When looking at our lives and why we don’t accomplish our
goals, many give the excuse, “I just don’t have enough time.” Those of us who have used that excuse before
(most likely all of us) know in our heart that the statement is not true and
that we are lying to ourselves because we don’t want to take responsibility. Now that we have meaningful goals (for those
who completed the forms above), how can we better organize our time to
accomplish more and achieve our perfect life (see sidebar above)?
Rather than prioritizing your schedule, try scheduling your
priorities. If we can decide on what is
most important to us (based on our values, principles, and goals), we can put
those into our schedule first and then schedule other less important things
around those key goals. Stephen Covey,
author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, calls these key goals “big
rocks” or putting “first things first.”
To see a wonderful example of putting first things first, watch this 6
minute video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw1_l6oKr1s
Stephen
Covey talks about four quadrants in his time management matrix (see
below). Quadrants 1 and 2 are important
and quadrants 3 and 4 are unimportant.
Likewise, quadrant 1 and 3 are urgent while quadrants 2 and 4 are not
urgent. Covey suggests that most of our
time is best spent in quadrant 2, the important and not urgent. This is where planning, relationship
building, and personal improvement happen.
If we don’t take enough time in quadrant 2, soon we’ll be very busy in
quadrant 1 where the important things have become urgent and turned into
deadlines and crises. We should avoid unimportant activities, quadrants
3 and 4, whether urgent or not.
Unfortunately, most of us spend much of our time in these unimportant
quadrants. Quadrant 4 includes time
wasters, busy work, trivia, much of our internet surfing or social media, and too
much time spent on video games, TV, or other electronics. Quadrant 3 includes other peoples’
priorities, email, phone calls, texts and other urgent activities but that are
NOT important to us. Once we cut out
most of quadrants 3 and 4, we’ll have the time we need for our “big rocks,” and
to put first things first. The key is to
better determine what is important and what is not important so we don’t get
bogged down in the “thick of thin things.”
Rather
than busying ourselves with the priorities of others, scheduling our big rocks
first will allow us to take time to accomplish our priorities so that our
actions are congruent with our principles and goals. Some people equate their level of importance
with how busy they are; the busier they are, the more important they must be
(sound familiar?). “How are you today?”
one might ask. We then respond, “Oh, I
am so busy. I have...” and we continue with our list of how busy we are, which,
of course, indicates our importance, right? But being busy doesn’t mean we are
important or effective. Few of us stop
to think about aligning our values, principles, and goals with our monthly,
weekly, and daily planning. We have
heard before that “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Zig Zigler said, “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” 
Once we have removed the time wasters and activities that
don’t contribute to our values, principles, and goals, we turn to prioritizing
the good things we do. We need to
realize that some activities in our lives are good, some are better, and others
are best. Dallin Oaks said, “We don’t want to spend so much of our time
on good things that we don’t have time for the best things.” What is essential and most important to
us? What brings us the most
happiness? What makes life fulfilling? What are simple things we can do to make a
significant meaningful difference? What
are simple ways we can change how we use our time so we are engaged in these
fulfilling and meaningful experiences more of the time? You may wish to use the table below to
organize your thoughts.
Good
|
Better
|
Best
|
168 Hours in a
Week
Everyone has 168
hours per week. The trick is to use each
of the 168 hours to its best and highest use.
The best and highest use is different for each of us and is based, or
should be based, on our values, principles, and goals. Think about the following question: Can
others tell what is most important to me by how I spend my time? Does what you do with your time align with
what you say is most important to you?
For most of us, we could use some adjustments in how we use our
time. For example, for many children the
word love is spelled T I M E. Children
want our time; not just “quality” time but quantity of time. In other words, it is not enough to spend an
hour of quality time per week. What they
want is your time every day, doing chores, helping with homework, or doing an
activity. Our children can tell what is
important to us by how we use our time, especially our discretionary time. If we work a lot and then come home and work
more and watch TV but spend little time with them, they hear us loud and clear
that they are not that important to us, no matter how often or loud we tell
them they are. Again, adjustments may be
necessary to align our actions to our words and declarations.
Do you know how you spend your 168 hours per week? Whether your answer is yes or no, I encourage
you to complete the activity below.
Time Management Activity
1.
Track your time use for 1 week using a daily or
weekly calendar to better understand where your time is being spent. Using the information you gathered from
tracking your time over 1 week, answer the following questions:
·
What and when are your “time leaks?”
·
Are there patterns in how you use your
time? When are the times during the day
and week where you are most effective with your time? Can you schedule
important, quadrant 2 activities during these productive times?
·
Can you or others tell what is important to you
by how you spend your time?
2.
Use a weekly calendar to effectively plan your week.
·
Everyone has 168 hours per week; plan your week
by deciding on the number of hours you will spend on your various activities
(e.g., exercise, work, sleep, eating, entertainment, etc.). Remember to plan your “big rocks” first to
schedule your priorities.
a)
Make a list of
activities with the amount of time for each for the entire week. The list should add up to 168 hours total
a.
Sleep - 7 nights x 7 hours = 49 hours
b.
Work – 24 hours
c.
Courses – 15 hours
d.
Homework – 30 hours
e.
Etc. up to a total of 168 hours
b)
Insert these activities into a new weekly
schedule/calendar (remember, this is how you want your week to look if you effectively planned it).
·
How does this weekly plan differ from how you
spent your time during the week you tracked your time use?
3.
Using the information you gathered from tracking
your time over 1 week, complete the Good, Better, Best table. Insert what you did with your time that was
good, was better, and was best (according to your principles, life vision, and
goals).
1.
What are some better and best things
you want to do but cannot find time
for?
2.
What are some good things you do but
could minimize or do without?
3.
How can you plan/schedule to make sure you have
time for the better things and
especially the best things? In other words, what specific changes will
you make so your time is allocated to the area’s most important in your life?
The Bottom Line –
Be intentional with your life. Be
intentional in each of your roles. Be intentional in your goals and in
your relationships. Rather than wandering through life hoping for the
best, take time to figure out what your values and principles are and then set
goals to accomplish your desires. Zig Ziglar put it this way, “Don’t
become a wandering generality. Be a meaningful specific.” When our
actions and behaviors are congruent with our values and principles, we create a
meaningful, purposeful life.
Part one on goal setting is about
creating the blueprint for a meaningful life - the mental creation. Part
two on time management is about putting the blueprint into action – the physical
creation. As we complete both the mental and physical steps to a
purposeful life, we will become the type of person we want to be.
Becoming, rather than thinking, saying, or doing, will bring more peace into
our lives and into our relationships and our quality of life will
increase.
To learn more about these topics,
visit www.mymoney.nmsu.edu and/or contact your local extension office to
talk with a Family and Consumer Science Extension agent.
By: Bryce Jorgensen, PhD
Family Resource Management Specialist
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