Philip Benton

This is where I post about a day in the life of me.

The new Chiro+ Office Chair

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A couple of weeks ago on a Sunday morning I woke up with an extremely sore back which lasted the entire day. It was so bad towards the end of the evening I had to resort to watching the Master Snookers final standing up.

It took the best of a the week for my back to feel 100% again so it was during that week I decided to purchase a better office chair, after all I spend the majority of my day sat at my desk so having a suitable chair is a good choice.

Next came the task of knowing which chair to buy. I had previously seen what I considered a decent chair in Staples, so Laura and I went down there for a look at it. Luckily for me it was out of stock as it was on their website also.

After a Google search for an "Ergonomic Office Chair" I came across a website called The Office Chair Shop. The selection of chairs I was looking at was very good for all price ranges. Initially I was considering a Mirage Mesh chair for around £180. After deciding I didn't really trust the website on first impressions I decided to Tweet them asking for their thoughts on this Mirage chair.

A short time later I received a DM from them asking for my email address so they could provide their thoughts and recommendations.

I was delighted when Mark sent through an email with his thoughts on the Mirage (recommending it) but also links and further details to other chairs in their range. Mark recommended that with the amount of usage I had described I choose a chair which has as much adjustment as possible in order to get comfort and posture just right.

After an exhange of emails I decided to go for the Chiro+, a Chiropractor approved chair. The chair was more expensive than the original I had looked at but I considered it good value.

To my surprise Mark offered me a better price for the chair so of course I went and ordered it. He also offered to send the chair ready built at no extra cost. It was nice to see a company go out of their way to please a customer.

The chair arrived a few days later ready built, easy to adjust and extremely comfortable. I made the right choice. I can't recommend The Office Chair Shop highly enough.

Improving Time Management

Last week I attended my second quarterly business planning day at Windlesham Golf Club, hosted by Steve Shaw of Sapphire Synergy. These excellent planning days are put on specifically for Steve's clients as a way of getting together to set goals with actions for the next quarter.

For me the focus of the day was on time management, an area I have struggled to get to grips with for a very long time. I realise the high importance of managing time correctly and over the last year of so I have tried many different systems, none of which seem to work for a variety of reasons.

Two key factors of time management came out of the day which I have implemented in a bid to take control of my time; a daily routine and dumping all tasks into OmniFocus for review.

The importance of a daily routine.

Outlining a daily routine is a great way of freeing your mind from anything other than what you should be doing at a specific time. I realised that by defining set times to work on set topics (such as blogging as I am doing now) is a great way to forget about everything else and remove stressful thinking.

My set daily routine only covers mornings and has some things repeated at various points throughout the week just in case I have a meeting on a set day so I can still work on that topic at another point during the week.

After lunch I am free to work on whatever else I feel important at the time, that may be a continuation of the morning, an article I have read and want to explore further, etc.

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This is of course my first draft, I may choose to make changes to the routine to suit when I do certain things better.

Dumping all tasks into OmniFocus.

If you don't know of OmniFocus it is a task management application for both Mac, iPhone and iPad with syncronisation between all 3. I find it to be the best task management app because it is more than a list of tasks, it is a list of goals with actions to achieve those goals.

The inbox allows you to dump any thoughts from your head without having to worry about organising them. When you are ready later (for me each morning), open up OmniFocus and spend a few minutes organising those thoughts into Projects and Contexts.

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How do you best organise your time?

How do you best organise your time? Is a daily routine something you use? Do you use any other apps to store your tasks? I'd love to know your thoughts...

Sunday morning walk around Crowthorne Forest

I'm not usually one for walking, especially when it's cold out. This morning however, Laura managed to persuade me. We headed to Crowthorne Forest for a rather frosty, but sunny walk. Despite the sun, I was still cold.

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The journey begins NOW

2012, a brand new year. A time when people all over the World decide it’s time to change a few things. I am sure that top of the list will be things such as lose weight, find a new job or take up a hobby. I must admit I don’t usually believe in all that new year new start rubbish, my view has always been there’s no time like the present no matter what time of year it is. However, this year i’m doing things “by the book” and aim to achieve things on my list…

So what exactly is on my list? (i hear my small readership cry) Well that is something you will find out along the way no doubt, but for now I want to focus on one, blogging! Blogging is something I have admired for a very long time. To me there is something about a blog which get’s me excited when I am browsing it. From design, topics, writing styles and even the advertising all pulling together to create a magical site.

Until now dare I say it, i’ve been too scared to blog. Perhaps scared is not quite the correct word, worried may be better. I’ve always been worried about getting it wrong. I could be described as a perfectionist, if I put a blog out there for the World to see I want the design to be spot on, the content and writing style to be exact. There is of course nothing wrong with this, except for me it means never getting started.

However, I am slowly trying to change my mindset. Being lucky enough to work with a number of successful businessmen who seem to start businesses that are by no means perfect but do extremely well has taught me this:

“get it up there, see if people like it, then work on improving it”

I myself read many business coaching books, entrepreneur success stories, etc and always believe I could have a slice of the action. After all I won’t get a brand new Land Rover Discovery and a passive income this year by doing a 9 - 5 job!

So, this is the start of my blogging journey. Over the coming weeks I intend to define a niche topic, marketing strategies, the blogging platform and tools, as well as the icing on the cake; monetization (should this have an s instead of z?). Through this personal blog; philipbenton.com, I will document as I go, hoping to develop my own writing style.

Lastly, if you can recommend books to develop and improve as a writer, please feel free to let me know, I will be grateful of the help.

Wish me luck!