Ah, yes… Work/life balance. Before meeting Barbara, I thought is was a ‘mythical unicorn’. I am a mum of two, have 2 small businesses, help run a networking group, help with P&C, I go to about 10-15 networking events every month and somewhere in there, I’m a wife. As you can imagine, I didn’t have a lot of time, was getting snappy at the ones I love and was starting to burn out. Like a superhero, I summoned Barbara to the rescue (I think she needs a cape). Barbara was able to assess my workload and my workspace. She has helped me put systems and tools in place both physically, digitally, mentally and emotionally. I now have ‘me time’ and ‘kids play time’ scheduled into my calendar. It’s as important as any other appointment. I’m able to prioritise and focus on one job at a time and curb procrastination this increased my efficiency and it even feels like my workload has decreased along with my stress.

My husband and family have seen the positive difference both at work and home and other business people; mums are in ore of what I can achieve in a day and they all want to know how. I always have Barbara’s card on hand to show them that they fit more into their day too. Thank you Barbara.

I started having stress and time management coaching sessions with Barbara after I had become unhappy and stressed as a stay-at-home single parent and had spent two years trying to start self-employment opportunities without success. Barbara helped me develop a vision statement, feel more confident about myself and my abilities and provided me with useful goal setting techniques, useful websites for managing time and meditations to find more calm. Thanks to Barbara my decisions are more focused and align with my vision statement, I am meditating regularly and I am confident in my abilities to re-enter the workforce again.

I am often asked for references [or testimonials] and rarely give them. In the case of Barbara Clifford I am more than willing to provide an insight into someone who has worked for me and with me for many years and that I truly respect. Barbara’s passion for productivity is inspiring. Her appetite for innovation meant that Barbara was able to recommend small, simple methods of business activity that made a great difference to our working environment. Her mature approach gave me the freedom to adapt or reject ideas with ease.

A skilled negotiator, Barbara was often able to manage important projects, giving me the freedom to spend time in my business, knowing she had the job at hand. Barbara is an adaptable thinker and by no means rigid in her approach. I was able to work with Barbara, often with tight deadlines, on a variety of projects until I felt comfortable with the outcomes.

Barbara’s varied experience means she is a great asset to any organisation and a natural educator. I cannot be any clearer than to say, Barb is a great asset to have on any team.

I commenced working with Barbara approximately 12 months ago. At that time, I was juggling a number of projects with numerous variables within each project. Each project had a defined timeline, with the outcomes attached to funding. I was extremely stressed. I was feeling increasingly overwhelmed and disappointed with my own skills and my inability to effectively solve problems in an efficient and timely manner. I needed to change my negative thinking around these tasks and become willing to change the way I approached them.

During this time Barbara has been an unwavering ‘rock’ of support and guidance. Barbara’s coaching knowledge and her personal ‘skill set’ and approach, which I believe, has accelerated my learning and skill development. When I commenced working with Barbara, I had hundreds of emails, and I did not know where to start. I didn’t know how to ‘prioritise’ my tasks. Additionally, I did not have a system to track and monitor my tasks. I believe that Barbara has saved me anywhere from 8 – 12 hours per week.

Barbara has assisted me significantly by setting up ‘Systems’. Prioritising was a difficult principle to apply as I had such a backlog of tasks to complete. Many of these systems have been ‘automatically’ implemented, others have been simplified. This has reduced my work and personal stress levels significantly. With these systems in place, I feel as though I have an increased level of appreciation of both myself and my skills. My self-confidence has increased significantly, as I now have a monitoring system, which provides evidence, to my Team Leader the exact status of my workload/s and time frames for tasks. Additionally, this is a great communication tool for both myself and colleagues It is a delight working with Barbara, her level of professionalism, her personal qualities and abilities to support me and meet my needs during the journey of our time working together have been unwavering. I encourage other’s (who maybe also be floundering and frustrated, as I was) to undertake a journey of
personal and professional development with her, as I feel that it would be extremely beneficial to others. I have every confidence that others would not be disappointed.

Barbara Clifford has worked with the Stress Management Institute on special projects to assist us to improve our systems and process. Her ability to fine tune the simple things makes a world of difference, but most importantly, enables us to feel confident that we are operating effectively and efficiently.

Barbara’s strong command of communication allows us to quickly understand and embrace new concepts, yet Barbara is also able to clearly understand our complex needs, finding solutions that bring out the best in our organisation.

We entrust Barbara with key responsibilities knowing that she is highly proficient at prioritizing and organising. Her versatility and ability to adapt to constant change and interruption that is common place in business today ensure that our team feels well supported and secure as the Institute’s activities  continually grow.

I would like to personally thank you from both Yvonne and myself for allowing us your time to re-find a suitable starting point to build our business.

The tools, tricks and tips you gave us has literally changed our perception and enabled us to re-evaluate, devise and develop a sound business strategy to launch a unique product to the market.

Whilst still in its infancy I firmly believe that our business will be bigger than Ben Hur within the next 6 months due in part to your simple and practical philosophies.

Many thanks again for your genuine assistance and networking opportunities.

Sometimes you do not really know you need help until you actually get it, and so many things come back into focus. That is how I can best describe my experience working with Barbara Clifford, The Time Tamer.
I got in touch with Barbara not because I felt I did not have enough time to achieve what I wanted in my business, but to see if there is was help working out what I actually wanted to do. I thought I was a classic procrastinator and did not need help with my time.
Turns out I did need the help and did learn to be ok with saying no.
Barbara helped me slow down, sort my priorities, and set goals for my business, and real-life goals for myself. Turning the spotlight on myself was really hard because I love to help other people, but we got through the fog and I have a clearer idea of what I want to do, and where I am going.
The 12-month program was flexible and full of non-judgemental support and direction. Barbara provided me regular opportunities to talk, tackle difficult elements of my business, along with introducing me to a range of digital tools. Most importantly I am much more confident about my systems and the services I offer to clients, and my professional development. So yes, without hesitation I would definitely recommend having a chat with Barbara!

I am so grateful that I spoke to you, because the training was exactly what we needed. We have been working daily on our self-care and positive mental health and wellbeing both in and out of the workplace –this training has allowed us to strengthen what we already had in place whilst giving us new daily and as needed coping strategies to work on and practice.

The scientific side of the training, was hugely beneficial to us as it allowed us to understand what was happening to our stress levels/bodies during our very stressful period. We continue to be highly connected and impacted by grief and loss, however we now have strong strategies, boundaries and coping tools in place. Additionally, we have a clear understanding of why it is so important to continue to shift our mindset and behaviours, which only motivates us more to stay healthy and well in all aspects – from the food we eat, to moving our bodies and to making time for ourselves to continue to do the work we do.

Even the other day, I was in a terrible mood, my colleague shifted it by doing the laughing exercise!!  I have also completed the work booklet, with the different exercise sheets and will utilise the ones that resonate with me on an ongoing basis. I have put into practice the cancellation visualisation which helps me to walk away from potential frustrating/conflictual conversations that don’t need to happen (although having said that, it is still a work in practice lol).

All in all, a very practical and positive experience, completely relating to what we needed support with which is interconnected to not only our work practices but our personal lives as well.

Thank you – it was lovely meeting you and I enjoyed your presence also

I got value from the workshop because I’ve got things to implement – I got shared learning and practical ways to save me time.

It was a practical workshop with very useable ideas. It gives me a better understanding for using outlook and sorting emails. It challenged my thinking of folders, how many to have and how to sort and organise.  I enjoyed the Time Management Style Quiz – nearly perfectly described my work habits. You are a great presenter, Barbara!  Very easy to listen to and provided a wealth of information.