As strange as it may seem, Goal Setting is one of the most neglected Time Management activities. When you realize that pretty well everything we do starts from the Goal Setting process, we should all pay a lot more attention to how we set our Goals.

I picked Goal Setting to be the second day activity because it follows a natural flow from the Power Life List. A big part of Time Management is gaining back control of your time; a place to start to do that is Time Activating your Goals. Time Activating is a term I use in the Power Time Management System. Time Activating is simply taking a task or a job you want to do, and setting aside a specific time slot, Time Activating it, in your Day Planner.

I call Time Activating the missing link; it's the step that the vast majority of people out there do not do when they are trying to get organized. When people set Goals, they forget to allocate time in their schedules to actually accomplish the Goals. For example, you set a Goal that you want to learn Spanish for your trip down south next winter. You set the goal in January, and you have 10 months to learn Spanish. The next step is the one that is missing in most peoples thought process. When are you going to get down to actually investing the time to learn Spanish?

Your Goals need to get matched up with your available time. This is crunch time in your Time Management system. Goal Setting has to be brought into line with your time availability as soon as possible, the sooner the better. We need to have a direct line between what you want to do, with when you are going to do it. Remember, this is our short, but accurate definition of Time Management, what we want to do and when we want to do it. For this example, it is not when we want to do it, it is, when we can do it.

One of the major causes of stress is this conflict between our wants, our Goals, and the disparity between what we want to accomplish and having the time to spend on doing them. The Power Time Management System deals with making sure that you establish goals, which are then Time Activated, making sure that they do in fact get realized. Realistic Goal Setting means only setting goals when there is the appropriate time available in which they can be accomplished.

Part of the purpose of this Goal setting exercise is to help you get on the track of sustainability. You need to, over the next little while, start working with the number of tasks and jobs on your plate that are feasible for you, under your current conditions. You want to get to a point, as soon as possible, where what you are trying to accomplish is actually possible, given your current set of conditions.

This is a very worthwhile goal, one that will provide you with a base of activities that will finally match up with you and your current time restraints. As time goes on, you will want to make changes to this matrix, but for now, on your second day, let's get to a sustainable level as your first goal.

Note

Goal Setting is an integral part of your personal Time Management journey. Use your Power Life List as the source to draw from when you are setting goals. Ideas move north to south from your Power Life List to your Goal Setting and back again. Always remember to use both systems to help you gain balance in your life and to achieve long-term sustainability.