Association Perspective
The value of time.
When we last visited, the topic of financial considerations was on my mind. To be honest, some 14 months later, it’s still on my mind. If you missed it, here’s a link to the column: http://bit.ly/TolbertColumn.
I talked about some basic concepts that can be used to better command and direct our finances to be intentional with our income. I've come to find out, our time isn’t so different. This month we talk about managing heat. Personally, the heat I’ve felt lately comes not from the sun, but from those around me; most notably from the newest addition to our family, Elijah Alexander Tolbert.
As many of you can attest, the addition of children into the family, especially for the first time, changes the way you prioritize and spend your time. For our little family, as we go back to work, there is a new priority we have to work into the mix of budgeting time. To be effective we have to assess where we spend our time, where we want to spend our time and how we can bridge the gap. Effective time management not only affects our personal lives when we get home from work, it affects the bottom line. Here are a couple of questions to ask yourself to work toward better time management.
- 1) Where do you spend your time? Does your use of time match the goals for the operation? For your life? If your goals are to improve your bottom line and you spend all your time mowing and fixing fence, something needs to change. Take time this week and log where you are spending your time. If you are honest, you can learn a lot.
- 2) Where do you want to spend your time? I want to spend the night hours asleep. My son hasn’t quite figured that out yet, but we are working on it. Knowing your demands as parents, caretakers, managers, employees, family, etc., what should your schedule look like?
Take time to look at your business and personal goals and build an ideal schedule for the week, including appropriate times for your priorities. - 3) How do I get there? Taking an honest assessment of how you spend your time, then building the ideal schedule is sure to leave a gap between where you are and where you want to be. Remember to leave some room for grace. Elijah didn’t come into this world sleeping from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., and he hasn’t gotten to that point “overnight.” It will take some time.
Take 15 minutes before the start of each workday and think through your ideal schedule and what needs to happen today to come up with a plan of action.
The above questions and suggestions are by no means revolutionary. Most of the best advice isn’t. For many of us, it’s taking those simple concepts and putting them to work in our everyday life that seems to be the difficult part.
So, where do you spend your time? If we answer this question honestly, it can unveil some of the pitfalls and frustrations we deal with on a daily basis. Where should you use your time?
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule; schedule your priorities,” says Stephen Covey.
Managing your time effectively ultimately lends to the success or the demise of not just your operation, but your life. While this may not be where you are today, for me, the better I manage my time, the better I am at managing the heat.
Editor’s note: Alex Tolbert is the regional manager for Region 3, including Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee. Click here to find the regional manager for your state.
