BEYOND TIME MANAGEMENT TO PERSONAL MANAGEMENT
By Dick Biggs

Before deciding how the hours of each day will be allotted (time management), you should decide where you want to spend your days over a lifetime (personal management). In other words, managing yourself is more important than managing your time.

Time management is your daily diligence of choosing wisely. Personal management is the long-term determination of your dominant interests, which are the major areas of your life where you spend time. The key questions are: What's really important in my life? And am I spending time in these areas?

For example, I have three dominant interests subdivided as follows:

1. God.

2. Others - family, friends, community.

3. Personal - business, finances, health/leisure.

By determining your dominant interests, you're clarifying your lifestyle focus. Naturally, dominant interests vary from person to person. The ideal number is between three and seven. With less than three, you'll probably be out of balance. With more than seven, you're likely to be stressed out, even burned out.

There's no such thing as perfect daily balance every day. There will be days when balance means working longer hours...when balance means spending time with family and friends...when balance means exercising or relaxing...when balance means doing a community project or developing spiritually...or when balance means handling finances.

Don't worry if a particular day is out of balance due to a heavy workload or family emergency. Strive for weekly, monthly, quarterly or even yearly balance. If you haven't spent time in each area by the end of a year, then reassess your dominant interests or strive for better time management.

Generally, burnout occurs for two reasons: a single dominant interest becomes your life i.e., workaholic; or you make too many commitments in several dominant interests and your circuits become overloaded.

I was a workaholic for 12 years. I burned out so badly I quit my job and didn't work for five months. During this difficult time, I realized burnout can't occur if there wasn't a flame in the first place. Fortunately, the fire was rekindled in late 1982 when I started my business and met Judy, who would become my wife two years later.

I almost burned out a second time in the mid-1980's when I stretched myself too thin among my dominant interests. Besides operating a one-man business, I was active in my church and community. I was spending time with my family and friends. And I was running marathons.

If anything, I was too balanced! I phased out of some organizations, reduced my volunteer activities and retired from marathons. It wasn't easy, but it sure beat burning out again. I've learned I can't do everything, and that it's okay to say no without feeling guilty.

If you don't control your dominant interests, they'll control you. It's possible to enjoy a more balanced lifestyle by monitoring your number of dominant interests and the degree of activity within each one. Once you've mastered this principle of personal management, you're ready to "master your life and make the most of it" with some terrific time management tactics.