Douglas: Welcome to the Unleash Your Potential Blog, what question can I answer for you today?
GoalGatekeeper: How can I better manage my time and resources?
Douglas: The first thing I want to suggest is that we not separate these two concepts. Time IS a resource. It is also the resource we typically have the least of. Raise your hand if you have ever said or thought, ‘I wish I had more time.’ I imagine that nearly everyone who read that sentence raised their hand. So the question is ‘How can I better manage my resources?’
This is still a great question. Success in most things, if not everything, boils down to effective resource management. Whether it is time, people, money, or things, making sure you have enough of each is critical to success.
As with my answer to many questions, good resource management starts by having a strong plan or goal. If you don’t have a SMARTR goal (and the last R is Resources) then you won’t know how many resources you need. When you are developing your goal and action steps, take a realistic view of your resources…especially time. We never have enough and we usually underestimate how much we need. I remember a recurring conversation I have with my wife, usually around home or car repairs that goes something like this:
Me: Okay, I need to go fix the ___________. It should only take me X hours.
Wife: Are you sure that’s how long it will take?
Me: Yes, [insert long-winded explanation/defense of my estimate].
Wife: Okay, let me know if you need anything.
[1.5-2X hours pass]
Me: I am all done
Wife: I thought you said it would take X hours?
Me: Yeah, I was wrong.
I wish I could say this was a joke or an exaggeration, but it really isn’t. When it comes to repair projects, I am really bad at estimating the time resource. This is probably because I am usually learning on the fly (which I don’t account for in estimating), and I rarely plan ahead what things I will need to complete the project so I end up going to the store 3 or 4 times (which I also don’t account for in estimating).
If you look at my story, you will see that I didn’t plan before I started the project, which means I didn’t know what I needed, which led to an incorrect estimate of the time needed. All this could be solved with proper planning.
If you are like most folks and you are working on multiple projects it is really important to have a chart of some sort to track where each project is. When I was in grad school and working on my dissertation, I was the “whiteboard” guy. Because I was commuting for grad school I had a separate apartment down by campus (4 hours from home). It was spartan, to say the least, but in the living room, I had covered 85% of the available wall space with giant whiteboards. I had a separate whiteboard for each project or class I was working on. The tasks for each project were listed and each board was a different color marker. I am not saying you need to go out and buy dozens of whiteboards, but you have to develop a system that allows you to manage all the projects. In addition, I invested in a kitchen timer. I would schedule my day with a set number of minutes to spend on each project and I would use the timer to keep me honest. When the timer went off, I finished my thoughts and moved on to the next project. If a deadline was approaching I adjusted the amount of time I spent on each project.
All of this is to say that managing resources is all about having a plan of action and a system for monitoring process.
One final thought is to be realistic about what you can handle. Over-commitment is rampant in today's society. We want to be able to do everything and so we commit to lots of things without consideration for what resources we have available. Before you commit to that next project, take some time to consider if you have the resources to give that additional project what it deserves. It is better to turn down a project than to take it on and do a poor job, at least in my opinion.
I hope my answer sheds some light on your question. If you want to dig into this concept further, I encourage you to reach out and set up a conversation. In the meantime, check back tomorrow for the next question in the Unleash Your Potential Series!
Be Well!
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