How many times have you thought or said, “Sure, I’d like to (take a course, take a vacation, work on an extra skill or project, etc.) but there just isn’t enough time.” When we say, “There just isn’t enough time,” we are shirking responsibility.
Let’s see the time and I’ll show you what I mean.
Time is a unique resource. It cannot be saved, stopped, or replaced. It’s interesting, then, that some people seem to “find time” to accomplish things that others don’t. Some people seem to be able to “manage time” better than others and are therefore able to “use time better.”
The fact is that these resourceful people can’t “find time” or “manage time” any more than the rest of us. Time cannot be “managed” or “found.” We all have the same amount of time in a day, a week, a month, and a year.
Everybody has:
24 hours in a day
168 hours in a week
8,736 hours in a year
613,200 hours in life (assuming a useful life of 70 years)
306,600 hours left (assuming you are now 35 years old)
How many hours do you have left to live? Take a minute to calculate the time and write your answer in the margin. Compare the achievements you have achieved in the time you have already lived with the goals you want to achieve in the time you have left. Are you satisfied with where you are and where you are going?
Ask yourself how you can use the remaining time to achieve work, professional, and personal goals that are meaningful to you. Ask yourself, “What is the one thing I can do TODAY that, if done excellently, would have significant positive results in my department, career, or personal life?”
Time management is not about time at all; it’s about priorities. These are achievements that, at the end of the day, are the most important to you. It’s about setting achievable goals and using a planned approach to achieve those goals amidst the many forces that compete for your time every day.
Align your goals with external forces
Have you ever started a diet during the holidays? Unless you’ve opted to go to health camp over the holidays, you’ve probably succumbed to the many tasty and not-so-healthy food temptations found during these times. The fact that no one else seemed to be on a diet didn’t help either! In short, her goal to lose weight was not aligned with the realities of the season.
The same goes for goals. Goals are easier to achieve if they are aligned with external forces. For example, if your career goal is to achieve lateral promotion to another part of the United States and the company goal is to reduce all transfers, your goal is not aligned with outside forces and you will have a challenge meeting your goal.
If your goals ARE NOT aligned with the company’s goals, you may be seen as a malcontent, a troublemaker. If your goals ARE aligned with the company’s goals, you are seen as supporting the company and your team is seen as an important contributing force in the organization.
Ask yourself: “Will achieving my goals help the company achieve its goals?” If your goals MAY NOT align with company goals, you may want to revise your goal (or consider finding another company to work for!).
Anchor your goals with internal forces
It is also important that your goals are anchored to your inner strengths or values. If you do not value the achievement of your goal, or the achievement of your goal goes against your values and principles, your goal will be difficult to achieve.
Ask yourself, “Will achieving this goal reinforce who I am as a team member, leader, or person?” If your goal COULD NOT reinforce who you are, you might want to revise your goal.
Link your goals to the goals of others
Finally, achieving a goal is easier if it’s tied to another goal you have or someone else’s goal. You may find that several of your objectives can be linked very well; by working on one, you can easily work on several. Even more powerful is linking your goal to another person’s or department’s goal.
Ask yourself, “Who else could benefit from achieving this goal?” Discuss your goal with this person to see if there is a chance to work on mutually beneficial goals.
By aligning, anchoring, and linking our goals, they become easier to achieve.
NOTE: Once you’ve identified your goals, you’ll want to record them in a conspicuous place, one where you can see the goals on a daily basis.
Long-term success happens one week at a time.
When you go on a diet, are you “okay” every day? If you ruin your diet by going out one night, do you give up your goal? The answer (hopefully) is “no”. Similarly, if your goal is to be promoted a year from now and you haven’t done anything about it today, do you give up on your goal? The answer is no.” Most people focus too much on the long-term goal OR the day-to-day task. The truth is, you need to look beyond the day-to-day and before the long-term goal toward your intermediate goal
Think about how you walk. Try to walk looking down with each step you take. You may never stumble, but you will certainly lose track of where you are going. Now, try walking facing your destination (say a building a mile away); You CAN reach your goal if you don’t fall down the steps or get hit by a truck crossing the street! To walk effectively, you need to look ahead, not a mile ahead, but several steps ahead.
To effectively achieve your long-term goals, you must first break them down into intermediate goals, goals that can be reasonably accomplished in a week (or for longer-term goals, in a month).
You’ll want to keep track of these intermediate goals on a monthly calendar. NOTE: You’ll also want to keep track of appointments, meetings, and other business action items on this monthly calendar; this will allow you to quickly see how full or free a specific week will be.
daily planning
Having intermediate and long-term goals are the first two steps in “time management.” The third step is to ACT! As the saying goes, “The longest journey begins with the first step.”
Many people, all with good intentions, ignore the realities of the day when they begin to integrate their intermediate goals into their daily regimen. They forget that they have meetings they are supposed to attend, work commitments they are expected to keep, and other things that will drain their available time. As a result, they get frustrated with the lack of progress on their goals and get angry at the things (work and family obligations) that take up all the time.
Take a few minutes each morning to plan your day:
Step 1: Identify your appointments, meetings, and other business action items.
Your first step in planning your day is to transfer appointments and other business action items from the monthly calendar. These are not discretionary: you have already committed to them. Take the time now to transfer appointments and business action items from your monthly calendar to your daily calendar in the appropriate places.
Step 2: Plan your daily duties.
Your second step is to plan your daily tasks such as phone calls, mail, inbox items, etc. These are activities that are less defined than action items, but still require a portion of your day. By planning these duties, you allocate time for them without letting them drive all day.
Step 3: Make appointments with yourself.
Your third step is to “make appointments with yourself” by identifying which intermediate steps you want to tackle today. Transfer these discretionary activities (intermediate steps) from your Goal Planning page. This makes discretionary items non-discretionary simply by recording the item in the daily plan. You move the future into the present so you can act on it now!
Here are some tips to help you “manage time” and achieve long-term success:
o Limit the number of activities you plan for a day. Commit to and complete a few activities instead of overcommitting.
o Get in the habit of planning for 15 minutes every day.
o Make your priority first. Period. Include some quiet time to accomplish your
Maximum priority.
o Take a long-term view of your commitments. Does your calendar fill up fast? Should? Allocate your non-discretionary time carefully from week to week.
o Take a midrange perspective when planning the time for your intermediate steps. “What is the one thing I know that if I did great THIS WEEK I would have significant positive results in my department, career, and/or personal life?”
o Use your time management system to keep track of important information such as your department, career and personal goals and intermediate steps; your appointments, business action items and other commitments; and your contacts.
Entelechy Time Mastery Tip
“What is the one thing I can do TODAY that, if done excellently, would have significant positive results in my department, career, or personal life?”
Terence R. Traut is President of Entelechy, Inc., a company that helps organizations unlock the potential of their people through customized training programs in the areas of sales, management, customer service, and training. Terence can be reached at 603-424-1237 or [email protected]. Visit the Entelechy website at http://www.unlockit.com.