As an exercise for the class, I signed up to have 12 people from my work evaluate me in relation to people management, leadership, teamwork, coaching, time management, communication, etc. The results of this in conjunction with my topic on effectiveness are united. My strengths are in energy, enthusiasm, team support and my opportunities lie in structuring time and work more effectively towards personal, work and team goals. The opportunity is around being clear, deliberate and focused in my work and pre-planning to accomplish that. I spend so much time fretting about the large piles I seem to attract, that it is often difficult for me to consider let alone work on what is most important until it falls behind and becomes URGENT (and stressful). Further, it spills into anything I work on with others so I need to ensure they have clear direction that allows them to succeed. So I am working on a plan to enhance my self-regulation and ask for help from anyone who I collaborate with to support me in this work. I am giving myself a two month window to experiment, in order to accomplish the large projects at work, the major initiatives for school and the personal work I hope to do along the way to prepare for my son's arrival. I think the huge benefits I will receive in being more intentional include: sense of accomplishment, more availability to engage in supporting relationship and satisfaction that I am doing what is more important to me right now.
I am working on my schedule, major priorities and exploring various organizational systems. I have included a few basic links around scheduling as I work to figure out how best to structure my time.
Wikipedia on the subject:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_management
Weekly calendar page and ideas for filling/structuring time:
http://web.mit.edu/uaap/learning/modules/time/weeklyplanner.pdf
Suggestions for clearing a cluttered desk:
http://www.organizetips.com/office.htm
My plan is to start with a plan for each day that really focuses on key initiatives.
I am going to focus on a minimum of once a week, organizing my desk and space.
I am going to do weekend planning for my food/cloths and household needs to ensure I am more efficient through the work week.
If anyone else has tips that have been helpful for them, I am always interested in hearing about people's personal strategies on this front.
4 comments:
Sonia: I love your blogs. Thanks for sharing your photos. With you and your husband’s genetic makeup, this baby will be a fine looking boy. Just look at the two of you! I can't wait until the end of December!
I really like the web sites that you mentioned in your latest blog --- especially the one on desk organization. I have an office upstairs with all the proper amenities, such as an "old" big desk, filing cabinets, storage boxes from the Container Store, industrial size metal shelving units, a small refrigerator for my water bottle storage, etc. However, guess where all my filing is located? On the floor in cardboard boxes, wicker containers, A-Z accordion collating files, and piled up everywhere ---Yikes! Even though, I’m retired, I do keep a busy schedule with the pet care business, volunteering, school, etc. However, I do have the time. The interesting thing is that when I was in the work force, I was considered to be "Ms. Organization". I don't know what happened. Well, maybe I do. My mess all started as my Mom's health deteriorated and I was her primary caregiver. But, she died three years ago! No longer any excuse.
Plus, remember, I'm converting "the room" downstairs into another small office! Of course, that's on hold right now because I need the money for tuck pointing the house, possible stack replacement on the chimney and the deck needs to be inspected and sealed before winter arrives.
I really appreciate the websites that you listed. I know that the best tactic in solving the upstairs office dilemma is to take a handful of filing each day and like the Nike ad, DO IT! My procrastination bug has become epidemic. It's time to change and become more effective. Thanks again for reminding me. Again, your blogs are terrific!
Sonia... a while back - and I don't remember from where or whom it came from - but someone pointed out to me that I/we can't manage time, only tasks.. time (recent work on T-symmetry from they physics folks notwithstanding)just keeps moving along and just seems to resist our desires for control! I found this made a lot of difference to me when time management seemed to be a problem (or the elusive solution... problem/solution.. whatever!)...
mf
Sonia --
An organizing tip that has always caught my attention - though I should adhere to it better:
ABCs of time management: Split everything into A,B or C:
A's are important - and time sensitive
B's are important but not time sensitive
C's are not as important
Schedule As and do them. Move B's up to A's. Put C's in waste basket.
Steven Covey has some priority guidelines as well. They're great. Just have to remember to use them!
Oh.
Chris
Sonia, just to pick up on Morry's point: It really is about task management. On a larger scale, perhaps it is about comparing today's task accomplishments to longer-term goals. But, not for me. I have finally realized that the angst I have been feeling about "time-management" since retiring has really been about being able to forget about time and look at tasks as chunks of life I want to complete. In my case, if I want to do something at 3 am, that is fine.
As Chris mentioned, Covey has his 4 quadrant approach, there is the ABC approach she employs and there are probably hundreds of others, including a dart board.
In reading others' postings and comments there are some connections: Camille talks about self-efficacy in terms of tasks, rather than overarching goals and provides a reference to an article on that subject. Bill and Joanne both speak about procrastination. Daniel brings up workload as a constraint to task completion, in the context of time availability.
If I have missed others' contributions, I apologize.
I offer two other thoughts. I have started to play with mind maps as a way to organize my day and use colors to signify levels of priority. Red is critical, yellow is important, green is it would be "nice to get done." Priority level does not imply a chronological order. I may be better off doing a "red" item in late afternoon, which is when I am more effective, than first thing in the morning.
The second is a book by Christina Baldwin. Here's the reference info: Baldwin. C. (2002). The seven whispers: A spiritual practice for times like these. Novato, California: New World Library. In chapter 5, "Ask for What You Need and Offer What You Can," the author says "The trajectory I set into the day is not a straight line..." She then credits another writer, Annie Dillard (whom I have not researched)with the saying "How we spend our days is how we spend our lives." I found it to be interesting reading and at least somewhat related to the topic of time management.
Thanks for giving us the chance to think about time, tasks and accomplishments.
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