Time management has become a difficult thing for the average Joe like you and I. We are inundated non-stop with time wasters in the disguise of something new and exciting. I often find myself looking at Facebook on my phone checking my news feed only five or ten minutes after I just checked it. I obsess over being in the know over what’s new in the lives of my friends and acquaintances. The truth of the matter is that you and I have become addicted to things of little or no consequence, but the consequences for our own lives are huge.
On an average day I will have between 10-15 tasks that I would like to get done. Some of these things are very trivial, like helping my wife do the dishes, doing my laundry, or sending a few emails. Others are geared towards self-improvement: weight lifting, running, reading, etc. Then there are the 3-5 really important tasks for the day: writing this blog post, following up with my boss, meeting with a potential client. The problem is that I often have so many “things to do”, and I’m so “busy” that I come to the end of the day and find that I have only accomplished a few of the things on my list and some of the most important tasks for the day remain undone. How do you and I conquer this lifestyle? How do you and I manage our time better?
Some will try to convince you that changing your day to day tasks is very easy. We’ve all heard one liners from others: “Attitude is everything!”, “You can achieve anything if you put your mind to it!”, or my personal favorite “Do or do not, there is no trying.” Yeah thanks a lot Yoda. While all these things do carry some weight and truth, they are very difficult for the average Joe like you and I to implement effectively into our lives. So what do we do?
The only way to manage our time more effectively is to have some aim, some purpose to our lives. If you have no direction, no goals, no aspirations, then the day to day grind doesn’t matter. Yes, what I’m saying is that you and I need to sit down, have a little “me time”, and make some goals that will guide us into a world where we control our circumstances and destinies instead of the other way around.
I recently finished reading a book called Time Management: An Introduction to the Franklin System by Richard I. Winwood. The author lays out a basic idea that I had never thought of before: our day to day lives need to be based on intermediate (short-term) goals, and those need to be based on long-term goals, which in turn are based on our values. This is the way that he has chosen to illustrate it.
In the past, I have often found myself setting goals that have nothing to do with my own personal values. I set goals in areas of music: learn to play the piano, learn to play the guitar, and learn to sing well. But, in truth these weren’t in union with my own values. They were only things that others had talent in, and I envied them for it. So come up with a list of between 10 and 15 governing values, then narrow the list to your top 5 or so through elimination of things you don’t truly value and combining things that are similar.
My top five numbered in order are as follows: 1) Knowledge, 2) Love/Family, 3) Fitness, 4) Spirituality, 5) Finances. Remember these are your governing values, you may not necessarily be following them or living up to them yet. Now take these values and turn them into affirmations. These affirmations are what you and I will use to base our long-term goals off of. Here are some of my affirmations: Knowledge – I am knowledgeable. I thirst for understanding and knowledge through study, reading, listening, analyzing, & prayer, Fitness – I am fit. I exercise regularly, eat healthily, and rest well. I go the extra mile (literally) when it comes to my fitness. Take your time when doing this because your values and affirmations will guide you in setting your goals which in turn will guide your day to day activities and make time management not only simple but also easy.
Now that you have your affirmations, let’s set some long-term goals. These are things that you would like to accomplish in the next 2 months to a year. Anything longer than that is not a goal, and it should be placed on a bucket list if you wish. Take your affirmations and break each one into 1-5 long-term goals that you would like to accomplish in that area. Here are my long-term knowledge goals: A) Read 24 books by December 31st, B) Finish rough draft of novel by April 28th, C) Write 40+ blog articles by December 31st, D) Publish short story by November 30th.
These goals are then used to make intermediate goals based on each long-term goal. Intermediate goals are things that you would like to accomplish within the next week or month. For my knowledge intermediate goals I have: A) Read 2 books this month, B) Write 2 chapters of my novel per week, C) Publish 1+ blog article each week, D) No current action. Notice how these correlate to the long-term goals. A linked to A, B to B, and so on.
Finally manage your time and control your circumstances. Make your goals work for you by taking them and making a daily schedule out of them. (Note that not everything will be a daily task). Some things will simply need plugged into your weekly schedule once or twice a week. For me that is writing my blogs. I don’t need to do this every day of the week, but I do need one or two days a week where I have this on my to-do list.
When you are looking over your to-do list note which things are most important to you and make sure that you accomplish them. Label the items on your list with an A, B, C, or D. Do all the A’s, before the B’s, and B’s before C’s. Avoid the D’s. Congratulations! You are well on the way to self-improvement and much more capable of managing your time and conquering your circumstances so that they do not conquer you. You are no longer too busy to shoot for the stars. You are a star!
PS. Some basics with goal setting. Make sure your goals are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant (some people will steer you towards their goals), and Time-Oriented (Exact dates).
