|
Time Management Tips: Do You Have Goals? |
By:
Cheryl A. Clausen |
|
|
Time Management Tips: Do You have Goals?
Cheryl A. Clausen
Goals help you to make the most effective use of your time and they help you to reduce your stress. You understand that goals are important but you probably aren't very good at setting and getting them. Without the clarity that goals provide you lack focus and that lack of focus causes you to make poor time related decisions. Trying to set up too many goals at once sets yourself up for goal failure. You can't focus on or track too many goals so you're better off setting a few goals and really concentrating on getting those than trying to do everything at once. When you only have a few goals it's much easier to plan the next actions you need to take.
The reason you set goals is so you focus your energies on doing the right things. Before you can do that you have to know what those right things are. That means you need to have your goals written down and well planned out.
Written goals help you to identify what's keeping you from having that goal now and what you'd have to do to get it. You have to think through both your obstacles and your best options for overcoming those obstacles so you know the actions that are the most valuable. With that knowledge you can identify the actions you need to take.
You can increase the value you're getting from your time when you know the actions you need to take and you can identify the actions that are most important. Plan how you will get each goal down to the level of specific actions so you can plan time each day to make those actions happen. Another advantage is that you make better decisions before you take an action.
Currently you probably spend a large portion of your day responding to interruptions. That's a reactive approach to time management that increases your stress and reduces your productivity. But it's a whole lot easier to allow distractions and interruptions to use up your time than it is to proactively decide on the actions you will take before you take them.
In order to have goal focus you will have to retrain your behaviors and the behaviors of those around you. This will require self-accountability to train yourself to take at least one action everyday that will move you closer to the accomplishment of your goals. People around you interrupt yourself because you've trained them that this is acceptable behaviors so now you have to train those same people that you will respond to their needs but not necessarily right this minute.
To get the most value from your time you have to understand what you want to get and how you can get that. To turn goals into a reality they need to be written in terms of actions. But plans alone won't make your goals happen you have to back those goals up with your commitment to make those actions happen on a daily basis.
About the author: Cheryl Clausen can help you get where you want to be. Great http://business-coaching-for-agents.com/time) Time Management Tips get her free ecourse. Enhance your http://business-coaching-for-agents.com/MbrTime) Time Management Skills, check this out. Don't reprint this exact article. Instead, reprint a free http://www.uberarticles.com/?id=15195&b=79 unique content version of this same article.
|
|
Article Source: http://www.statssheet.com/articles/article61741.html |
|
|
|
|
|
