The Indian Business Owner TIBO Magazine - Volume 001 | Page 31

How did Lily do in relation to her values?
Did she spend quality time with her family?
Somewhat; they ate dinner in the same room, but not
at the table.
Did she work on achieving financial freedom?
Somewhat; she went to work but isn’t earning what
she wants.
Did she help herself stay healthy? No; she didn’t have
time to eat breakfast and missed the gym, again.
Did she make good use of her creative side? No; she
was stuck in meetings all day and was too mentally
drained to be creative.
Did she do anything to give back to the world? No;
she barely had time for her own family.
Less than 1o% of her day was spent on creating
value - the activities that align with what’s most
important to her.
The result: She is exhausted, resents her job because
she isn’t able to use her skills to the maximum, feels
guilty for not preparing fresher meals for her family,
her body aches from sitting all day, her brain feels
fried from information overload, and she hasn’t had
10 minutes alone with her husband in months.
From the outside, Lily’s life looks fantastic. But
internally, she feels drained and dissatisfied.
Did you notice she doesn’t have a regular wake up
and bed time?

gym. Since she doesn’t respond to emails when she
first checks them in the morning, it adds no value.
Instead, if she only checks emails when she’s ready to
reply, she’d save 30 minutes a day. If she set a regular
wake up schedule, she may get more rest, feel less
rushed, predict her day better, and possibly even have
time for breakfast.
Once you’ve identified a few things in your day that
you can take out, replace those activities with ones
that will bring you closer to your goals.
But, you might wonder what about the things we have
no impact on, like sitting in traffic? It’s true, we may
not have much influence over traffic, but what we
choose to do in that time is up to us.
Can you return calls during your hour drive home?
Can you listen to an audio book that will sharpen
your skills? Can you listen to relaxing music that will
calm your mind? Can you re-adjust your schedule by
30 minutes to beat traffic?
A few things to remember…
• Write down your top 3-5 values: What’s most
important to you? And make them visible!
• Write down where you spend your time
• Identify those activities that are aligned with
your values
• Highlight those that take you away from your
values
• Think of a few (3 max) more productive
activities to replace them with
• Test it out for 2 weeks
• Re-evaluate how you feel
• Repeat steps 5 - 8

Did you notice she seems to be rushing through her
day, all day long?
It’s no surprise she’s wiped out!
Where do you see potentially non-value added activity
occurring in Lily’s day?

Sonia K. Singh
www.HerCareerLadder.com

By eliminating those activities, what can she do
instead?
For example, if she cut out the time she spends on
social media, she’d have one hour every morning to
plan her day, spend time with her kids, or go to the
29 |TIBO Magazine - Fall 2016

Sonia K. Singh is a performance excellence thought leader, coach,
and blogger. She has spent the last 15 years helping companies
improve their operations and has developed thousands of leaders.
Sonia is a certified lean six sigma master black belt.
www.TIBOmagazine.com