Queen of time at dairy conference

Pearce is an international expert in time management who grew up on her parent's South Rotorua dairy farm and was married to a Waikato sheep farmer for 15 years. She is now mum to a sheep and beef farmer, who is also a director of Beef + Lamb NZ. She raised six children, including her intellectually handicapped foster son and is a grandmother to 16 grandchildren.

As well as training, writing, blogging and speaking about time management in New Zealand, Australia, the US, Great Britain, Europe and the Middle East, Pearce's rural family background means she understands the everyday challenges that dairying women face when managing their time.

"Farm production and productivity is very much geared toward land and animal outputs, but how we manage our time also affects the bottom-line – if we're not productive that will be reflected in the farm's productivity and, more importantly, if things are really out of control, the wellbeing of our family and our own health can suffer."

She is a regular columnist in the New Zealand media, and admits the reason she teaches time management is because she used to be "very bad at it".

"I can honestly say I have walked in those shoes," Pearce says. "My time management skills almost put an end to my real estate career in the 80s and 90s. I was kicked out of meetings because of being late and I burnt out numerous times from overwork and poor time habits. I really do understand how it feels to be out of control."

Thankfully a friend cared enough to give her the push she needed to adopt a few basic time management principles - igniting Robyn's passion for the subject and transforming her greatest weakness into her major strength, and an international business.

Today she helps large national and international corporates train employees to better manage their time, including Rabobank, QBE Insurance, National Bank, NIWA, the International Cricket Council – Dubai, Academy for Chief Executives – UK and Beiersdorf NZ & Australia (makers of Nivea & Elastoplast), to name a few.

She says overload is being felt in all walks of life – and it's as prevalent on the farm as it is in the corporate world.

"When you are overloaded you'll look around your kitchen, your office, your paddock or shed, and you'll feel like you don't know where to start," she says." It's at these times, as things keep flying at you, that it's really important to know what to take on and what to push back on. I love showing people how to do 'helicopter thinking' - to rise above everything going on, get perspective, and then work on the tasks and projects that will make the greatest difference."

The Dairy Women's Network conference is an opportunity for people to step back and take the time to reflect on the things in their lives that really matter, she says.

"We all don't take the time to work on prioritising the really important things in our lives in a meaningful way – whether they are the way we use our time, the way we manage our home offices, the time we spend together as a family or any other business activities we have – we need to be sure that we are always only putting time and energy into the things that are going to make the biggest difference."

Joining Robyn at the conference is a world-class line-up of speakers including Olympian, Mahe Drysdale; Minister of Women's Affairs, Jo Goodhew; Parininihi Ki Waitotara (PKW) Farms Ltd Trustee, Hinerangi Edwards; and Blue Duck Station owner and eco-warrior, Dan Steele. The conference theme is Taking down the Boundary Fences and will cover subjects as diverse as animal nutrition, environmental constraints and developing future leaders.

The network also recently confirmed it had a new industry partner and conference sponsor, farm nutrient management specialist Ballance Agri-Nutrients.

To learn more about the Dairy Women's Network conference visit: www.dwn.co.nz. There are still spaces and accommodation available.