that you can have always turn to and then yeah routine throughout no matter what’s happening.
Christie 05:06
And this is this is something even I was talking to a client with a with a young child that to not give up her journaling habits because it was how she reconnected to herself and how she remained. Yeah, remained herself and remained calm and in the moment, and it helps you really move along with change and adapt to change. So picking out a few things that are your touchstones to really help you through change is a good way to go about it. Do you do journal at all tony
Tony skinner 05:40
Actually I don’t I’m more of a task oriented person. So I like to set tasks per day I put things into my calendar. So that’s how I remind myself I set calendar invites to myself, and daily tasks and so forth are always in the calendar. And it’s a good reminder to do things that way. But yeah, journaling writing things down. Yeah, how does that help? How does it how’s that a benefit?
Christie 06:13
Well, it helps clear your mind. And it’s if it’s something you’re doing throughout your life, like in the ups and the downs. It’s a constant. So it’s something that you’re always doing no matter if it’s a good day or a bad day. So it’s something that you it anchors you to yourself in your reality. Same to with going out for a walk, if it’s something that you just do, that it’s part of you it’s part of your routine. No matter what’s kind of happening around you at least you’ve got that comfort in that routine and that security and actually being connected to yourself. And I found during the lockdowns in particular, I found that morning routine, so important to just being connected and continuing on my tasks that I found were important.
Christie 07:02
So like you I everything is in my calendar, even even a block that says morning routine. But um, yeah, I just found it was so important to I would wake up, I would journal for three pages, I would go for a walk, I would come back have a good breakfast, I would catch up on the news. And then I would get ready for work. And I would sit down and I would do my work. And so it was that routine that really helped me stay in the moment and not feel so overwhelmed by the, you know, the world situation around me. So that that’s how I would say it helps us make people who are more of an anxious nature, that journaling can just be a connection tool in times of change. Especially Yeah,
Tony skinner 07:50
that’s certainly true. And I guess it’s, again, interesting that when you set up, we’re trying to do goals, and where you want to hit forward into the future. Like for myself, I’m wanting to do new things and new products and services that I’m building towards. But of course now, I don’t have anybody to sell to at the moment, and businesses are going to take time to build back up in order to have enough profit in order to then start thinking about the services that I offer. So how can you set goals when the future is not clear?
Christie 08:34
Wow. I mean, on the one hand is is the future ever clear. You know, like where every time someone opens a business or whatnot, it’s taking a gamble. This is just like another kind of a bigger spanner in the works. But like, it’s not unusual for people to have spanners in the works. I’d say, at the moment in this current current present, current president that we find ourselves in, it’s kind of it’s about making those goals maybe a little smaller. length wise, was like, so we’re not trying to put in a five year plan. Maybe we’re just taking things as they come. And that’s fine for people to do like, a week, two weeks, three weeks, a month.
Christie 09:21
But yes, I I mean, yeah, it’s really hard because a year ago, people wouldn’t have thought that online business would have been as big as it is now. You know, if we’d known we would have bought shares in zoom or in your software as well. So there, there is no, yeah, there’s no way to guarantee to future goal set. It is just, I always say it’s important to have times in our in our calendar to review where we’re going. And that’s really important to be able to be flexible and changing. Yeah, the direction so that you can account for these. These spanners that fly up? Yeah, I’m not sure that really answers your question. T
Tony skinner 10:11
That’s okay. Look, I guess, a key thing is that those who fail to plan to fail?
Christie 10:19
Yes, yes. It’s a good quote. Yeah, it’s Yeah, it’s definitely true. Yeah.
Tony skinner 10:26
So what would be some tips, and let’s not look at, you know, shutdown and things like that, because that’s, again, a huge spanner in the work, you can’t know or tell if that’s going to occur or not occur. So we’ll move that aside for the moment. So as a general rule, what would be some tips to be better, organized and better use of your time?
10:51
Well, definitely being clear on what it is that is important to you, what do you want to do with your time, I’m listening to a great book at the moment by Ben hardy about personality isn’t permanent. And he talks about thinking about the person that you want to become and sort of reverse engineering it.
11:11
So thinking about who you want to become, and working that into your schedule, and how you are in the world. So maybe that is, you’re exercising more, or going to more courses, or connecting with family and friends, more so than you are because that’s who you see yourself in the future. So being clear on what it is that you want in life, and actually making the commitment towards putting that into your schedule, because I hear a lot of people who say, I wish I wish I read more, I wish I had time to read.
Christie 11:46
Well, they have just as much time as everyone, it’s about prioritizing those that, you know, reading and those things that they’ve deemed are important to them even 15 minutes a day, you can you can read a good few books, you know, just on that strategy alone, just 15 minutes a day of reading. So tips. Um, yeah, being clear on what it is you want to do. Getting that into your calendar, I would say and anchoring a time against it. So it’s not you’re getting away from wishful thinking, you’re actually putting a plan into action. Yeah, and, and sharing those sharing those goals with others. So that you have that accountability as well. Very helpful for people to do.
Tony skinner 12:39
Yeah, it is true and writing things down the old pen and paper, not to record not to set up your calendar, but just write down some of those goals and put them in hard writing. Yeah, they seem to exist a bit more.
Christie 12:55
Yes, they do. Yeah, there’s something about the brain hand coordination that it just it cements it a lot more in your memory, and makes it feel more real. I had heard recently about telling someone your goals as if they’d already happened. And so that also helps your brain kick into this gear of, Oh, this has actually already happened. And I can I can do it. So there’s another technique as well.
Tony skinner 13:24
Yeah, as soon as you say that, that’s good. Because that’s a habit that I have is that I go Okay, I’ve done this, this and this, whether it’s done or not. It’s just good to get your brain thinking. Yeah, I’ve done that. Okay. And I know what it’s going to feel like when I get there.
Christie 13:38
Yeah, yeah. So maybe that’s one of the tips I’d add as well just visioning what it is that you want to achieve and what it how it feels when you get there so that it feels already a reality.
Tony skinner 13:52
Is that a basketball expression be the ball?
Tony skinner 13:59
The ball be the ball? Yeah, yeah. All right. No, is Christie Okay, look, thanks very much for your time. Most appreciate it. And it’s florandorder F L O R andorder.com.
Christie 14:14
Thank you so much. This has been great.
