Time's Fun When You're Havin' FLIES
A Gentle Reminder to Invest Your Time Wisely
By Forrest C. Greenslade, Ph.D.
From
The Simple-Minded Manager, Cutting Through Your Work-Life Chaos
 THEY
SAY, "TIME FLIES WHEN YOU ARE HAVING FUN."
Actually, time flies even when you are not having so much fun. Most
people that I know tell me that finding time for the "important
things" is their most pressing management problem. It must be
true. An entire industry has developed around time management. You
can spend from hundreds to thousands of dollars on calendars,
planners, organizers, software, hardware, seminars and courses to
manage your time. These are all useful tools for controlling the
myriad of demands on every minute of every day.
However, these same tools may actually make your real management
problem even worse! I am convinced that for most people the real
management problem is investing enough critical time in dealing with
the fundamental long-term issues that we face in our organizations
and lives. Most time-management tools concentrate so much on
shuffling every minute of every day to accommodate the thousands of
meetings, memos, and reports addressing short-term priorities that
they actually prevent us from managing truly important long-term
issues.
Don't get me wrong! I like such tools. They are useful. However,
they are only useful as aids in accomplishing meaningful long-term
time management. So -- I offer a gentle reminder to help you get
your time really under control.
Time's fun when you're havin' FLIES
Use this whimsical acronym to remind yourself to:
Focus on very few
long-term goals.
Based on your organizational and personal mission statements,
identify three to five long-term critical goals. Make them simple,
clear and measurable. Envision a three- to five-year time frame for
accomplishing the goals. Openly share these goals with your
supervisor, colleagues, family and other stakeholders in you and
your organization. Many times, their "buy-in" will make
the difference in your ultimate success in pursuing and completing
these objectives.
Lay out your own
detailed strategic plan to accomplish these goals.
This requires working backward from the goals to identify key
steps and dependencies that must be managed. There are plenty of
planning tools to help you with this process. The important step is
to invest your time in this personal long-term planning. Again, make
your plan known to those people close to you so they understand what
you plan to do and why. How are you (and they) going to know what is
most important in the short-term if you are not clear about your
intentions for the long-term.
Implement your plan
immediately.
This is critical. Don't let today's priority or this morning's
crisis keep you from initiating your long-term strategy. If you
don't implement immediately, the chaos of day after day will
squander your time, preventing real long-term accomplishment.
Evaluate your progress
every day.
Each day, hold yourself accountable to your mission, goals and
strategic plan. No one else will! Be objective. Be critical. In the
hustle and hassle of each hectic day, ask yourself, "What have
I done today to execute my strategy?" This will help you set
better priorities for the many other demands on your time.
Stay on course, no
matter what immediate priorities appear to be important.
I'm not advocating rigidity. Obviously, your plan must adjust to
your progress and to environmental changes. However, we live in
chaotic times, and many short-term challenges appear more important
when viewed with short-time vision than they are when understood
with long-time insight. So keep your long-term goals and strategies
always in view.
The pace of life and business is increasingly hectic. It is
increasingly more difficult to deal with the daily demands on our
time. It is increasingly more challenging to recognize that time is
our most important human resource.
So, Remember...
Time's fun when you're havin' FLIES.
Focus on the long-term.
Lay out your own strategic
plan.
Implement it immediately.
Evaluate your progress
each day.
Stay on course.
Invest your time wisely. After all it's your time!
Buy
The Simple-Minded Manager online from Amazon.com!
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