Quality of focus on your roles
In life it is not very important what you are. What is more important is what you want to become in your various roles in life. A role is the responsibility that you have on a specific portfolio of life. For example you may be a lawyer, an engineer or a doctor. These designations defines what are you at present. You need to focus on where you are going to be in this role. We can call it as a goal or objective.
While dealing with goals or objectives, it is very important to be clear on how keen on you in playing your role. Unless you are keen and committed in a role, you cannot accomplish something significant in that role. You should have a benchmark in the form of a role model. Your role model can be any one whom you consider to be the best in that field.
For this you need to concentrate on that role by allocating enough time not only to hold on to that role but also to make a significant contribution in that role. You take the life of any one who has accomplished something great. Take the examples of Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Abraham Lincoln, John F Kennedy etc. They achieved because they made meaningful contribution for their role by dedicating all their time with a single-minded focus.
Thomas Edison accomplished much more than an average person. His achievement to the modern society is impossible to measure. The reason for such great achievement is not fate, luck, opportunity etc. It is the concentration that they brought in to their work on hand. Thomas Edison worked long hours. He had the ability to work long hours, concentrate and focus on the work on the particular project on hand body and soul. He will not take the next project unless the present project is completed fully.
The ability to focus all your attention and focus on the project on hand is a key factor for success. Thomas Edison had this concentration and he developed a tunnel vision and allowed no distraction. His persistence was legendary. It is said that he performed over ten thousand experiments before he produced the first incandescent light.
What about you? Do you concentrate all your attention on your roles and focus your full concentration on the task on hand?
In life it is not very important what you are. What is more important is what you want to become in your various roles in life. A role is the responsibility that you have on a specific portfolio of life. For example you may be a lawyer, an engineer or a doctor. These designations defines what are you at present. You need to focus on where you are going to be in this role. We can call it as a goal or objective.
While dealing with goals or objectives, it is very important to be clear on how keen on you in playing your role. Unless you are keen and committed in a role, you cannot accomplish something significant in that role. You should have a benchmark in the form of a role model. Your role model can be any one whom you consider to be the best in that field.
For this you need to concentrate on that role by allocating enough time not only to hold on to that role but also to make a significant contribution in that role. You take the life of any one who has accomplished something great. Take the examples of Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Abraham Lincoln, John F Kennedy etc. They achieved because they made meaningful contribution for their role by dedicating all their time with a single-minded focus.
Thomas Edison accomplished much more than an average person. His achievement to the modern society is impossible to measure. The reason for such great achievement is not fate, luck, opportunity etc. It is the concentration that they brought in to their work on hand. Thomas Edison worked long hours. He had the ability to work long hours, concentrate and focus on the work on the particular project on hand body and soul. He will not take the next project unless the present project is completed fully.
The ability to focus all your attention and focus on the project on hand is a key factor for success. Thomas Edison had this concentration and he developed a tunnel vision and allowed no distraction. His persistence was legendary. It is said that he performed over ten thousand experiments before he produced the first incandescent light.
What about you? Do you concentrate all your attention on your roles and focus your full concentration on the task on hand?
How much time can be planned?
During my time management programmes one oft-repeated problem that is expressed by the participants is: I am not able to plan for my weekly and daily schedules; even if I plan I am not able to stick to my plan; I am helpless; I do not have the power to convince others and stick to my plans. It is true that planning is difficult and sticking to the planned activity level is even more difficult. But we should understand that good things are difficult in life. The corollary is also true: easy things need not be good in life!
If we accept this as true, the next question is how much time we can plan? Even though it is ideal to plan for every hour of our time, it may not be realistic and possible to implement this ideal objective. You can consider the following '60 - 40' thumb rule:
; 60 % of the time can be allotted for planned activities such as pre fixed meetings.
; 20 % of the time can be allotted for unplanned activities such as drop in visitors who cannot be avoided.
; 20 % of the time can be allotted for the 'unexpected' activities such as crisis.
The 60 % planned time should be for your goal oriented tasks and activities. You need to create 'un available time', which means that you some how shut yourself out and concentrate on these priorities.
You need to understand that any resource, which is not planned well, will not be used effectively. The more scarce the resource, the more carefully it should be planned. Next time you meet a gold merchant notice how carefully he plans for its acquisition and use. Observe a builder who constructs building on a costly land and notice how carefully he plans the structure so that no space is wasted.
If you want to reach your objectives and come up in life, you should exercise control on your time and activities. Even though you may have a very genuine reasons for your inability to plan for your time, never the less, you will still have to face the consequences for not planning for your time.
Will you make a sincere and honest attempt to plan at least for a portion of your available time?
During my time management programmes one oft-repeated problem that is expressed by the participants is: I am not able to plan for my weekly and daily schedules; even if I plan I am not able to stick to my plan; I am helpless; I do not have the power to convince others and stick to my plans. It is true that planning is difficult and sticking to the planned activity level is even more difficult. But we should understand that good things are difficult in life. The corollary is also true: easy things need not be good in life!
If we accept this as true, the next question is how much time we can plan? Even though it is ideal to plan for every hour of our time, it may not be realistic and possible to implement this ideal objective. You can consider the following '60 - 40' thumb rule:
; 60 % of the time can be allotted for planned activities such as pre fixed meetings.
; 20 % of the time can be allotted for unplanned activities such as drop in visitors who cannot be avoided.
; 20 % of the time can be allotted for the 'unexpected' activities such as crisis.
The 60 % planned time should be for your goal oriented tasks and activities. You need to create 'un available time', which means that you some how shut yourself out and concentrate on these priorities.
You need to understand that any resource, which is not planned well, will not be used effectively. The more scarce the resource, the more carefully it should be planned. Next time you meet a gold merchant notice how carefully he plans for its acquisition and use. Observe a builder who constructs building on a costly land and notice how carefully he plans the structure so that no space is wasted.
If you want to reach your objectives and come up in life, you should exercise control on your time and activities. Even though you may have a very genuine reasons for your inability to plan for your time, never the less, you will still have to face the consequences for not planning for your time.
Will you make a sincere and honest attempt to plan at least for a portion of your available time?
Check lists and time management
Managing time effectively is nothing but self-discipline. Once we decide what is to be done and when to do it, the rest is matter of self-discipline. What ever may be our responsibilities in life, the key issue is whether we do what we have decided to do systematically. However, in actual practice, we may plan to something but fail to stick to the schedule. The best drawn out plans are useless if not implemented as planned.
In order to meticulously follow through what we have planned out, we need some systems and procedures. A simple checklist in the form of a visual chart will be very useful in this context. I noticed a very simple format, which is given below:
Activity 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 ........31
1. Get up on time
2. Yoga
3. Meditation
4. Jogging
5. Prayer
6. Socialising
7. Learning a new lang.
8. Telephone calls
9. Listen to music
10. Learn a new skill
11. Helping others
12. Book reading
13. Positive self talk
14. Greeting on Birth
Day/Wed.day
In this format you will notice that on the left hand side you have a specific list of activities that you have planned to do and on the top horizontal line you have the dates from 1 to 31. You can display this on the top of your table and systematically tick the column against the date indicating whether you have done the activity or not. You can go through this checklist every night before going to bed.
To start with, you be very realistic in not having too many things in this list. As you become more and more disciplined, you can add more items to this checklist. You will also notice that you will become more and more self-disciplined.
Try this out and you will notice a big difference in your own ability to implement what you plan to do!
Managing time effectively is nothing but self-discipline. Once we decide what is to be done and when to do it, the rest is matter of self-discipline. What ever may be our responsibilities in life, the key issue is whether we do what we have decided to do systematically. However, in actual practice, we may plan to something but fail to stick to the schedule. The best drawn out plans are useless if not implemented as planned.
In order to meticulously follow through what we have planned out, we need some systems and procedures. A simple checklist in the form of a visual chart will be very useful in this context. I noticed a very simple format, which is given below:
Activity 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 ........31
1. Get up on time
2. Yoga
3. Meditation
4. Jogging
5. Prayer
6. Socialising
7. Learning a new lang.
8. Telephone calls
9. Listen to music
10. Learn a new skill
11. Helping others
12. Book reading
13. Positive self talk
14. Greeting on Birth
Day/Wed.day
In this format you will notice that on the left hand side you have a specific list of activities that you have planned to do and on the top horizontal line you have the dates from 1 to 31. You can display this on the top of your table and systematically tick the column against the date indicating whether you have done the activity or not. You can go through this checklist every night before going to bed.
To start with, you be very realistic in not having too many things in this list. As you become more and more disciplined, you can add more items to this checklist. You will also notice that you will become more and more self-disciplined.
Try this out and you will notice a big difference in your own ability to implement what you plan to do!
No comments:
Post a Comment