| It is time to do a reality check. What
happened to the New Year resolutions? For many of us – like a long held ritual they
were made and now we are past them… while, still being where we were before the
resolutions.
Many of us have this problem. There are too many tasks on
our To-Do lists and we are frantically trying to get things taken care off….making
resolutions and all. Yet at the end of the day, week, month, or year we are haggard,
tired, unfinished, and still trying to figure out how to keep our heads above water. There
is never enough time in the day. We are running while eating and eating while we are
running. The new years resolutions are to get those things done that are long over
due….to be more organized and to better manage our time trying to use outlook more
effectively or the PDA. What ever the resolutions, however, they are tossed or forgotten
in the second month as they were in the past years … at least for some of us.
Time Management vs. Self Management
Truth is that the main problem is not our inability to get
things done. The failure is, in fact, the result of a poorly defined issue rather than a
poorly defined solution or inability of action. Most of us are barking up the wrong tree
when we struggle with our “TO DO” lists. They say it is all about time
management. That is an incorrect assertion. The solution is not is time management but in
self management. There is a very significant and fundamental difference between time
management and self management.
The problem is not with not getting things done but rather
with not knowing what to do. No wonder the lists are long and never get done. There are
three basic steps to solving this problem. In short:
Wanting It All:
If there is a nail on your wall you will be thinking about
what to hang over there. If you buy a HD TV you will be thinking about buying a blue ray
DVD player. If you have a pool you will be spending time on pool problems. No!!! I am not
suggesting that we should not have pools in our home. I am saying that there are way too
many things that we can want… pretty much anything and everything. I am saying that
what we want should be controlled and managed. I am saying that Tiger Woods is an athlete
who focuses on Golf. He does not also focus on Basket Ball, Foot Ball, Fencing, Horse
Riding, and on and on. If you had your own servers you will have to spend time managing
them. If you outsourced them you will have time to do that which you are best at doing and
want to do. It is your life and you need to be careful and considered about what all you
want. If you want a job then you will have to deal with the issues that come with a job.
If you want to be an entrepreneur you will have to deal with sales, marketing, operations,
finance, etc. If you want to be a plumber and want to be a millionaire.. you will need to
do a lot of plumbing and lots of thing may have to fall off your plate. Or you could
become a surgeon instead. Bottom line is that you can’t have your cake and eat it
too. If you want to be a CEO you will have to do what it takes to be a CEO and that may
mean that there are certain things you will not be able to want to do.
Getting Distracted:
Everybody has the same time, from Bill Gates to his
Janitor. Moreover, it is likely that Janitor has a long list of things not done while Bill
Gates does not have that problem. He would perhaps not waste his time picking up a $100
bill off the ground….because it may not be worth his time. Don’t get distracted
into doing 20 different things or dabbling from one to the next. Focus on one thing and
one thing only at any given point in time. If you are in the plumbing business and get an
opportunity to do yard work, decline it. Focus on building your pluming business.
Otherwise you will become a handyman and not a business man. If you are a financial
consultant and easily get the opportunity to also do marketing consulting, decline it and
focus on becoming a high margin financial consultant instead. Don’t dabble and
don’t get distracted. Define what you will do and stick to it. Otherwise, it is no
wonder your to do list grow large because you want to do all kinds of things. There are
many projects that we start and never finish because to begin with we never had the
commitment. We only had the desire. Don’t go looking for a motorcycle like a cross
eyed teenager, if you know that in fact you are not going to buy it. That is a waste of
time. Be such that you do not have too many things to do. If you want many things you
spread yourself thin and keep getting distracted like a child in a toy store. Of course,
once you are doing well and producing more than you need then you can hire others to do
things for you and then do more things that you wanted, but not until then. Run a single
division company until you are ready to put together a team to start the second division
Ignoring Good Principles:
Instead of spending time on every marketing technique in
the book and every sales tactic there is, you will be better served if you focused on
differentiating your business. Instead of taking 20 pills a day if you ate well and
exercised regularly you will not spend time with doctors. Instead of spending hours on
maintaining your yard you could live in a high rise condo and reclaim your time. You are
fundamentally doing something wrong if you have too much to do. It is important that you
focus on what you are best at doing. If you can’t manage your accounting you need to
hire an accountant and a book keeper. If you can’t hire one then you need to be doing
a different business that allows you to have enough money to hire an accountant. If you
focus on creating good grass in your lawn the weed problem will automatically disappear.
If you focused on revenue then payroll problems will automatically disappear. Identify
your focus and stick to it without getting distracted.
Identify what you should be doing ideally within your
limits of capability and readiness. Then do those. All other issues do not worry about. If
you are doing anything that is different from what you should be doing then either you are
in the wrong place or you are not ready to do what you are doing, in which case you should
be first focusing on getting ready.
Thoughtful Preparation:
Don’t start things unless you are ready. Mountain
climbers spend a lot of time in preparation before they head for the Himalayas. Wanting to
be the CEO is not enough. You will need to do what it takes to be a CEO. Simply getting an
Executive MBA and doing similar things may not be the best use of your time.
Conclusion:
Remember fresheners can’t solve bad smell issues
unless you remove the dead rat. Resolutions will not solve your problem either. You need
to clarify your resolve. |
