Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem Blog

In addition to my work as a business coach, one of my interests is blogging about life in Israel. This is a country full of contrasts – over eight million citizens living in an area the size of Wales. You can see snow and the lowest place on the globe in the same day. Although surrounded by geopolitical extremes, Israel has achieved a decade of high economic growth. My work brings me in contact with an array of new companies, exciting technologies and dynamic characters. Sitting back with a relaxing cup of strong tea (with milk), you realise just how much there is to appreciate in the Holyland. Large or small operations, private sector or non profit, my clients provide experiences from which others can learn and benefit.

I am a business coach. If I was to take a quick survey of my clients, at least a third of them curse their poor skills in time management. Bluntly speaking, they procrastinate.

What does this mean? Spin it how you wish, these are people who ensure they are preoccupied doing anything and everything, except focus on their main work for the day.

Please note that one thing they are rarely very good at is looking at their bank account. That is just too painful. The large minus sign would show them just much they avoid getting on with key tasks. The danger of the wake up call is thus averted.

Tips to stop procrastination? There are dozens and dozens of blogs and infographics, ordering the sufferers as to what they must and must not do.

Let me take a different track, a more practical approach, and it based around what happened today in Jerusalem. For roughly 24 hours, the city closed down, and the main roads away from the holy sites were closed, as a brief  snowstorm circled above.

We had been warned and I had prepared a list of work-related tasks to carry out at home. BUT, and a big ‘but’ at that: Would I be able to convert my good intentions into concrete actions? After all, for years, I myself was the king of putting things off. Nobody knew the tricks better than me.

Well, I started the day with a few simple matters to check. Picking up in confidence, I wrote a couple of reports. I made sure I only resorted to a two minute break between longer tasks, rather than carrying on at all costs. In fact, I ended up writing five documents, on top of several phone calls, and ……..

Well, the last thing I wanted to accomplish was to write a blog.

Hats off to the next wave of bad weather.

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