Improving time management skills could help everyone become more effective and it should be as easy as attending a course, learning what to do and then doing it. Many time management courses teach that defining goals and then ensuring that the tasks to be done are always actions which move towards completing these goals is the essence of good time management. This makes sense: work out the goals, then only complete actions which lead to goal achievement, therefore being effective.
To-Do Lists Should be Actions to Complete Goals
A To-Do List is the list of tasks which will lead towards goal completion. However, many to-do lists are a mixture of items which are important to the owner, items which are important to someone else, things which the owner wants to do but will put off as they’re not important enough and items that really aren’t important at all. Even where there’s no physical to-do list, usually there are a number of tasks to be completed and whether they’re written down or not, the same mixture of items exist.
Goals are Essential
Goals are essential to good time management. Knowing what is important will help prioritization of tasks, making it easier to decide what not to do and to justify the decision. Examining each goal in turn to determine its importance is a step which is often overlooked, as it can be a difficult thing to do, even after completing a time management course. It is difficult because the importance must be in the eyes and mind of the owner of the goal and this is often not made clear.
Questions to Determine Importance
Asking some key questions can help determine whether a goal is truly important, a key aspect of time management. The following questions may seem simple, but taking the time to ask each question slowly, to carefully consider the answers, think about alternative actions and examine both the facts and the feelings of the situation will help to determine importance. Ask these questions:
- Whose goal is it? Working out who will benefit from the goal being achieved will help to determine the owner of the goal. If the answer is someone else, then this goal isn’t really important in time management terms.
- How do you feel about working on the goal? There are tasks to be done and considering feelings and emotions about the tasks will help determine whether the goal is important or not. Feelings of boredom or even avoidance are warnings that these tasks are not truly important.
- Imagine or think about a time in the future when the goal is complete. How do you feel about completing the goal? If the goal is important then it will matter when the work is complete and the goal is achieved.
If a goal is truly important in time management terms, then it will be easier to prioritize and keep focus on the goal. Goals which are not important will not be prioritized easily and may never be completed. Incomplete items that take consistent effort to avoid completion or that generate vague feelings of guilt that they’re not complete sap energy and reduce a person’s capacity to achieve.
It is a key element of successful time management to be able to establish the importance of goals and answering the questions explained above will help.
Dawn Brewer - I have a portfolio career - as a writer, management consultant, instructor and coach - after twenty years in the corporate world. My ...
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