Time Management For Dummies - Know What You Can Control and What You Can’t
You can’t control time, you can only manage your use of it. But what other factors are within your control and which ones aren’t when it comes to time management?
Goals that are dependent on the actions of other people may make it difficult to reach that goal. You have no control over other people’s actions. If you delegate an action as part of a step in reaching a goal, you wcould lose control over the outcome. For instance if you are putting together a presentation on coal mining and you get a colleague to research the facts, you may not have the relevant facts in time for the presentation. Did you ask your kids to bring the washing off the line when they got home from school? Did they? Did it rain before they did it? The weather is certainly one thing you can’t control! It’s important to delegate tasks where you can, for effective time management, just remember it will take away some of your control over the outcome.
If your goal is reliant on outcomes that involve chance such as "I want to be a millionaire so I will buy a lottery ticket"; again you will have no control over the outcome. Although you may have an influence in a goal that involves some chance component, such as winning a talent contest, there are factors involved that you will have no control over, such as not knowing that the judge doesn’t have any knowledge of the talent you’ve chosen to display.
Don’t have all your set goals involving chance. Ensure some are ones that you have complete control over. Losing weight, giving up smoking, saving money are all good examples of goals you can have complete control over.
You don’t have any control over how many emails or phone calls you will get in a day, but you do have control over how you will deal with them. Put your answering machine on and set aside a specific time in your schedule for dealing with phone calls. Do the same with responding to emails.
You also have control over your priorities. Remember your activity log. Plan your priorities for that part of the day you have the most amount of energy. Deal with your high priorities first! That way if you have uncontrolled interruptions, you will still have time to complete the highest priorities on your list.
You have no control over technical faults. But if you have your activity log with you and your computer breaks down, scan your list, see what else you can do while the computer is being fixed. Can you move a meeting time? Can you vacuum while you wait? What happens if your car breaks down? Can you make some phone calls while you are waiting for the repairman. Can you eat your lunch?
Controlling your day completely is impossible as many interruptions, be they welcome or not, will occur. If you are organized with your time and priorities, you will be able to deal with many factors that are not within your control. You can’t control the weather, but you can be flexible in your time management!
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