Just do it: Ciara’s productivity tips to succeed

Spending your life rushing around stressed as you try, in vain, to get ’to do’ lists finished? Áilín Quinlan gets some tips from productivity consultant, Ciara Conlon.

She taught English, set up a language school, worked in the IT sector, created websites and started businesses. But somehow, despite having a strong entrepreneurial flair, nothing ever seemed to come of Ciara Conlon’s efforts.

For a long time, says the 44-year-old Dubliner, now a productivity consultant, author and vice-president of Network Ireland, she couldn’t figure out what was holding her back. “I was naturally disorganised — I’d leave things lying around, couldn’t focus. I had lots of ideas and I’d be starting up websites and businesses but I never followed through.”