Dedicating my time to what is most important
June 17, 2009 //
I’m going through some change in my personal life right now, providing me with an opportunity to reflect on what’s important and what, quite frankly, isn’t as important as I thought. I won’t go into detail about the personal side of things as I’ve never talked about my private life online and I intend to keep it that way. I will however, share with you, what changes I’ve made to my work life in the hope I can focus on my private life better - providing more balance for the people I love.
Here are 6 things I’ve changed:
- Phone calls: I no longer take calls when I’m with people - unless it’s urgent and/or I’ve forewarned them. I started this quite some time ago and must say, it’s a wonderful and liberating feeling - not to mention that it’s impolite to take calls when in a meeting or having lunch/dinner with a friend or colleague anyway. I don’t think ill of anyone who does it to me as I’ve been there.
- Email: I recently decided to switch off all work email on my iPhone. I did this because I realised I was only replying to what seemed urgent, promising myself to reply to everything else when I was at my computer. I noticed however, that the delay in getting back to the non-urgent emails was unacceptable. I’ve stuck with it for over a week and I’m now in more control of my email than ever before. I’ve since setup a personal email account for my phone and given it to a small handful of people.
- Social Networks: I’ve unfollowed a couple of hundred people on Twitter as I wasn’t able to keep up to date anyway. At the time of writing this email I’m following 155 people. I do however continue to read and respond to people who either talk to me, or about me. Sometimes I do this in public but mostly I do it via DM. You’ll notice that my twitter stream has quietened down too. I don’t think I’ve made any improvements on my writing, or improved the quality of my contribution, but at least it’s not as busy. I do keep up to speed on specific individuals by using Summize to search for their conversations.
- Meetings: I’ve restricted my meetings to one per day, with no meetings on Mondays or Fridays. I found that during most of my meetings, I ended up giving advice or offering to connect. This simply isn’t conducive to productivity on my part and it certainly doesn’t benefit any of the businesses I run and which put food on the table for my staff. That’s not to say I’m turning into a hermit, nor does it mean I’m going to stop connecting - on the contrary, I’m doing even more connecting from the comfort of my flat and office. I’ll continue to advise and mentor too.
- Giving advice: I’m no longer meeting people I don’t know well, for the provision of going through their business plan or new business idea. I just don’t have the time. I do enjoy listening to entrepreneur’s pitches at events and I’ll continue to do so with the intention of providing honest feedback.
- Networking events and parties: I don’t attend nearly as many networking events and parties anymore - I’m being much more selective. I run a networking events company and my flatmate/business partner is one of the most connected people in the events industry. So it’s not as if my attendance is going to stop. I just don’t feel the necessity to be out so much any more.
What do you think? Do you think I’m mad? Do you find you too need to find a little balance with your communication channels? Are you going to try any of this? If you do, I’d love to hear what you think.
ian hayward says 
cheryl says 
BankCardUSA says 
Stephanie says 
your such a wanabe its sick.
honestly - get a life.
what the fuck have you ever done/achieved - diddly squat.
mentor my ass
June 17th, 2009
I don’t think you’re mad.
I’d make one small change to point 2 - set up filters on your email. I know a lot of Blackberry users who get every petty email sent through to them - that’s madness!
My filters are set so that I only get emails from my boss, if the subject line matches an important project, or if it’s marked “urgent”.
It’s not perfect - and you’ll need to find filters which work for you - but it cuts down on so much time-wasting crap.
T
June 17th, 2009
I hear ya Terence, but I’d end up with too many filters that work across about 8 companies. I guess, my filter is ‘filter everything out’ - different for everyone as I’m sure it’ll change for me again in the future…
June 17th, 2009
Makes sense.
I’m already doing something of the sort for each of these items on your list, apart from cutting down on meetings; I have to sell.
June 17th, 2009
Hi Paul
Well done mate. Welcome to the new world of work life balance. Add kids to the mix and see how unimportant the immediacy of the web becomes. See you soon.
June 17th, 2009
Cutting back on inputs appeals to me tremendously. Just not answering the phone when I am with people will go a long way towards reducing my stress levels.
I still want to receive my work and personal emails on my phone but maybe realtime updates isn’t the way to go. Gotta stop the constant email and sms checks!
June 17th, 2009
All good. The biggest distraction I’ve found are Events. In London, you can spend a lot of time going to all different events, end up drinking and networking with no real gain to business or life.
I’ve started to limit the events and focus and core returns, if I’m going to an event to catch up with people then that should only happen 1 time a month.
Email/Networks - Have now taken a single tasking approach to email/twitter, so email only checks hourly and twitter (Still change it now and then). This then stops the distraction of dealing with new requests and discussion.
June 17th, 2009
Have you tried something like Omnifocus? Very useful for increasing unexpected productivity.
June 17th, 2009
I can totally understand where you’re coming from on this one. Focus on what’s important to your companies and staff. If you don’t look after them then you don’t have a business.
It may be worth you having someone else keep an eye on your e-mails when you are out of contact… in a meeting etc so that if someone needs to raise a call for action you have the opportunity to respond. I’d say mobile for that one… Other than that… stick with it.
Let us know how it all pans out!
Sarah
June 17th, 2009
it’s always important to periodically make adjustments. sometimes, life brings us situations that make us re-evaluate the wheat so that we can see the chaff. (for me, it was a serious illness.) in any event, i applaud your efforts and wish you well on all fronts
(for me — i refuse now to have anything blackberry-like. when i’m off, i am OFF.)
June 17th, 2009
Paul - I love this post. A good use of the 80/20 rule in day to day business life too. I’m seeing more of it every day.
Have done a few of the things you mentioned myself over the last year. You’ve inspired me to try the rest too
Will also channel some thoughts on this stuff and blog about it too.
June 17th, 2009
Totally agree, lost time and productivity from replying to mails that you think are urgent, taking that call in the midst of an interesting conversation detracts you and your thoughts on whats key, making your life great and business interesting and paying the bills. Email is a killer I got lost in it and also forget sometimes why am I meeting that person, always think whats the value of this meeting to ME and define the boundaries, 15 mins with a clear goal for both of you.
So yes agree whole heartedly what you are doing and great to see you sticking to it as well…
June 17th, 2009
Walshy,
Great post. I hope by cutting out the crap you feel happier.
One request though, please post a follow up in a month or two. It will be interesting to see how it is going and any particular insights you discover.
Cheers
Jas.
June 17th, 2009
Hi Paul
I don’t think you are mad at all. Every step you have listed is a sanity preserving measure in a generally insanely hectic schedule.
Maintaining a work/life balance isn’t something that comes easily to a lot of people, myself included, and I’ve got a couple of ex wives and girlfriend’s who will attest to that. It’s only recently that I have made the effort to preserve a differential and the things you are doing serves as a great example for me to follow. Thanks for that.
Hope to see you at OpenSoho again soon. Life’s a pitch at the moment so getting away hasn’t been easy. I hope to make an appearance either this month or next.
Aaron
June 17th, 2009
Hey ho,
Nit picking here but the urls in the blog are broken …
My other half calls Networking Notworking. That I think is very true ; if you spend all your time dealing with your connections, you aren’t dealing with anything else.
June 17th, 2009
Makes a lot a sense to me. I spend too much time on emails on the blackberry and often don’t have time to do more than one meeting a day myself! Do need to do more networking though - really interesting site you and your flatmate have setup, may have to try and come to an event.
I keep a separate Twitter account for personal friends and some work colleagues which i think is a good idea, still fairly new to the world of twitter!
Nice blog.
June 17th, 2009
Doing some of the same plus I will no longer make balloon animals for children, or pet dogs I do not know! ;-).
June 17th, 2009
Looks to me like you’ve finally figured out the difference between having the persona of an Entrepreneur and actually being one! Well done! Swanning around attending conferences, discussion panels, dinners etc and “connecting” with people is an ego thing; it’s largely inefficient and used to get our brains to release endorphins on the premise we’re accomplishing something. In reality, you’re probably not as most of the people you “connect” with is on such a superficial level that no real benefit comes of it. It’s all about doing an honest day’s graft. Welcome to the gang!
June 17th, 2009
@Andy which URLs are broken?
@Steve I’ve been running a number of companies successfully for the past few years - how does that equate to “having the persona”. Perhaps I’m able to have fun at the same time - nothing wrong with that.
June 17th, 2009
Paul,
Having met you a few times you do seem to be a nice bloke.
I do however think you harp on a bit too much.
Mentoring this one, advising that one.
Your tweets and your blog seem like your too much up your own ass.
You write about securing £160k funding. BIG DEAL! Does that give you mentor rights?
You run a company with a small number of staff, have “flat mates” - not much of an entrepreneur if you ask me.
How much work email do you possibly get - I reckon your just a wannabe,
You seem to be a whole lot of talk and not much action.
Also , why are you referencing SUMMIZE which dissapeared ages ago in your post. Either you copied the post from somewhere else, or you have no idea whats actually going on in the marketplace
June 17th, 2009
@Joseph It amazes me how trolls never seem to put their name to their comments. Leave a link or go home. Don’t hide behind anonymity.
You obviously know nothing about me or what I have or haven’t achieved. I’m not going to compare the size of my anatomy with you.
June 17th, 2009
Bob - I wonder if you have too much time on your hands if you can be bothered to write things that aren’t constructive & it seems you do not know Paul Walsh well enough to be able to comment on his business achievements.
Am somewhat confused by your feedback…..
Am equally confused by Joseph’s comment.
Confusing how people can comment on others when they clearly don’t know enough about them, their achievements, their business etc.
June 17th, 2009
I will stop spending time blogging & commenting on comments on my blog!
June 17th, 2009
On my iPhone I have work and personal email setup with settings applied to receive emails related to work manually.
This enabled me to still access these away from the computer when in situations when you can’t attend one.
Go to Settings => Mail, Contacts, Calendars => Fetch New Data => Advanced => Select work account => Manual
June 17th, 2009
Well done Paul.
As I mentioned to you before i’m moving to London myself in a few weeks, to focus on a UK based business I set up a year ago.
However, I won’t be networking by going to events or any of that kinda thing. I already deal with a decent core of people in London on a daily basis, and if I do need to find someone for something in particular, i’d be 90% certain I can track that person down via the contacts I have.
I’ve been doing the internet thing for quite some time, and in the early days I did attend various awards ceremonies and gatherings in Ireland - but to be frank, 90% of them were a total waste of time, and the vast majority were events where dudes in startups gathered round and patted each other on the back for the job that they were supposedly about to do.
If I do need to make new contacts or want to get in touch with someone i’d really like to meet, I usually just drop them a quick intro mail and meet them for a pint of coffee. Nice n relaxed, and you don’t have to sift through a roomful of randomers to possibly track down someone that you might possibly need for something in the future.
One thing I also recently did was outsource a hell of a lot of things I stupidly kept doing myself for too long. Now, my phone barely rings, and when it does it’s usually for something important and something productive. It’s easy to be too nice by making yourself accessible for questions and advice, but I learned the hard way it can quickly become a waste of time.
Have you ever had the same person ask you the same question time and time again? If you give out too much advice, too often to friends or colleagues they’ll sometimes subconciously think of an information minepit, and will never learn for themselves. Sometimes it’s best to dig for the information yourself rather than rely on advisors and people who are generous with their time as you are.
Lastly, I am looking forward to meeting up with you when I move (1st July), but I don’t want a ‘meeting’ with you - what happened to the good old reliable Irish tradition of just going for a feckin pint!
Be good,
H
June 18th, 2009
I salute you Paul.
It’s so easy when you’re running your business to get sucked into a maelstrom of calling, tweeting, e-mailing until you’re about ready to scream.
Full marks for not taking calls while you’re in meetings (it’s rude). Full marks for not following spouters on Twitter (they’re time-wasters).
If you’re ever in Cumbria, the coffee’s on me
M
June 18th, 2009
And just was thinking of putting you on our list of ‘the men to know in the UK when starting a bizz’
http://thenextwomen.com/2009/05/26/which-men-should-a-uk-female-internet-entrepreneur-know-when-starting-and-growing-a-business/
was standing close to you at the Europas, last event of the season then?
reg. Simone BRummelhuis
July 15th, 2009
And you’re only thinking about adding me?
July 16th, 2009