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?
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Structuring the available time to optimum use.
In order to make full use of our time, we should plan effectively for maximum results. This depends on the quality of our plan. Before starting to plan your time, you should be clear on the following:
a.. What is my long-term goal? What is that I want to be in 8 to 10 years' time?
b.. What is my medium term goal? Out of the next 10-year goal, what I am going to accomplish within the next 4 to 5 years?
c.. What I should accomplish within the next 6 months' time so that I am nearer to my five-year plan?
d.. What should be my focus for the next week? How many hours I should sleep, how many hours I should read, how many hours I should exercise, how many hours I should socialise, etc. in this week? Am I realistic with reference to my time investment?
Once you are clear on the above, then there are many tools. If you go to any stationary shop you can see the following:
a.. Diaries: there are day at sight, week at sight, month at sight, yearly planners etc. Do not just buy a diary. Check if the structure of the diary fits your profile and responsibility. It is like choosing a shoe or any footwear. If not chosen properly, it may pinch you!
b.. Weekly planners: you will find tabletop weekly planners showing time slots and schedules.
c.. Daily sheet planners: you will find to do lists and daily organising materials. Even a notebook will serve this purpose.
d.. Timers: there are timers available in most of the sports shops. You can set the timer for a pre determined duration after which the alarm will go off reminding you that the time that you planned for the activity on hand is over.
e.. Electronic diaries and computers: these are very useful to help you to manage your time. If you carefully analyse the various features, you will be amazed how much more you can structure your time.
I repeat what I have been saying: there is no such thing as no time. All of us have the same amount of time. We differ in the way we use our available time.
'No time please.....'
One of the oft-repeated phrases in our life is 'no time'. We say that I have no time for reading books, no time for doing physical exercises, no time to meet relatives and friends, no time for greeting friends and relatives on birth days etc. If you think for a while, you will realise that it is not as though that we did not have time. The real fact is that we did not allot time for that activity or task. Instead of saying I did not allot time for this activity , we conveniently say 'I did not have time'. Really speaking, it is an escape route and an excuse. I do not want to admit our lack of will power and lack of control on our time.
When we say "I did not have time', others also accept this, since they also say the same very often! It is very easy to say this than finding out the real reason for out lack of commitment and will power. You have to realise the consequences of saying that you do not have a resource that you should be having. Can you say I do not have money to buy a thing that you need most? Can you say I do not have the presence of mind at a time when the opposite vehicle is about to hit your vehicle? Can you say I do not have the knowledge of electricity and put your fingers into an electric socket? If you say all this, and even assuming you it is true, what will be the consequence?
In fact, you will appreciate the fact that the only resource, which you always have, is time. Irrespective of our status in life, all of us have equal amount of this resource. The only difference between those who accomplish and those who do not is the way they plan for this resource. Those who reach heights of excellence in life know what and when they should do a particular thing in life.
This is what is called 'setting priorities'.
Next time you about to say that 'I do not have time', check yourself and say ' I did not find time for doing this'. It is difficult to do this. But, it will bring in a lot of self-discipline in you.
Then, why do we feel that we do not have time?
Communicate your love and affection!
Time is an important component for life and life without emotion and love is meaningless. The purpose of time management is to live a life of mutual co existence. Our time should add happiness and joy to those around us. We have to create a meaningful, supportive and respectful relationship among the people with whom we co exist. The issue is not whether we live or not, but how we live and how much we influence the life of others.
Our available time should not be used only to pursue our goals and aspirations in life. It should also be used to create a pleasant world in which people live a happy life. Our available time should be spent on three areas, viz., planning, doing and interacting. Planning is the way we plan our various activities. Doing is carrying out the planned activities. These two aspects of time management will be taken care of since the system will ensure that they are attended to. But, the interacting aspect of living will gets ignored in our pursuit to our goals.
We need to improve the quality of our interaction with others. We need to show that we love and care for others so that they have a chance to reciprocate our sentiments. Love and affection should be exhibited through external behaviour so that people understand our emotions. Try doing the following activities:
a.. Try sending wedding day and birthday cards and not the ritualistic New Year cards.
b.. Telephone a friend or relative just to say hello without any other agenda.
c.. Attend the various functions, small or big and talk to people.
d.. Share a joke or anecdote with your family members.
e.. Visit a friend or relative who is ailing or going through some testing time.
You may add to this list based on your experience. If you have any thing to share with others, please e-mail and I will circulate the same to all!
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Maintain your improvement
Any improvement has to be continuous and consistent. An improvement has to be sustained. If we do not sustain and maintain an improvement, it means we are sliding. Our progress and achievement have to be measurable. Our goals have to be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound. These five parameters can be best remembered by the acronym 'SMART'.
We should not only measure the outcome, but also the improvement of outcome. Even more important is the improvement over the improvement we have made! This situation is even more relevant in the era of change and economic reforms.
We can take an example. Let us take the example of market growth of a specific product. Our available time has to be spent on three areas: maintaining the current level of productivity to meet the existing demand by the market, to improve the present market share to beat the competition and to sustain the improvement so that we become even more effective. The aim should be small, continuous and sustained improvement.
For this we need to focus on latest technology and skill and improving our own skill or expertise level. If this is not done, we will be left behind. Our available time should be distributed on these areas also.
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Learn from mistakes, change!
We have to use intelligence to work for us. We should be sharp enough to learn from our experience. If we do not introspect and learn from our mistakes, we cannot improve. I cam across the following poem which you may also like.
"Allegory of Change"
Day 1
I walk down the street
There is a deep hoe in the sidewalk.
I fall in
I am lost..I am helpless
It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.
Day 2
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it.
I fall again.
I can't believe I am in the same place, but,
It isn't my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.
Day 3
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in.it's a habit!
My eyes are open.
I know where I am
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.
Day 4
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.
Day 5
I walk down another street!
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Have a mentor!
There are times when we are confused on some issue and feel the need for some one to guidance. There may be occasions when we would like to share our thoughts with some one we trust to check if we are on the right track. We also need some one to check and correct when we may be doing something wrong.
We need such mentors. We have to seek and find one who will guide us properly and who are sincerely interested in us. Having the right type of people around us to help us when we need is also a very important factor which will decide our effectiveness. There may be areas where we are not the experts. We may not know whom to consult. Our mentors will help us on such occasions.
While it is important to have a mentor to advice us, what is more important is the way we use them and seek their guidance. Once we accept them as our mentor, we have to totally trust their wisdom and have confidence on their expertise level. They should be our conscience keeper. They need not be an expert in a specific filed. They may be a generalist with a lot of common sense.
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Focused Attention Selection Tool (FAST)
Time is very scarce and we have to make most of it. When time is spent, we cannot get it back. When we pursue our goal, there will be interruptions of various kinds. Our mind is capable of focusing on thing at a time, provided we know how to make use of it. With some training and determination, we will be able to train our mind to accomplish what we want. The most important thing to do is control our five senses. For this 'FAST' can help you.
From to day till the next 10 days, determine to use all your five senses only in furtherance of your goals and ambitions in life. For example, if you are a sports person and you have set a high goal for yourself, use all your five senses only for realising that goal. See as much of video clippings of your role model performing. Read as much of sports literature as possible to improve your expertise level. Hear as much of the subject of your interest as possible. Eat only that which will help you to excel in your field. Experience and feel as much of the sports activity that you have chosen.
Consider how much more you can focus and sharpen your focus. Once you do this, then your goal will transcend from your conscious mind to your subconscious mind. This will give you the necessary mental stamina to work towards your goals with undivided attention and focus.
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Have a 'disaster preparedness plan'
We need to accept the fact that things may not always go on in the right direction and that there could be problems. Problems could be big or small. Some problems could be serious. We have recently witnessed the tsunami tragedy, which struck the world killing thousands of people.
Our time should be spent only for pursuing day-to-day issues but also to anticipate potential crisis and problems. Disasters may not take place always, but if they occur, the consequences could be very severe. We need to spend some portion of our time to anticipate and plan for disaster management. We need to be in a 'state of preparedness'. We cannot prevent disasters from occurring. But we can always have a contingency plan to deal with them when they occur. With this frame of mind, we may reduce the intensity of the disaster.
Simple things such as insurance against earthquake, flood and other natural calamities do not engage our attention during normal times. Perhaps we need to plan for such things devoting some portion of our time. Fire drill is a very important activity we need to carry out at least once in a year. Checking whether all the fire distinguishers are in a fit condition and whether all the fire and emergency exits are well maintained are important activities to be done with out fail.
In the absence of such a mindset, the severity of the disasters may be very intense. Let us remember the old adage: prevention is better than cure!
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Fight Your Place
When it comes to achieving, we need to understand that there will be obstacles to our efforts and our genuine actions will meet with resistance. We may not get the amount of cooperation and support that we want and the quality of support may also differ. We need to understand that this is the reality and we need to accept this as a facto of life.
So, what are we going to do? Give up our goals and desires and succumb to the resistance? Perhaps this route is the easiest and the most comfortable. But is it going to help us?
We should understand that we have to fight for our place in the society and make our intentions known to all concerned. We need to clarify to others that we mean to reach the goals that we have set for ourselves and that we look forward to their cooperation and support. This is where the quality of our rapport with others matters. We need to understand that we need to nurture a healthy inter personal relationship with others.
One of the most important criteria for doing this is our ability to communicate with others effectively. The quality of our communication will decide the quality of our rapport and inter personal relationship. One of the finer aspects of communication is 'assertiveness'. Assertiveness is our ability to convince others with out loosing our good will. Assertiveness has to be distinguished from aggressiveness. Visit a good book shop and pick up a book on assertiveness and learn more about it.
Notice Backsliding, don't feel guilty!
Have you ever made a promise to jog every day, sincerely implemented it for a few days and then discontinued? Decided to quit smoking, but returned to it after a few days? I am sure these sound familiar to you. On such occasions it is natural to feel guilty and lose self-confidence.
If you do it, don't! Accept backsliding as normal- as something that happens to almost all people who at first do some thing emotionally and then discontinue. We need to accept it as a part of human fallibility. We need to understand that habits are not formed over night and hence cannot be removed or changed over night.
Instead of feeling guilty and sad, becomes sensitive, but not emotional. To become sensitive is to notice an even through our five senses. To become emotional is to react either too positively or too negatively. Whenever you backslide, do not ignore, but take note of the same. Introspect why you gave up doing the same and record the specific reasons for the same. Find out how you can get back to doing the activity you gave up. Perhaps you committed to do some thing, which you cannot genuinely continue. Do a cause-effect analysis and find out the root cause for your inaction.
Resolve to solve the problem and don't avoid the same.
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Practice fixed time appointments.
Thursday, January 27, 2005
If you think about it, time management is nothing but getting into a discipline of doing a specific activity at a specific point of time frame. It is about time frame, time zones, time schedules, timetables, etc. Most of the time management tips are mere common sense. But, just like many common sense points are not so common, many will find them difficult to follow.
The reason for this situation is you are wired and programmed in a particular style due to conditioning of your mind and behaviour. We are comfortable to do things in the way we are used for a very long time. Any change from a pre set pattern of behaviour is difficult to practice and sustain. You will appreciate that many of the so-called New Year resolutions are given up after a few weeks of practice. We will have a lot of excuses for not following them.
However, you have to fight against this problem if you want to manage your time effectively. You need to understand that you should start from something, which is small and simple to follow. Do not start with major issues like yoga, jogging, skipping, etc. you can consider the following simple things:
; Start having the morning coffee at a specific time, say 6 30 am sharp, and follow this meticulously
; Start having break fast at a specific pre fixed time.
; Start retiring to bed at a specific time.
You pick up small but simple activities such as the above. Do not attempt to change too many things at the same time. Have not more than 2 or 3 things to be changed at a point of time. Try to stick to the schedule for the next 30 to 40 days. Once you are able to do this, your confidence level will go up and thereafter you can take up bigger issues.
Remember the old adage: slow and steady wins the race'.
Try from to day, will you?
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Focus on tasks and not on activities.
In managing our time, many of are conscious of what we are doing but not why we are doing what we are doing. We need to focus on the end result of our activities and not on merely on our activities. We need to distinguish between a 'task' and andactivity'. A task is the end result of an activity or a set of activities.
For example, 'reading a book' is an activity and the task is acquisition of knowledge. 'Jogging' is an activity and reducing weight is the task. If there is no link between an activity and a task in our conscious awareness, then we may not do that activity for long. They become meaningless rituals in our mind. If an activity or a set of activities does not produce the expected results, then it becomes a waste of time.
The ability to link and activity and task is an important ingredient for success. We need to start with an end in our mind and just not be merely doing an activity. Our inner dialogue should be in line with this simple principle. For example, we should say 'I am going to jog'. Instead of this we should say 'I will be one kg less in 30 days by jogging 15 minutes per day'. We should not say 'I am meditating' but say, 'I am improving my mental health by meditating'.
Whenever we are able to link an activity and a task, we will be able to measure the result of our outcome. By simply asking the question 'why am I doing this activity? we will be able to release our time a lot of unnecessary activities which 'fills up' our time. We will be able to distinguish between 'value adding' and 'non value adding activities'. An activity is value adding only when it takes us nearer to our goals and objectives. All other activities are non-value adding and are just 'filler' material for our time.
Time is such a precious resource, which should not be dissipated on meaningless activities. Today you print a question: why am I doing this? and place it in front of your worktable. This will help you to make
off-course corrections in your daily activities.
Just answer this question: why are you reading this page!
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Longest uninterrupted span.
Can you visualise a journey during which you are stopped every now and then and ultimately you arrive very late to the destination fully exhausted and frustrated? This is what comes to my mind when your flow of work is interrupted by frequent interruption such as telephone, visitors, unexpected meetings, etc.
From to day for the next one week you keep a log of the interruptions that you come across. Find out the longest span of un-interrupted time (other than sleeping of course!) when you were able to concentrate on the task on hand. You will be surprised that it is much shorter than you thought. In my experience people say that is not more than 15 to 20 minutes on a normal day!
You need to concentrate like a laser beam and your concentration should not be dissipated like a torch light beam. There is always a delay to get back to your flow every time you are interrupted. You may miss some very important point and forget what you were about to write or say if you are interrupted. More than any thing your valuable time will be wasted and you will end up taking much more time to complete the task in hand.
One of the ways to deal with this problem is to study your interruption log and find out the most frequent cause for your interruption and take counter measure. For example, if telephone is your most frequent interruption, you may divert all the calls or sit in a place where you will not be interrupted at all. Or you can keep the receiver off the hook. Adapt a method, which is most suitable to you.
One other idea is to wake up before others wake up and concentrate on your most important issue with out any interruption. Or you can keep awake till late in the night and beat the interruption. Find out a hiding place where you will not be disturbed at all. Inform people around you that you are not available for the next couple of hours (or minutes!) and request their cooperation.
Do some thing. Be innovative. Beat the interruption.
How many times you were interrupted before completing this page?
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Check your tools
While dealing with our time, we need to know that we should make our time to work for us. If think carefully, we will understand that there is no such thing as managing time! What we are trying to do is to do is ensure that we reach the goals that we fix with in the time that we fix for accomplishing the same. If we reach the goal with in the time that we fix, we say that we have managed our time effectively. But the truth is that we have managed our outcome and not the time.
One important factor for managing and controlling our outcome is the 'tools' that we use in our day-to-day life. In engineering, there is a term called tooling . When the tools that we have are appropriate, we are able to complete the task in hand fast and effectively. We can give a lot of examples for this term tooling with reference to time and productivity. A car is a tool. A good computer is a tool. A calculator is a tool. If these tools are appropriate or if we do not have the appropriate tool at the appropriate time, then there is a delay in completing our task in time. In the absence of right type of tools our anxiety to complete our task in time will only result in time pressure.
We need to match the tools we have with our goals and how big is our goal. A diary is a very important tool. Its usefulness is as good as we chose and use the same. Take a look of your diary and check if it suits your profile and meets your requirement. There are day-at-sight diary and week-at-sight diary. There are also month-at-sight diaries. Depending on your normal week and appointment schedule, choose the one which fits your requirement. Don't use a diary just because some one gives you as a New Year gift!
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Dump the out dated!
Just visualize your walking inside a room where you find useless things but in a good shape. You find a gramophone recorder player, a telex machine, old clothing, a tricycle which you loved riding when you were young etc. Think how useful there were at a point of time. Are they useful anymore? Do you need them now? Are they valuable at this point of time? Similarly go through your old address book and visiting card album and look through each and every thing they contain. Do you need them any more?
Compare this scene with your mind and the contents of your mind! What is it filled with? Consider your old habits and things you did some time back. List the various thoughts that occupy your mind and evaluate if they are relevant now? Consider the skills that you have now and check for their validity and usefulness at this point of time. Similarly, list the various activities that you do at this point of time using a time logging sheet and analyze the content of your time. Check if you need to do them any more?
When it comes to materials, we need to ask the question: do I need it now and what will happen if I discard them? Similarly you need to ask the same question with reference to all the things listed above. Such introspection will help you to revalidate the various things that you do on a day-to-day basis. You will be able to release a lot of your time for pursuing more important and relevant activities which matches with to day's context.
Try this idea and see the difference!
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Time management and persistence
There are occasions when we do our best but the expected results do not appear. We may be working very hard and have all the skills required to perform our tasks, we may be doing the right things at the right time. We may be at the right place also. But still we may be disappointed about the results.
In such moments, we may get upset, disappointed and ultimately give up all our efforts and reconcile to the fact that we will not be able to make it. We will also conclude that we wasted all our time and efforts. When faced with failures in life, we will lose our interest on the task on hand.
This is the time when we need persistence, which is a very critical ingredient for success in life. Persistence is the ability to continue in any course of action with a determination and iron will. It is a mindset to steadfastly continue our efforts with a strong belief and faith that we will succeed one day or other.
I would like to inform what happened in the life of a person. He wrote for nearly nine years. No publisher accepted his writing or articles. But he never gave up and continued to write until became world's one of the famous writers. Can you guess who the person is? It is George Bernard Shaw! He had a definite purpose in life and a determination to persist in doing what he did. He believed that we would succeed and he succeeded.
Before I conclude, I would like to give a quotation, which is relevant in this context:
" I would look at one of my stone cutters hammering away at the rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet, at the hundred and first blow it would split into two, and I knew it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before!" - Jacob. A Riis
To day, make it a point to list all the projects that you once initiated once, but gave up your efforts due to temporary set backs or difficulties. Choose a project in which you still believe and want to succeed. From to day set aside some specific portion of your time and with an iron continue your efforts. You will understand how much will power you have inside you.
Will you try?
N C Sridharan
