EIP Holds First Session in New Wellbeing Programme

When we have more demands than we can manage and an incessant feeling of overwhelm, how do we increase efficiency and decrease stress? This was the focus of the first session in our new Wellbeing Programme, “Who Stole My Day?” delivered by Nick Howes, Managing Director of LMI UK, and chaired by accredited executive coach Michelle Haycox.  

The two-hour interactive session explored how we can manage our time efficiently, become confident leaders, and reduce crisis-mode firefighting to help us define and reach our goals. 

Nick introduced the four foundations of success: direction, purpose, process and progress. Direction is about clearly defining what we want to achieve. “Success is goal directed action”, he said. “Success is moving in the direction we know we want to get to”.  

Using a series of analogies and interactive activities, Nick explained how direction must be infused with purpose, the ‘why’ we need to achieve, and how we can use this to set stronger boundaries and handle interruptions. The third foundation, process, involves thinking about the behaviours we need to be successful, and how these are influenced by our attitudes. When discussing the fourth foundation, progress, Nick explained that making small changes aggregated over time can have the biggest impact, and he encouraged attendees to keep their own ‘progress and victories’ list, which they can add to everyday. 

The average employee is only productive for 50% of their day. Using the foundations above and thinking about the 80/20 rule (20% of our activities generate 80% of our results), Nick explained how attendees can determine which tasks are the most urgent, and how to maximise the 20% of our time to achieve what we set out to do.  

By implementing just ‘ten magic minutes’ into our day, we can take time to plan what we want to achieve, responding from a proactive mindset rather than crisis mode. Paired with the power of an hour of uninterrupted time, we can be four times more productive than we’d usually be. Nick also encouraged attendees to think about designating time to deal with the incidentals that pop up throughout the day to avoid this knee-jerk reaction.