Forgot about a meeting.

Definitely - and it can be a costly problem! We once got back from staying in a B&B on a mini-break to find an emailed bill from a big brand hotel that I'd originally made a booking with, but had forgotten to cancel. I beat myself up about that one for a long, long time! 

Bunny said:

I beat myself up about that one for a long, long time! 

I know that feeling, but reflecting on the use of this sort of self flagellation is actually really counterproductive.

I learned a much more effective technique in management training courses over the years that is much more useful, and it is really simple.

1 - Perform an analysis of the event. What happened, what went well and what went wrong.

2 - Consider the possible options that could have been used to prevent the situation and if they were available to you at the time.

3 - Create a "lessons learned" outcome from the review. What went well can be reused in future and for the things that went wrong, how to treat them in future.

The "how to treat them in future" has 4 options to it:

Consider booking a weekend break and the risk is you need to cancel it:

1 - Accept. This means you say something like "well my memory is rubbish so it may happen and I'll live with it".

2 - Share. This means you have someone who agrees that they will also keep an eye on it with you in case you forget. This does not mean you should just forget however.

3 - Mitigate. This means taking steps to make the impact less painful or less of a hit. It may involve chosing a hotel that has a half fee if you are a no-show for example.

4 - Avoid. This means finding a way that there is no fee to pay. Maybe it is finding a hotel with a no-show, no pay policy, agreeing a confirmation date cutoff where if you don't contact them then it is cancelled etc.

5 - Transfer. This is where you get someone else to do it all and they remind you nearer the time. Typically it is a third party to the family and you have a conract with them so they take the financial hit if they fail.

It is worth keeping these in your email or cloud storage so you can dig it out when you need to do it again - no need to reinvent the wheel.

There you go - that is how the professionals do it and once you have done one or two it is really easy.

Bunny said:

I beat myself up about that one for a long, long time! 

I know that feeling, but reflecting on the use of this sort of self flagellation is actually really counterproductive.

I learned a much more effective technique in management training courses over the years that is much more useful, and it is really simple.

1 - Perform an analysis of the event. What happened, what went well and what went wrong.

2 - Consider the possible options that could have been used to prevent the situation and if they were available to you at the time.

3 - Create a "lessons learned" outcome from the review. What went well can be reused in future and for the things that went wrong, how to treat them in future.

The "how to treat them in future" has 4 options to it:

Consider booking a weekend break and the risk is you need to cancel it:

1 - Accept. This means you say something like "well my memory is rubbish so it may happen and I'll live with it".

2 - Share. This means you have someone who agrees that they will also keep an eye on it with you in case you forget. This does not mean you should just forget however.

3 - Mitigate. This means taking steps to make the impact less painful or less of a hit. It may involve chosing a hotel that has a half fee if you are a no-show for example.

4 - Avoid. This means finding a way that there is no fee to pay. Maybe it is finding a hotel with a no-show, no pay policy, agreeing a confirmation date cutoff where if you don't contact them then it is cancelled etc.

5 - Transfer. This is where you get someone else to do it all and they remind you nearer the time. Typically it is a third party to the family and you have a conract with them so they take the financial hit if they fail.

It is worth keeping these in your email or cloud storage so you can dig it out when you need to do it again - no need to reinvent the wheel.

There you go - that is how the professionals do it and once you have done one or two it is really easy.

Oh dear Iain and your marvy lists, thanks! List clarify everything!