Matching your time management needs to your wants

If you know your strengths and weaknesses, you can better plan on how to utilise what you have to work with and fit your styles into your own personal clock in order to work more effectively, writes DAWN E RENO

Goals and objectives

When getting your time budget together, you need to project your goals and objectives, as well as your needs. What’s the difference? Needs are what you should do; goals are projected times when you need to accomplish tasks; objectives are the dates when you’d like to meet those goals-or the end result of the projects/tasks.

Goals are what you’d like to achieve by a certain time/date. They are something you anticipate and wish to bring under your control. Rationally you need to realise that by setting goals, you are doing some wishful thinking. If you meet your goals, wonderful. However, when we set our goals we often fail to realise that the art of time management means that we’re actually able to control events. There are going to be events, however, that we won’t be able to control. And that’s where realistic goal setting comes into play.

By setting goals, you can establish some sort of life plan for yourself that will give you an idea of where you’re headed and how you’re going to get there. It also gives you a realistic appraisal of your own values and priorities, and will help you create some balance and harmony in your life. Goals are how people set up the steps to reach their dreams- and we all need dreams. Without them, we have nothing to live for.

When you set goals, you can see what it is you need to do in order to keep your life moving harmoniously. We all have a past, a present, and a future. By drawing on the lessons we’ve learned in the past, we can make it through present events and plan future ones By looking at how we’ve learned in the past, we can make it through present events and plan future ones. By looking at how we’ve reacted to certain events, we can determine whether we need to bring them under control or whether we need to bring them under control or whether our priorities are being met (or ignored). It always takes many different factors to move you toward your goals and objectives is the first step.

Objectives are important in that they determine every factor of your work. By setting clear objectives, you spell out certain specifics about each job. Patrick Forsyth, author of First Things First: How to Manage your time for Maximum Performance, uses the acronym SMART to spell out objectives. It stands for : Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timed.

To apply this acronym and its help in creating specific objectives, let me use this book as an example.

Specific

To provide readers with some hints on how to better manage their time by writing a book on the subject that utilises the best hints/suggestions already available on the market and combining them with what I already know. The book also must be complete by the first week of June, a six-month deadline.

Measurable

How will I know I’ve met my readers’ needs? The first indication will be if my editors are happy with what we expected the book to be. Then there will be reviews, and finally, feed back from readers themselves.

Achievable

Can I achieve this goal? Considering my deadline and the plethora of information available on the topic, it is well within my reach. However, there will be some considerable time management on my behalf in order to get the book done by deadline.

Realistic

Considering the timeline, I will have to be well prepared to spend a minimum of 24 hours a week researching and writing the book in order to offer the most complete explanation of the subject with as many solid and concrete examples as possible. Will I be able to please everyone? Probably not, but helping a good portion of people is my goal- and that, I believe, is realistic.

Timed

As long as no major interruptions occur, the timing part of these objectives should be met. I’ll work in extra time for unexpected happenings (like selling my house and moving!) and I’ll rearrange other on-going projects (such as end-of-September grading) to make room for this book.

By analysing objectives in a SMART way, you can easily foresee what might end up being a problem. You’re not necessarily scheduling at this moment, just seeing whether you can met you expectations or objectives.

The unexpected

Charles R Hobbs, author of Time Power, states that there are five categories of events that anyone who wishes to manage time should know about:

• Events you think you cannot control, and you can’t
• Events you think you cannot control, but you can
• Events you think you can control, but you can’t
• Events you think you can control, but you don’t
• Events you think you can control , and you can

Some of these events fall into what I call the unexpected -otherwise defined as traumas, catastrophes, interruptions, and acts of nature.

When you set your goals, build in some time for the unexpected. Expect the roof to fall in or the storm of the century to happen and you’ll have a secondary plan. I’m not saying you should be negative; I’m just warning you not to get your heart set on meeting your dream of making a million by the age of 30, only to be disappointed when a terrible hailstorm ruins every car on your used car lot.

Realise that there are certain events and people over which you have no control. And when you are faced with those situations, you must adapt. There are many people who have faced immense odds and still reached their goals because they were determined to. And there are many more who simply don’t set goals at all because they’ve convinced themselves they’ll never reach them anyway.

That’s sad. If there were no doers, inventors, strategists, explorers, and dreamers, we’d have no knowledge of the solar system outside our own, no light-bulbs, no best-selling books, no peace treaties with foreign nations, no computers or cell phones.

Know your strengths and weaknesses

Some people work best in the morning, while others prefer late afternoon or nighttime hours. Some work best in quiet, and others prefer the buzz of a noisy office with phones ringing and people yelling. Some workers like having projects that are long term and involved, yet there are many who like the simple repetition that doesn’t require much brainpower.

If we were all the same, then there would be no stock market and no libraries, no fast-food and no gourmet restaurants, no urban and no rural areas. Everything would be a bland shade of grey, everyone would look and speak in the same manner, and everyone would be pretty bored.

Though this whole book is about time and how to manage it, underneath all the tricks of the trade is the truth of the matter — We’re all different. We all work on different inner clocks and we all need to know how to manage ourselves in order to get control of that clock.

If you know your strengths and weaknesses, you can better plan on how to utilise what you have to work with and fit your styles into your own personal clock in order to work more effectively. No one works well if they’re at the lowest ebb of their biorhythms and no one works well in an environment that is irritating to them.

Personally, I like the morning hours when everything is quiet. The phone doesn’t ring, no one is talking to me or interrupting my train of thought, and I feel most alert at that time. I use the morning to do my toughest work, then I quit during the latter part of the afternoon. That’s when my motor skills are at their best, so that’s when I either go for a walk or do some housework, before settling in for an hour of down time. Because I’ve assessed myself so well, I know that I get absolutely nothing done in late afternoon/early evening, so I use that as rest time. After supper, I get another surge of energy, but can’t get back on the computer again ( my eyes are usually tired from being on all morning). So, during the evening, I answer mail, edit my work, read or make phone calls.

It’s all a matter of knowing yourself and your personal rhythms, your work styles, and your strengths. Most people have not taken the time to even think about how they work and what skills are their strongest. They simply keep trying to do whatever is necessary, often wondering why they’re feeling frustrated.

Perhaps if your assessment shows that you’re more creative than mathematical, or more likely to work best in a group than alone, you can adjust your work style accordingly. Sometimes, a little adjustment actually adds what we believe to be more speed to our day. But all you’re doing is taking advantage of your own work and learning style. Quite simple, right ?

To be continued next week (Excerpt taken from ‘The Unofficial Guide to Managing Time’ by Dawn E Reno IDG Books, India)