Importance Of Goal Setting As A Time Management Tool

Time is the one limiting factor in life. You can always make more money, but you will only have so many years in your life and never more than 24 hours a day. For this reason, it is important to make the most out of the time you have. Among the many time management techniques that are available, effective goal-setting is among the most effective.

Desire

Spend some time exploring your desires, advises California Polytechnic State University. Allow your desires free reign in your mind before you begin tempering them with realism--you can always make concessions to realism later in the goal-setting process. Ask yourself what you would attempt if you knew for certain that you could not fail. You will know that you are doing this right if your heart begins to pound with excitement. Grounding your goals in desires is an effective time-management tool, because you will work much faster when your goal represents a desire that is truly important to you. Conclude this step by recording your desires as simple statements. These are the seeds from which your goals will be born.

Categorization

Categorize your desires as short-term, medium-term and long-term. List steps that must be accomplished along the way that will take you from where you are to where you want to be. If you want to learn to dance the salsa, for example, you will need to determine where you will practice, how you will find a teacher and how you will afford lessons. You may find that making detailed plans has revealed that formerly "impossible" goals now seem possible. Estimate how much time it will take you to achieve each step. Keep in mind that in actual practice, almost anything takes longer to achieve than it seems in advance. Once you have completed this process, you will have translated your desires into goals.

Downsizing

Take an inventory of your skills and your strengths and weaknesses. Downsize your goals by taking into account personal limitations and life circumstances. Examine your limitations carefully, however, and try to distinguish between lack of ability and lack of self-confidence. If you find that one of your perceived limitations is based on emotions and not evidence, ignore it and take the chance of setting a more ambitious goal.

Prioritiizing

Prioritizing is a critical component of effective goal-setting, according to author Christine Louise Hohlbaum in "Psychology Today" magazine. Priorities bind your goals together into a unified plan plan that helps you to choose what to do when your goals come into conflict with each other. When setting priorities, take into consideration two factors--how urgent the goal is and how important it is to you in the long term, advises Stephen R. Covey, author of the best-seller "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People." The more time you spend taking care of what is important, the more consistently you will achieve your goals ahead of time so that fewer of them become emergencies that force you to spend time doing less important but more time-critical tasks.

Distractions

Distractions are one of the main reasons people fail to achieve their goals. Say no more often to requests from others that drain your time. Focus on one task at a time whenever possible, because when you "multi-task", each task is distracting you from all the rest. Stay away from "black hole" time-wasters until you have completed more important tasks. Finally, keep your plans flexible in case something of legitimate importance comes up unexpectedly.