The Balanced LifeThe Balanced LifeTime

ManagementTime

Management

Time Management

Time Management

Strategies (< 5 years)

Long-Term Goals (> 5 years)

Personal Mission Statement

Personal Values

Personal Values

• Worksheet:

– List your values– List your roles in life (student, son/daughter,

friend, employee, husband, wife, etc.)

– List goals for each role

– Write your personal mission statement

• I will endeavor to be the best husband that I can, cherishing my wife and always being a good listener, enjoying her presence. I will encourage her and help her achieve her goals and aspirations.

• To my children and step-children I will seek to always set a good example, provide leadership, and to always be a friend.

• As a church member, I will support its programs, leaders, and members with enthusiasm and a cheerful heart.

Personal Mission Statement

• As a teacher, I will be a mentor and leader of my students, caring for them as individuals, and helping them to succeed in my classes and in life, and to become the best person they possibly can be.

• As a Christian, my number one mission is to “finish the race and keep the faith.”

• Finally, I will seek in every way possible to show grace and encouragement to all that I meet regardless of the circumstances or their actions towards me.

Personal Mission Statement

• Your personal mission gives your life direction: What is my destination? Am I getting closer or further away from my goals? Is what I’m doing now consistent with my values?

• Avoid the “Activity Trap”!• Avoid “success” at expense of health, family, or

friends.• Be sure your ladder is leaning against the right

wall.

Begin With the End in Mind

• All things created twice:• First Creation: In the mind (visualized)• Second Creation: In actuality

Two Creations

• By Design or default

“If we do not develop our own self-awareness and become responsible for our first creations, we empower other people and circumstances to shape much of our lives by default. We are either the second creation of our own proactive design, or we are the second creation of other people’s agendas, of circumstances, or of past habits.” (Covey)

Two Creations

• Either you have your own values and goals or others will impose their values and goals on you. If you are not the leader, be sure those you follow share your values!

• Self-awareness is the key. “Through imagination, we can visualize the uncreated worlds of potential that lie within us.” (Covey)

Two Creations

Time Management

OverviewWhat one thing could you do (that you aren’t doing now) that if you did on a regular basis, would make a tremendous positive difference in your personal life?

Your success as a student at NMU?

• Principle centered not activity centered

• Put first things first!

• Activity Matrix and Activity Trap

Time Management

Overview

Time Management

MatrixUrgent Not urgentICrisesPressing problemsDeadline-driven projects

IIPreventionRelationship buildingRecognizing new opportunitiesPlanning, recreation

IIIInterruptions, some callsSome mail, some reportsSome meetingsProximate & pressing mattersPopular activities

IVTrivia, busy workSome mailSome phone callsTime wastersPleasant activities

Importa

nt

NotIm

portant

Time Management

Procrastination• The habit of procrastination takes a two-fold toll on

its victims. First, important work goes unfinished; second (and more importantly), valuable energy is wasted in the process of putting off the things that remain undone. Procrastination results from an individual’s short-sighted attempt to postpone temporary discomfort.

Time Management

Procrastination• Procrastination creates a senseless cycle of

1. Delay followed by

2. Worry followed by

3. A panicky and often futile attempt to “catch up.”

• Procrastination is, at its core, a struggle against oneself and the only antidote is action.

Time Management

Procrastination• Once you acquire the habit of doing what needs to be

done when it needs to be done, you will avoid untold trouble, worry, and stress. So learn to defeat procrastination by paying less attention to your fears and more attention to your responsibilities. The world punishes procrastinators and rewards those who “do it now.” Life does not procrastinate, neither should you.

• “Not now” becomes “never.” Martin Luther

Week of:

Roles Goals Weekly priorities

Time

The Weekly Schedule Sunday

Today's priorities

Appointments/Commitments

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

8am

9am

10am

11am

Noon

1pm

2pm

3pm

4pm

5pm

6pm

7pm

Evening

Time Management

Weekly Schedule• Daily and weekly evaluations

- “Were my actions today (this week) in consonance with my values or in dissonance?”

- What changes are needed in the schedule- What changes are needed in me (discipline?)

• Plan the next week

• Activity Matrix and Activity Trap

Time Management

Annual Update• Get off someplace by yourself.• Ask hard questions:

- Have my values changed?- Have my roles changed?- “Did I get closer to my goals or farther away”. If farther

away, what action is needed?

• Revise personal mission statement as needed

“What we learn to do, we learn by doing. Excellence, then, is not an act—but a habit.”

“What we learn to do, we learn by doing. Excellence, then, is not an act—but a habit.”

AristotleAristotle

You Can Change!

“One necessary precursor to change, though, is often a change in attitude.”

“One necessary precursor to change, though, is often a change in attitude.”

User’s Guide to the Brain, p. 356User’s Guide to the Brain, p. 356