Now that I’m (almost) retired (again), my daily
activities have taken on a decidedly unplanned , somewhat spontaneous
manner. What used to amaze me, back in
the day, was how often I would discover a co-worker whose approach to his or
her daily responsibilities was apparently just as unplanned as mine is
now. They muddled through their job,
accomplishing whatever they accomplished by sheer accident. It wasn’t that they didn’t look like they were working; they simply
weren’t managing their time well.
“Never mistake motion for action,” said Ernest
Hemingway. I would restate that as
follows: Just because you’re working doesn’t mean you’re getting anything done. To accomplish anything, you need a plan of
action, and this could just as readily apply to writing a novel as cleaning up
the kitchen. Establish a goal, then set
off toward it.
The most significant class I ever took was a time
management seminar. Once I began to
apply the concepts that I learned there, I progressed beyond being a “hard
worker” to being an efficient worker. This had positive results well beyond my own
narrow responsibilities; it impacted everyone whose daily path crossed mine.
A big part of working well is prioritizing one’s tasks. There will always be items on your to-do-list that are more important
than others. Unless you properly assign
these rankings up front, you will struggle along clumsily, wasting time on less
important things while critical items suffer.
Of course, I don’t worry about these things much
anymore. This morning I went for a walk
when it occurred to me that would be a good thing to do. I’m writing this post now because it occurred
to me and so I’m doing it. No planning
whatsoever! That’s not to say that
(semi-) retirement doesn’t entail some forethought and, if you will, time management. If I don’t have dinner ready when my wife
gets home from work, I’ll be in deep doo-doo.
a sorry state of affairs.