Making Time for People
Achieving our aspirations involves ongoing personal reflection,
continuous learning and nurturing our relationships.
With 2011 around the corner many are looking reflectively at the past year and considering ways to improve our efforts for the new year.
Most of us already have several systems to organize our lives, project plans at work, a family calendar in the kitchen, perhaps a journal for personal reflections. The tools we employ can range from the software provided on latest mobile gadget to a hasty shopping list scrawled on a piece of paper.
The beginning of a new year is a good time to refine our processes. Life is a work in progress, review your plans more often, on a monthly or even a weekly basis. What do you want to do? Where do you want to go? How will you get there?
Cultivate Quality Relationships in 2011
The first relationship to consider is your relationship with your self. Decide upon the skills, people, projects and activities you wish to pursue in the coming year.
If you aspire to enlarge your social circle this year, join a group, it is a good way to meet new people.
If you are feeling overwhelmed by your involvements, choose how you will spend your time and efforts.
Develop an awareness of your existing network. Who is in your network? How well do you know them?
Of the people you know, with whom would you like to strengthen a relationship with? Make it a priority, schedule time with that person.
Developing interpersonal relationships by engaging with others on a regular basis and getting involved in groups adds value to life and enriches the quality of our experience.
Consider the roles you play in your existing relationships. Think of the ways in which you interact with these people. What are your responsibilities? What are your expectations of them? Are these roles understood clearly or is there a need to communicate them?
Get to know people who have expertise. Their viewpoint, and interpretations may help us to see what we cannot.
One reason we develop relationships is so that we may engage collaboratively with them to achieve a common goal. By working together the group can often achieve more than individuals could do on our own.
Approach your relationship management tasks in an organized and thoughtful manner. Determine what priority they play in your life and how you will put your efforts into improving them
Make it Happen
So how do we find the time to do all these things? Time management is the range of skills, tools and techniques for managing the time required to achieve our goals.
Essentially there are two approaches to time management.
Task Orientated – Bottom up
Bottom up methods are typically used for project management. Large projects are broken into into smaller tasks, which are associated with a time estimate and the resources required for completion. The tasks are prioritized, scheduled and assigned to accomplish the larger objective. Recipes , project plans and todo lists are examples of task orientated, time management systems. David Allen has popularized a personal task orientated system with his book Getting things done (GTD)
Result Orientated – Top Down
Top down methods such as Stephen Covey’s system places goals and roles as the controlling element of the system and favors importance over urgency. Using a results orientated system, we focus on the results, and look for opportunities to achieve those results moving forward. A result orientated strategy is helpful for achieving business or personal goals that are less tangible such as improving a relationship with someone in your life.
A personal infusion of Time Management Methods.
Jordan McGilvary of DIYplanner.com has shared his time management templates and an application for printing your own calendars and agenda pages. Jordan has also shared his insights into The Middle Way Method, a time management system that works for him.
The Middle Way Method encourages me to uncover who I am, who I want to be, and how to become who I want to be, while being able to handle everything that is thrown my way. … I feel that this approach gives a balance between the important things of life and the daily grind.

