Metaphors Gone Wild: Dogs and Time
By Marlene Caroselli
Continuing our consideration of everyday concepts in metaphoric terms, time can be viewed as a familiar animal in the domestic scene--the beloved and sometimes feared dog. We cannot prevent dogs from barking; similarly, we cannot prevent time from passing, no matter what we are doing or not doing. But, we can domesticate that dog and make it our best friend. Or, we can allow it to become hungrier and hungrier, fiercer and fiercer until it transforms into a formidable enemy.
As the ancient Greeks assured us, we need "moderation in all things." Yes, time places considerable pressure upon us to get things done, especially in a busy workplace and/or a child-filled home. The challenges-from everyday demands, from employees or family members, from technological developments, from social obligations, from the competition-driven global environment-are enormous. The past no longer offers the comfort of precedent-not in today's rapidly changing climate.
Just as companies have come to regard themselves as integrated, highly responsive, and evolving systems, so are individuals expected to integrate diverse elements; to respond easily, clearly, quickly; to evolve continuously as learners and leaders and responsible adults. If we are unable to adapt when the time calls for a switch in direction, time will be wasted and projects may be doomed. The wise and properly-timed use of agility and resilience bespeak survival tools for the climate in which most of us are living.
Agility is one way to save time. Choosing to be agile is just one of the choices we can before us, regarding how we spend the time of our life. Quite simply, if you choose to continue doing things that waste time, you are willingly relegating to the trash bin of life moments that you will never recapture--unproductive moments, idle moments, moments that add little or nothing to the quality of your life and your work.
Be inspired by the words of management guru Peter Drucker: "Everything requires time. It is the only truly universal condition. All work takes place in time and uses up time. Yet most people take for granted this unique, irreplaceable, and necessary resource. Nothing else, perhaps, distinguishes effective executives as much as their tender loving care of time." Vow to care for time the way effective executives do. Identify your time-wasters and commit to finding cures for these causes of lost minutes, hours, years, lives.
While the top five time-wasters below relate to the workplace, they extend to our personal, as well as our professional lives. Implement the cures and then, with the time you've saved, spend it in beneficial ways with those you love, including yourself.
Time-Wasting: Causes & Cures
1. Fire-Fighting
Think about the work required of you on both short-term and long-term bases. Then, plan a schedule for your next day of work.
2. Interruptions
Although you may choose not to be as assertive as Napoleon, who promised, "You can ask me for anything you like... except time," you will have to find the words that allow you to continue working when others try to interrupt. Your first assignment in this category is to create (and promise to use) five phrases to subvert interruptions. Your second task is to read the following list aloud to yourself at the beginning of each workday.
1. I'm disciplined enough to simply list all the people and things that may demand my time instead of stopping my work to attend to those people and those things.
2. I'm interested enough to examine the list at the end of each day (for at least a week) to learn what kinds of interruptions are hindering my accomplishments.
3. I'm tactful enough to advise co-workers of the times when I can't be interrupted.
4. I'm realistic enough to know I'm capable of eliminating some of the distractions that currently plague me.
5. I'm professional enough to follow through on all the distractions I temporarily put aside in order to make a serious dent in a complicated project.
3. Poor Planning
Are your strategic plans worthless? They are, according to futurist John Naisbitt, if they've been written without a strategic vision in mind. While your plans may not be strategic in terms of the organization's vision, they should nonetheless reflect your personal improvement-goals. These are but a few of the questions to keep in mind as you make plans to improve your use of time and to enhance your contribution to the organization.
√ What am I doing and doing well?
√ What am I doing and not doing well?
√ What measurements will gauge my success?
√ What evidence do I have that I am thinking globally (organizationally) and acting
locally (applying broad issues to my own spheres of operation and influence).
√ What am I not doing that I should be doing?
√ Which of my outputs will have the greatest impact on the departmental or organizational mission?
√ What do our customers want/need/deserve/expect?
√ What mistakes have been made recently by those in comparable positions?
√ How would I define the realities that face us?
√ What combinations/alliances could optimize the time spent on planning and the
effort expended on ultimately implementing the plans made?
Incorporate answers to any three of the above questions into a plan for improved productivity or better use of organizational time.
4. Perfectionism
It's as true on the macrocosmic level (Franklin Delano Roosevelt noting that perfectionism may obstruct the paths to international peace) as it is on the microcosmic level (an obsessive need to have everything exactly right): the need to be perfect can make you a poor time-manager.
Ideally, you'll refer to the answers to the following questions whenever you're tempted to exert all your time and energies on a project:
1. Which of your assignments require absolute perfection?
2. For which of your assignments could excellence replace perfectionism?
3. For which assignments is good enough good enough?
4. What are the negatives associated with perfectionism?
5. Inability To Say "No"
Good communications involve both the content and the context of a message. It's possible, for example, to profess your ignorance and simultaneously sound intelligent. It's also possible to fire someone and have him or her thank you, rather than react in a violent fashion. And, it's entirely possible to say "no" to a request and sound gracious as you do so.
Dr. Marlene Caroselli is an author, keynoter, and corporate trainer whose clients include Lockheed Martin, Allied Signal, Department of the Interior, and Navy SEALS. She writes extensively about education, business, self-improvement, and careers and has adjuncted at UCLA and National University. Her first book, "The Language of Leadership," was named a main selection by the Executive Book Club. "Principled Persuasion," a more recent title, was designated a Director's Choice by the Doubleday Book Club. "Driving Mr. Albert: 365+ Einstein-Inspired Brain Boosts," her 62nd book, will be released by HRD Press in Winter, 2018.
Article Source: Metaphors Gone Wild: Dogs and Time
