Tips on How to Manage a Busy Life

Tips on How to Manage a Busy Life was first published in The Busy Lifestyle Magazine.

To manage a busy life is what he knows quite well. An executive with innovation management, digital transformation and change management experience, a public speaker, university lecturer, coach and mentor, Yves Zieba has a first hand knowledge about how to successfully manage a hectic schedule.

And he found the time to answer our questions about what it means to live a busy life, his motivation to go further, his “why”, his ways to cope with a hectic life and busy schedule and why it is important to make time for what matters the most to you.

Time flies when you enjoy what you do. But sometimes you just need to stop and smell the flowers

Tell us a little about yourself and your many professional activities.

I am Yves Zieba, I am an entrepreneur and a strategy professor. I develop brands in sustainable fashion, modern education marketing and hi-tech. I build entrepreneurs and freelancers communities in the Greater Geneva Area in Switzerland.

You have many things that keep you busy. What motivates you to go further? And, if we were to use the now famous expression of Simon Sinek: what is your WHY?

What motivates me is, primarily, the quality and inspiration coming from the people I work with.

Of course, I have my preferred topics and industries that I am more familiar with. They include education, innovation, strategy and emerging technologies.

To manage a busy life nowadays is not easy, but as long as you know what matters you can start prioritizing. My family and friends are my prime motivation factors. Making them proud, making them happy, making them laugh, is a strong trigger. This is what I call making time for what matters.

We are entering the 4th Industrial Revolution, with many turbulences in front of us, I am super keen to anticipate new trends for me, for my relatives, for my children. Getting them to become ethical and environmentally aware entrepreneurs is a strong driver.

Further reading: Learn how to stay focused when the number of attention hijacking activities is on the rise. Lack of focus is not only one of the main causes of stress (and the stress statistics worldwide are quite alarming) but it also has an impact on creativity and ultimately our general sense of happiness.

With so many hats and so many areas of interest, you are obviously a busy person. How it feels to be so busy?

It is not too difficult to be very busy when you are evolving in a non-toxic working environment.

Time flies when you enjoy what you do and when you lead a high performing team. I realise I can have a very large volume of work when I am in a non-judgmental and supportive environment.

On the contrary my productivity can drop very quickly if I am not in the right company or with the right people.
Being busy doing interesting work with passion, has never been a problem.

I try to be disciplined in the way I priorise my time (based on opportunities and threats), while always keeping some room for the people who matter. For them, I do not count my time, it is « Pleasure time ».

Further reading: Stress is like garbage. You have to learn to get rid of it before it accumulates. Knowing one or more relaxation techniques is a good start.

How do you cope with being so busy? What are your secrets for recharging?

I like to travel, see new places, meet new people, that is my fresh air. As soon as I can, I go outside for a run, a walk or to allow myself some contemplation time.

Occasionally, when I get tired or sick, I look after my quality of life, my quality of sleep, after what I eat and drink, I also started to practice yoga and to keep myself informed about meditation, reiki and sophrology.

For me, the ideal way to cope with busy times, is to prepare for a break and to organise a learning expedition with great people in a new place far away, and to take the time to breath and think.

Further reading: If you are often on business trips these are the 10 things only a frequent business traveller understands. If you are not a frequent business traveller you might not quite understand the sadness in the humour.

What would you recommend to the entrepreneurs and business leaders who live a busy life but want to stay healthy and on top of their game?

The key is to find the right people around you. I am very lucky because I can trust my friends and family, and in the working environment I try to identify who I can trust. Make time for them. That’s what matters in the end.

It is not only my job, but it is a matter of survival. That makes a huge difference. I don’t believe we can live well alone.

So embracing a collective approach to work, being at ease in different positions (leader, manager, doer, maker, watcher, helper, majority shareholder, minority shareholder) in different situations, and practicing what you are not yet at ease with. It can be a langage, an attitude, public speaking…

It is always good to have development needs, it keeps you learning. We are entering an area of egoistic altruism. It is important to find the time to be altruist to live better.