Perfection

In our previous blog, we met Raghav, who is looking for a time management course. Like many of us , Raghav is also facing a challenge of doing many things but not finding time. The key question is: Does this really solve the problem? Let us look at some of the key reasons why we generally struggle to find time to do many things. Time management is basically just managing yourself. As you read through this list, it will be useful to reflect if any of them apply in your case. Setting too many things to do: It is good to be ambitious, but it is also important to realize that we will always have more ideas than time to execute. It has been proved that even if you set more than ten goals, you will still be able to achieve only two or three of them. Once you are done with those goals, you can take up the next set of goals. There is no point in getting frustrated that you do not find time to perform all at the same time. Unable to Say “No”: Once again, it is good to be flexible and extending a helping hand to anyone who seeks support from us. But be watchful if you are taking up those requests because you are unable to say ‘no’ them. While trying to please others, you are building pressure on yourself. Then you come plain that there is no time. Wanting to do a perfect job: Doing a perfect job is a perfect trait in terms of intention. But is it practical? You can track the time spent to perfect a job; the core of the job would have been complete in a reasonable time; but it is your desire to make it perfect that takes enormously more time. Is it worth it? Should every job require such perfection? I do not mean to say that we need to execute a task with mediocrity. The question to ponder upon is if you are spending disproportionate time perfecting a job. Jumping from one to the other: There are some people who take pride in saying that they get bored working on one job at a time and therefore they keep moving from one task to another while keeping every task half done. At the end of the day, they again wonder how they could not find time to finish the work. Postponing the difficult job: Some tasks test our capacity to perform. They call for advanced thinking and some more application of mind than the routine ones. The tendency usually is to postpone such ‘difficult’ tasks and instead fill the day with more familiar ones. A stage comes when the difficult task keeps staring at us. A quick glance at the above reasons reveal that finding time to do things is more to do with managing self; by undoing the above habits, one can prepare self to get the focus back and achieve much more in the available time. After all, time is a constant number; what we make out of it is in our hands. This article was published in:  HR Mirror, Hans India. Follow Dr. Raj on Twitter @drraj29