……. , so stop trying to do it!

At SBR Consulting, there is only one person that we know of who can manage time and that’s Doctor Who! For the rest of us mere mortals, who don’t have a time machine, we just have to make do with the 24 hours in every day, or 1,440 minutes or 86,400 seconds if you prefer.

Many years ago, a manager of mine, in a desperate bid to get me to understand the value of time, used the analogy of a bank account in which every morning £86,400 (or 3,888,000 Rubles – I’ve just come back from sharing this with an engineering consultancy in Russia) was deposited. Each midnight, anything that you hadn’t spent the day before would be wiped out and a new £86,400 would be deposited into your account. You can’t transfer it, you can only use it. What would you do with it? “Spend it of course,” I hear you say. He went on to tell me that time is the most important commodity to you as you can never replace it and once it’s gone, it’s gone. Unlike money which you could possibly get back, time is irreplaceable. Continue reading →

“The will to win is not nearly so important as the will to prepare to win.” – Vince Lombardi

Much of the work that I have been doing throughout 2012 has been on the topic of preparation. Many of my clients have commented that the macro shifts that many of us have experienced in the markets in which we operate has resulted in there being fewer easy wins that come to us, necessitating that we take a more proactive approach to winning business. Continue reading →

Each month Lars Tewes, MD of SBR Consulting writes an article for Top Consultant’s, “Consulting Times”.  In it he  shares a challenge / issue he is working on with his clients, and looks at how it is being addressed.

For many, the summer is a wonderful time to take a break and enjoy the much needed annual leave. It does have one potentially adverse knock on effect that can put you back a quarter if you are not careful – loss of business development momentum. This month’s article is simply a reminder, based on the conversations we have been having with a number of our clients around the challenge of keeping on top of their business development work during and after the summer months.  Continue reading →

What is the best use of my time right now? Alan Lakein, Author of ‘How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life’

What would happen to our productivity, and our sense of well-being, if we were disciplined enough to consistently put our time to its highest and best use?

The simple ‘Lakein’s Question’ repeated above is a powerful self-motivator. When we ask, ‘what is the best use of my time right now?’ and then we discipline ourselves to do whatever that is, we build a fantastic success habit.

And the best way to know what that ‘best use’ is would be to remind ourselves of the goals we have set, and to utilise the discretionary time in our schedules to pursue them.

Possibly the greatest benefit of becoming a master of self-management is that great sense of CONTROL it gives.

Dan Moore

President of Southwestern
(SBR Consulting’s Parent Company)