How many times did you succeed
with your goal setting plans? I don't wonder if you started and a few
weeks later you were forgotten them or gave up because you did not know
how to fit in your plans in your daily life. Here is a way to make
space so you can fit in your plans.
Time Management
Long
term goals need a good goal
setting plan. Those goals are important and give value to our lives.
But because we live in a daily stream of habits, they are forgotten
easily.
Those long term goals are not "urgent",
which is the cause that we must urge ourselves to do the tasks that
will provide our desired future. There seems a difference between
urgency and importance.
To make space
for the important long term goals here is a goal setting plan based on
time management. It is developed by Stephen Covey who wrote several
books about (life)time management. Perhaps you read them, if not I
recommend you to do so. "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" is
also available as ebook.
To succeed with a goal
setting plan you need to spend much time with activities that
contribute to your plan. How do you schedule that? Let us first look
upon the matrix below. After that we look at scheduling this method.
Our
activities are divided in four quadrants. We spend our time in one of
the following four ways. In which way did you spend your time
last week? Try to place your activities in one of those
quadrants.
The
Activities Quadrants
Quadrant I
represents things who are "as well urgent as important". Things like a
wounded, crying child, preparing the last things for a birthday
celebration, the suddenly needed repair of our car, the sudden illness
of one of our parents.
Here we react on many
challenges and needs. If we ignore this quadrant, we become
overwhelmed. But we should realize that many of those important things
become urgent because we do not prevent and plan enough.
Quadrant II
represents activities who are "important but not urgent".
This
is the quality time we could spend on performing our long term
planning. Time we dream and consider about new desires, plans and
goals.
Time we try to anticipate on possible
problems and try to prevent them.
Time to increase
the self esteem of our loved ones, broaden our mind and our skills by
studying and learning. Time we invest in our relationships by listening
well.
The more time we spend in this quadrant, the
greater our ability will grow to do things. Whom ignores this quadrant,
increases and feeds the first quadrant and creates by that stress and
crises.
In contrary, investment in this quadrant
decreases the first quadrant. Planning, preparation and prevention will
take care of that less things will manifest as urgent. This is the
quadrant of personal leadership.
Quadrant III
represents things that are "urgent but not important". Her you are
deceived, the noise of urgency creates the illusion of importance. But
the real activities , if they are important, they are it only
for others. People who want your attention only to get attention for
instance.
We are spending much time in this
quadrant, only to meet the needs and priorities of other
people while we believe that we are acting in the first
quadrant.
Quadrant
IV, you guess, is for activities that are "not urgent and
not important too". This is the quadrant of wasting time. We should not
spent time here. But we become so tired of giving and taking between
the first and the third quadrant that we escape many times to the
fourth to take a break.
What kind of things are in
the fourth quadrant? Not specially really re-creative things: watching,
no staring TV, gossiping, smoking. It does not give rest, it
is stagnation, decline. At first it looks pleasant but we stumble
across a great emptiness.
Did you place your
activities in the right quadrant? Look again and try to distinguish the
first and the third quadrant. Urgent activities that have
contributed to an important goal, belong in the first quadrant,
others in the third.
Planning
To
succeed with a goal setting plan you need to spend much time with
activities that belong in the second quadrant.
"How
do I schedule that?" would you think.
Very short
resumed like this:
Take or buy a planner or planning software
that fits your needs. You can only manage your time if you have one.
First
and for all schedule time that is intend to spend on important,
long term goals, second quadrant subjects, so schedule that first.
After
that you put in your planner other things that you WANT to do and are
important to you. Then you plan all other things.
Stick
to it. Spend always more and more time of your goal setting plan with
activities that belong in the second quadrant.
The information on this site is not intended to replace the advice of a doctor, psychologist or other health professional. (C)
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Quadrant II