Monday, August 08, 2005

Why can't I learn the first time?

So, I'm reading Ordering Your Private World and I get to a section entitled "Recapturing Lost Time" and the final heading in the chapter reads as follows: 3. I Manage Time and Command It Best When I Budget It Far in Advance and I'm thinking - this is great, this is exactly what I need to do. Problem is, this isn't the first time I've read this, this concept is not new to me.

When I was in college, I read Steven Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and it was then that I saw that I was not the type of person that planned ahead (most of the time) but instead, did most of the stuff at the last minute, when it had become most urgent and I had the leas amount of time to do it. Now, this isn't true of everything. I love to plan ahead when it comes to spending money, vacations and events. But most everything else, most REAL work for me gets done just in the nick of time. Which isn't always good, and most often not effective.

But here I am, nearly 10 years later, hearing this same stuff and having not implemented it. Why? I love to learn from other people's mistakes, why can't I learn from my own? It's not like I learn "the hard way" it's more like, I don't learn at all! Well, here's hoping I can finally learn this lesson. I've set a goal to plan out my week's work on Sunday afternoon. Try to do it pretty thoroughly, so that I have set goals throughout the day of things that I need to accomplish. Hopefully I can keep the tyranny of the urgent to a minimum. Hopefully...

2 comments:

jlee said...

Did you follow through by planning out this week's work?

I definitely relate to your struggle with managing time and energy. I have also read more than enough "pop leadership" and "pop management" books that have given me practical guidance on how to effectively spend my time. The methods, however, have not made a deep impact on my daily existence.

I'd love to hear about individuals who actually have found a system for getting things done effectively ahead of time...

Unknown said...

Yeah, I planned out the days. Unfortunately, today (Wed.) has been a complete and utter failure in this department. But, I guess you just gotta get back on the horse, right?