Goals In Time Management

Time Management Tips - Setting Goals

Many people with clear ambitions and aspirations in life fail to achieve any of them. Managing is supposed to be about achieving the long-term goals of the organization and yet the overwhelming pressure on most people is to handle day-to-day tasks efficiently. The main barrier to turning ambitions into achievements is the reactive nature of much of what we have to do.

Reactive work is driven by events and other people, whilst a proactive approach is one aimed at making things happen. Reactive work can be classified as the operational side of the operations and management split, whilst proactive represents the truly managerial component. There is a great deal of organizational pressure on managers to be

This means anticipating events and being in a position to take appropriate action as soon as the right moment arrives. Proactive people look ahead and predict the likely outcome of events as they unfold.

Time Management Tips - Defining Goals

The next step is to select those ideas that you wish to address, and turn them into a goal linked to a specific deadline. Without a deadline a goal is often no more real than a new years resolution, and we all have experience of their level of success. A good idea is to create SMART goals. This acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic and Time bound.

The process of turning an aspiration into a goal is crucially important to their achievement. It is the successful attainment of goals that will ultimately lead to your aspirations being achieved. It is the goals that represent concrete targets, which in turn will dictate your day-to-day activities. It is your goals that will help you, maybe even force you, to change your old time-wasting habits and develop effective time management skills.

It is only a clear sense of direction that will ensure you avoid drifting into short-term efficiency at the expense of long term effectiveness - and that is the real key to being a successful time manager.

Time Management Tips -

Describe how it is to be achieved, and 3. Specify the criteria for success

For example, if the goal is to reduce customer complaints by 30%, by the end of the financial year, then a series of objectives would be derived from this, which together would make the goal achievable. One of the objectives could be "to improve the efficiency of customer enquiry processing by 50% by the end of the financial year".

This objective is clear and limited, it identifies exactly what needs to be done and in what timeframe. It also sets a clear achievement target, which can be measured and assessed. Your objectives should focus on what it is you actually plan to do and should not allow you to hide behind vague abstractions. The definition of clear objectives is a key time management skill.

Time Management Tips - Ranking Objectives

Once you have a list of objectives that together make your goal achievable, the next step is to rank your objectives in order of importance. You should then think about the practicalities of each objective. For example, do any rely on factors outside of your control? If so, then you might not be able to start on these