and, following the global pandemic, here I am in 2021, publishing my third book. Again, it has been a team effort.
Lucy Raymond, Chris Shorten, Renee Aurish and the team at Wiley — thank you for offering me the opportunity to turn two books into a series and working hard with me to get the title and message right for this one. You have opened up my work to the world and I'm forever grateful.
Kelly Irving — legend. We worked at a rocking pace for this one! I have come to rely heavily not only on your editing skill but on your intellect, your deep knowledge (no doubt from reading HEAPS of books) and your no‐nonsense approach to writing great business books. Blessed to have you in my world.
Janine Garner — you loved my stuff so much you started sharing it far and wide before it was even fully developed in my head! Thank you for putting me in front of your valued inner circle and clients.
Anne Marie — once again your honesty and humour in applying your exquisite knowledge of the Queen's English are appreciated and loved. It was during our regular morning walks, where I shared, mused and debriefed many of the concepts in this book. Thank you.
Emma McGeorge — you continue to be the inspiration for much of my writing as I strive to create a better corporate working environment for everyone and, particularly, for you. I love you, my darling girl.
And finally, there is nothing I could do in my professional or personal life without the loving support of my husband, Steve. Our location has changed since the last time I wrote acknowledgements for a book, but nothing else has. You are still of service. You still swap out empty cups of tea and bring me snacks without my noticing. I'm still blessed. Thank you, my love.
Introduction
In 2020, Kim, like many workers around the world, found herself either in lockdown or being encouraged to work from home as authorities tried to get a handle on the pandemic.
Based in Victoria, she experienced one of Australia's toughest and longest lockdowns as it affected not just her but her family.
Prior to the pandemic, she would take her three‐year‐old son to day care. Mornings were chaotic for everyone. A far from relaxed breakfast, often eaten on the run, was followed by a half‐crazed drive for the drop‐off and the daily heartbreak of her son crying and clinging to her legs.
When lockdown hit and she had to work from home, Kim had time to walk her son to day care because she no longer had to commute. The tears and clinging stopped immediately. The dawdling morning walk allowed for a slower and calmer transition.
Kim had been refunded her commute time. The two hours a day gifted to her by COVID‐19 restrictions were hers to use however she wished. She could simply have continued the upsetting morning routine, but she decided instead to spend the time wisely, and the return on that investment was huge.
If you were affected by lockdown, or had to work from home, how did you spend the commute time that was refunded to you?
Let's pause for a moment and do the maths. A commute of around one hour each way was common. Two hours' travel a day translated into ten hours a week that weren't spent in a car or on public transport. That's a whole extra day saved! Even if you caught the train and worked for part of the commute, the time saved was still yours to spend as you chose.
If I had asked you in 2019 what you would do with an extra day every week, how would you have answered?
You might have said you'd spend more time with your kids, read more, meal plan for the week, take up a hobby, study remotely or learn to navigate the new world in which many people work from home. Or maybe you would have said you'd simply catch up on sleep.
I don't think any of you would have said you would fill the saved time with more email and work‐based projects.
Unfortunately, however, many of us perpetuated our already hectic lifestyles. Instead of recognising the time refund as a gift, we simply absorbed it back into our busy, out‐of‐control, overwhelmed lives. This meant many of us were more exhausted than when we commuted.
This book will help you take back time, get a refund if you will, build a time margin into your world so you are not operating constantly at 100 per cent-plus capacity, and rack up some room to move, breathe and think!
How good does that sound!?
People constantly tell me they are tired, exhausted and overwhelmed. They can't keep up with the pressures of modern‐day living.
It's like we are always ‘on' and have no idea how to hit the off switch — we don't even know there is one!
In Australia we work 3.2 billion hours a year in unpaid overtime, we have 134 million days of accrued annual leave, and 3.8 million of us don't take lunch breaks. And 7.4 million Australians don't get enough sleep.
We seem to have become ‘rest resistant'. We are addicted to being busy and it's preventing us from getting the rest we need to perform at our best.
Wellbeing and productivity adviser Thea O'Connor reminds us, ‘The simple fact is, if you don't give your brain a break you'll start to work more slowly and you'll make more errors.'
One of the things I learned in 2020 was that I didn't have to be ‘on' all the time. I could actually organise my life so I started my first meeting at a time that suited me and I delivered sessions and workshops at a time that suited me.
I'm not sure why it took a pandemic for me to make that connection, but here I am. I spent a year protecting approximately 15 per cent of every day for time to think. I took time to reflect on what my customers needed rather than on what I was currently selling them. I spent time reading lots of articles online about what others were saying, and I began to craft my own story about what I had to offer. It led me to initiatives I had never thought of before. An Instagram account called ‘Daily dose of Donna' provided simple tips and pick‐me‐ups for people in lockdown. I gained a heap of followers very quickly, and from those tips I began to develop programs that led me to a dozen new clients.
I believe that's why my practice was able not just to survive when others were folding or struggling, but to grow in a number of different directions. The investment of time saved gave me the ability to take advantage of opportunities.
For Kim and her son, that means never going back to the way things were before the pandemic. She considers the time she spends with him on the walk to the day‐care centre sacrosanct and immovable.
That's my wish for everyone reading this book. I hope that by the time you've finished reading it you'll have implemented some simple strategies that will give you both the capacity and the space to think, breathe, work and enjoy your life even more.
Are you ready to see how?
How to use this book
This book mirrors the way I run my webinars, workshops, corporate programs and hands‐on sessions. It is practical and easy to read and navigate, so you can quickly implement real yet simple changes in the way you work.
It isn't a hefty tome that you'll have trouble carrying around, or that you'll leave on your bedside table to gather coffee‐cup stains. Rather, it offers quick tips, real‐life stories, lots of no‐nonsense advice, questions to encourage you to reflect on how you're working now and how you
