Time Management

What a misnomer. Nobody can manage time. People can only manage what they do with their time, not the time itself.

Many things in life fascinate me. Sometimes I take notes. Once in a great while I make a cheesecake. Or can pickles. Or pickle jalapenos. Or pick ripe tangerines from the backyard of a foreclosed house that Darling and I happen to be looking at. (Here's a tip - most citrus trees have thorns.)

The tangerines are delicious. The jalapenos are gone, but I may be able to make some more soon. Pickles are a long-term goal to make, but the store-bought ones are still tasty. I bought a cheesecake to remind myself that mine is so much better. And I found some notes.

Apparently I studied something on time management, and I do recall the speaker, Franklin Covey's famous James Cathcart, saying that the concept of "Time Management" is an oxymoron.  As a matter of fact, that's my first note.

The notes are in my handwriting, lightly in pencil, on a couple pieces of ordinary paper. I don't recall the notes, nor where I was when I took them. They were neatly tucked under my computer, which is surprising because I don't know where they came from and I don't recall the content. But some of it is good stuff, and I don't want to lose it, and I don't want the paper to disappear again without a bit of attention. So here is what I captured, along with present-day thoughts.

This course is "self-leadership" and follows Habit 3: Put First Things First.

There are four needs of all people:

Live

Love

Learn

Leave a Legacy

Relationships NOT Schedules

Effectiveness NOT Efficiencies

Six Step Process

1.             Connect to your Mission

2.             Review Roles

3.             Identify Your  Goals (most misunderstood)

a.    What one thing can I do in each role this week that will improve my role

4.             Organize Weekly (Daily Planning does NOT work)

a.    The weekly perspective - daily is too close

5.             Exercise Integrity in the moment of choice

a.    Taking your Mission and making it reality

6.             I don't have this one written down

When will I use this process? Friday afternoon -> Monday morning

The best place to organize? Den, Living Room -> quiet and uninterrupted

How long does it take? 30-45 minute average

Three person process

Teacher To Student (Seek to understand, Capture without judgment, Research) to Share

Efficiency is doing things right

Effectiveness is doing the right thing

See things -> Do things -> Get results

Four Generations of Time Management

1. List Keepers with priorities

     a. Manage their lives by what people think of them

2. Calendar List

     a. Deeper sense of prioritization

3. Clarify and prioritize values (Guiding principles)

     a. Goals (long-term, intermediate, short-term)

     b. Prioritization to achieve the goals within the context of values

4. Quantum Leap

     a. Humility of principles

          i. Eternal natural laws govern

          ii. Principles are in control (God)

     b. Passion of Vision

          i. Frankl "You don't invent your Mission. You discover it."

     c. Balance of Roles

          i. People, not schedules

          ii. Leadership, not management

     d. Power of Goals

Apparently I also was privileged to listen to Leigh Stevens. She is also a Covey expert.

FTF - First Things First

Run Into (Action Items)

List things I can forget until I get to them

Appointments - time sensitive

Daily record - this is what I'm missing

Index - monthly table of contents

QII: Important, not urgent -> no time pressure

Spending time with spouse

Six Step Process

Study

You detect your mission statement

Write it as if it will never change, but it will

The key to use it is by connecting to it. Visualize living it - that day, that week, that year. It is a constitution governing your life.

A philosophy, credo, value system, vision.

Connect to mission

         Review

         Get in Touch

Review Roles

         Why write them? To define them, to delegate time to them each

I was excited about Covey for a long time. The Habits are great! The Covey system doesn't really fail, but I do.

Live, Love, Learn, Leave a Legacy. I don't know what these have to do with anything, but I certainly don't disagree that they are driving forces, especially in a man's heart. This is echoed again in a fantastic book Wild at Heart.

I see schedules take the place of relationships at every turn in my life. I try not to do it, sometimes making a conscious effort to avoid the pincers that life tosses at you to disregard a relationship for an appointment. Sometimes I fail. Yet, ultimately, our deaths will come unscheduled, and only the soft hand of a loving relationship will be there.

It took me decades to realize that daily planning and making lists just doesn't really work for me long-term. I need the bigger picture, the over-arching goal.

I probably added the note about spending time with my spouse. It seems I never do that enough, regardless of how long I live. And I have no idea what the six step process was. I guess I was getting tired.


The final bit that hits me right between the eyes is that you detect your mission statement, not define it. I read something like that the other day in a book. In the book the girl says to the main character "You have to find what your purpose in life is, and then live up to it." Something similar to that anyway.


Some of us still search for our Missions. More on that some other post. 


Find your Mission. Live the Life you were Meant to Live.