WEEKEND COLUMNISTS Tips and tricks. I am always keen to learn about things that might save me time. People often ask me how I manage everything – the business, the writing, the teaching, the charity work, the three cost centres. Oh, and a husband who really cannot understand why people need to wear top hats to go to Royal Ascot. (“I look like an undertaker/what do the British think they are playing at/I could have bought a new driver for the price of this hat”, etc.)
My top tip for busy working women is to learn from other people about how to save time. I will forever be grateful to the person (herself a working mother) who taught me that by pressing the letter “t” at any time on your BlackBerry you go straight to the top of the e-mail pile, or, if you are in an e-mail, straight to the top of the e-mail itself. So, here are two of my own top tips for time-saving if, like me, you are trying to multi-task faster than a Cray computer. I have also added my personal favourite websites from the Mrs M black book.
First, take a laptop to the hairdresser, especially when you are having your colour done. The wonderful thing about hairdressers is that there are power points at every seat. I recognise that this only applies to women, and it is also a credit crunch tip – when we start to leave the recession I will return to the ultimate time-saving measure with hair, which is to have someone come to the office. In London, this also works with manicures and other beauty treatments. Try www.perfectlyathome.com.
Second, take taxis from time to time instead of (a) the tube or (b) driving yourself. This allows you to make those three extra telephone calls that you wouldn’t otherwise have time for. My children, my parents, the business call that is not time-sensitive but probably reputation-building – these are all beneficiaries from being above ground and not driving myself. It might cost money but the gain will be disproportionate. As the recession ends, have yourself driven regularly – not many businesses can justify a full-time driver but chauffeurs cost less than you think. Any evening with more than two must-be-seen-at drinks parties justifies the expense: no need to check your coat, you can leave your bag in the car, as well as reserve supplies of business cards and spare pairs of tights, and you can look generous by offering to drive people home in something better than a mini-cab. Try www.meridianchauffeurs.com. (And, if you run out of spare pairs of tights, have them sent to the office with www.mytights.com.)
I think you get the picture. Please do send me your own time-saving measures – as I said, I love to learn! One of my colleagues, another busy working mother, sent us all an e-mail today that showed not only a worrying preoccupation with baking but, more generously, how much we all think of trying to save each other time. “I made these last night between putting my cost centre to bed, cooking for my in-laws, packing for our holiday and doing some work!” She was referring to some brownies.
Now, I am not a brownie-baking sort of mother – what is Marks and Spencer for? – but here is my, or rather her, final time-saving tip.
Oven at 180°C; 8in cake tin, buttered and lined.
Slowly melt together 185g dark chocolate and 185g butter.
Mix in 200g sugar (I use 100g brown and 100g caster), plus 1 tsp vanilla essence.
Beat in 3 large eggs.
Mix in 125g of plain flour.
Mix in one small bag of pecans, lightly crushed by hand as you drop them in.
Pour into tin and bake for 20-25 minutes.
You can double the recipe and bake in a shallow roasting tin. Delicious!
