Almost fifty years ago, Alan Lakein wrote the best-selling book, How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life. The Johns Hopkins graduate equipped with a Harvard MBA went on to coach corporate executives, salespeople, and homemakers (among others) on how to make better use of their time.
You’re in Control
Lakein’s approach puts you in your life’s driver’s seat. You choose your A-B-C priorities. Once you’ve created your A-list, it’s time to get started. He advises setting aside your C priorities as many may never come to pass. With enough time, most Cs do not need to be done. The boss asks for a report and then forgets about it. Vacuuming, when it can wait a few more days. Oftentimes, because they’re quicker and easier to do than our huge A-priorities, we feel we’re accomplishing something by filling our days with C or low-importance tasks.
Ask Lakein’s Question
To get us back on track with our A-priorities, Lakein invites us to ask: What is the best use of my time right now?
I answer this question multiple times a day to keep focused. That doesn’t mean I don’t drift into doing less-important items. Sometimes, we need a break from intense focus. Yet, when an urgent request pops up, if it’s critical, I attend to it before returning to my primary task.
Lakein recommends revisiting our A-list goals routinely. Fifty years ago, he wrote that he reviews his monthly. (I wonder if he, in his eighties, still does, today.) For years, I reviewed my life goals annually. Now, I reevaluate them semi-annually. Sometimes, even quarterly. Life’s ebbs and flows seem more dramatic today requiring greater flexibility. Still, Lakein reminds us that we determine what’s important in our lives.
Five Minutes for Swiss Cheese
How to we tackle our big and overwhelming A-priorities? Lakein suggests starting with The Swiss Cheese Method. Poke a hole and then another, and soon you’ll break your gargantuan tasks into achievable segments. He advises starting with only five minutes to do one thing toward our A-priority. Doing so will help us move along. Small steps repeated are better than being afraid to start.
Caregivers, we know what this is like. There’s always something that will try to derail us from our important goals. Our care recipient has a high fever. The IRS sends an audit request. A sibling complains about how we care for Mom. After attending to these—the first being of primary importance, we need to return to our A-list. Our A-list must also include time and activities focused on self-care. We need our strength to continue to poke holes in our big goals.
Success lies in our ability to plan and set reasonable goals. For decades, I been overly ambitious with my To-Do lists. As a result, I’ve rarely completed what I set forth for the day. As I’ve grown older, I’ve learned to leave open spaces for the unexpected. I still set more To-Dos than I can manage in a day. But I consider these stretch goals. This moves me further along than if I didn’t stretch.
Two Minutes, Today
Fast forward 50 years to today. Long-time friend and realtor, Miguel Mayorga, told me about an audiobook he’s been listening to entitled, Atomic Habits by James Clear. In chapter 13, Clear addresses the Two-Minute Rule excerpted here. Again, taking bite-sized pieces incrementally for two-minutes at a time will massively compound our results.
What struck me though, is how much times have changed. Alan Lakein suggested setting an oven timer to do something related to our A-priority for five minutes. Today, our attention spans have reduced by 60%. James Clear advises doing something toward our primary goal for two minutes. For example, if we haven’t been taking advantage of our paid gym membership, we can begin by getting dressed and showing up. Eventually, we’ll feel funny about simply visiting the gym and then leaving. So, we’ll work out for two minutes. Overtime, we’ll stick around and work out a little more. These incremental steps are how we move closer to achieving our A-list goals.
We often think the New Year is the time to start anew. But the New Year is simply another day on the calendar (plus a lot of celebrating). Start building a foundation upon which to build your successes. It’s much easier to keep your momentum going than to start anew. You have a little over 2 weeks. By the time the clock strikes midnight, you’ll have a solid foundation upon which to keep building toward your A-goal in the New Year.
Keep yourself on course to achieving your A-priority goals. Ask Lakein’s question, “What’s the best use of my time right now?”
Goal Setting Tips for the New Year (and Interesting How History Repeats Itself)
