When I was just starting to work on IT, trying to understand
computers and users, my job was pretty boring... So, I got distracted with some
booklets I found scattered around. They came from a Time Management course my
boss took and two things stroke me: first, the interesting ideas and, second,
how my boss just ignored them...
Time management is a wonderful tool and an incredible
theory, but its use in the practical life, a VERY BUSY practical life, is not
so easy for it demands discipline and focus.
Besides, some of the champions in Time Management consider
their success based on their ability in managing their time and not in its
results. Life, especially corporate and business life, is not happy with a
manager, a coach or a CEO who is able to manage his or her time very well...
Others would want to see an outcome for that.
Results are quite hard to be experienced and one of the
reasons is the unmanageable times you are living. We are living a very
particular period of our history, a time that Peter Drücker, a consultants' prophet,
has foreseen: a time we are not sure what is going on and we are less sure what
will happen in the future.
We can go and make changes in our way of managing times (as
I am doing this year), but still we cannot catch up with reality as it was
probably more possible twenty years ago.
What to do then? Just flow and let it be? Or maybe creating
even another tool to help you managing your time? I would like to explore that…
Let's talk about consciousness. Since I have seen those
booklets, I have started my own way of managing time, which helped me to create
a basis for courses and seminars I give. My main focus, however is not the method as it is, but the awareness of
time the person has to develop.
As humans, we have created a very complex way of considering
time. Although we can understand easily concepts as VERY SOON or LATE, we are
ruled by a psychological sense of time rather than a real one. For instance, if
you enjoy a two-days holiday somewhere, a place where you are happy and
everything works fine, you will feel the
time is very SHORT, even though it is the same time as when you had to work
and finish your company accounts, which probably looked as very LONG.
The trick in Time Management is to reconcile your own
perception of time with others' perception and the real clock-time. That means
you need to do three things:
- Strength your own leadership. The only way to do something as mentioned before and survive in the process is when you are a leader. Although there are many concepts of leadership, three things are important in relation to Time Management, and you can cultivate them: your self-control, your own sense of being an example and a clear picture of your vision of the present and future for both, yourself and the organization you are leading.
- Value your own values. Rushing around or procrastinating do not only affect your health and others' patience, it may also affect your values. For a check-up on your values and, in relation to Time Management, check these three values to see if they are being put into action or just serving as a decoration for your speeches: patience will help you when others are not committed enough, perseverance will help you to educate others and try again, and introspection (or calmness)will help you to check your own commitment and make the needed changes.
- Use real methods. Ah, that is a must!! You can take as many courses of Time Management (want my cell phone number?) or attend to a thousand seminars, and yet, all of it may be is inapplicable to your reality. Ask three questions and make the necessary improvements: is what I am doing aligned with my needs? Are we, other people around me and i, really experiencing benefit by using these methods? Is there any way i can manage time better?
Well... time is up!! Get up and start to apply your own
consciousness into your time.
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