Tme Management and Students and Mothers

I am in the airport lounge. Flight leaves in an hour.

I was surfing blogs last night looking for “time management tips”, “time management”, “goal setting” etc (yes I lead an exciting life). What I discovered is many students and mom’s log about time management. Most students complain that they lack the skills. Many moms are eager to share their tips.

I found that people who complained about poor time management skills thought that it was a “tick box” skill. Once you learn it, you know how to do it sort of like riding a bike. Time management is not that type of skill, it is a “continuum” skill. You always need to refine systems and add to your skill – more like golf (not that I play golf yet).

Many of the people who complain about time think it is a problem because they are not in control. They have the mistaken belief that many other people control their world more and therefore do not have the same pressures. Even though I am an executive and largely set my own schedule (actually my assistant sets a lot of it at my request), much of my time is spent dealing with unscheduled or unplanned things. It is actually one of the things that makes my job interesting.

Many people think others direct their time and it would be great to not have anyone “pushing” them or telling them what to do. They would think my job was a dream job. What I have found is people who do not have anyone directing them tend to push themselves even harder if they are successful.

I found remarkable time crunch similarities between mothering and running a company. I suspect the juggling and work load of both are similar in many cases. They key is to get the same amount of self esteem and respect from both jobs as this is the fuel that gives the energy.

I found many people focus on the tips or efficiency which is great but very few talk about direction or effectiveness. The reason I titled this blog Time Leadership is I believe the leadership or direction are more important that the management or efficiency. See my May 23rd post.

Interesting how different lives are yet how similar.