Except for those in the Southern hemisphere, most of us are in the grip of a cold snap that’s setting records in some areas and causing major disruption everywhere.

While the snow can be photogenic from a landscape perspective, this isn’t just a minor inconvenience for us photographers, especially those who create portraits on location – for many it’s brought business to an apparent standstill.

But, within every disadvantage is the seed of an equal or greater benefit…

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Personal Zen planning, professional photographer, time management

If only that were true – how much more could we do in a day?

I enjoy watching Dave Ramsey on the Fox Business Network whenever I can, and last night I managed to catch it while I was cooking dinner. Dave’s guest for the evening was Dr. Henry Cloud, who had some very interesting things to say about time management and setting boundaries between our personal lives and work lives.

As I was simultaneously listening and trying not to burn dinner, I realized that much of what Dr. Cloud said applies very well to us as professional photographers, especially those, like me, who work out of their home.

How many of you feel at the end of a busy day that you’ve really achieved something with the time you had? I know I sometimes get frustrated at many of the interruptions that divert my attention from what I’m supposed to be focused on, leaving me feeling overwhelmed and disappointed at the end of the day. It’s unpleasant going to sleep with the thought of all the things you should have done that day, but will have to do tomorrow.

Plugged Into The Matrix:

I’m sure it was a lot easier in the days before email, mobile phones and Facebook – but now we have so many distractions throughout the day that they can really affect our level of achievement. Sometimes I feel as though we, as a society, constantly need to be plugged into something, and I doubt there’s a hardly a place on the planet where we could hide for too long without being disturbed in some way.

Several years ago, when I still worked in the corporate world, my bosses thought it would be good for me to attend the “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” course. One of the key points of that course was the concept of prioritizing tasks and potential interruptions using a simple chart of important/unimportant and urgent/non-urgent. Something can be important, but not urgent, but the tasks we need to focus our time and energies on are the important/urgent ones.

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Personal Zen planning, time management