The Most Important Skill We Can Develop

My youngest (who is a Junior at the University of Texas) will be going back to college this week. His dad took him to Office Depot to help him stock up on printer paper, etc.

I think how important it is to be organized in life and I want to stress to him that he will be so much more successful at school and in life if he finds his own way to be organized and he practices and develops it to an art so that it supports him.

It’s not like he doesn’t know ACT!. He’s helped me with some projects in the past and has done many of the screen captures on two of “The Official ACT! by Sage QuickStudy Guide” books I have written. However, he currently uses the calendar on his generic cell phone to record due dates. While I don’t think that is the best way to do this, he is the one that has to be comfortable with the system he uses.

That ultimately is the most important skill that any of us can develop. Each of us needs to find an easy organizational system that works for us. Then we need to work that system so that it supports us and helps to reduce stress while keeping our lives on track.

I want to say all these things to him on our last day, but I know he would only roll his eyes. Instead I say “Keep up with your homework and tests. Keep your grades up. But don’t forget to have fun. You’re only young once. Don’t let this time pass you by, sweetie. I love you. Call me when you get there.”  And of course he will forget that last one. What’s a mom to do.

Kaizen

In making New Years Resolutions, it is tempting to create life-changing Mount Everest types of goals which can seem overwhelming and many times cause us to abandon the climb before even starting out.

At this time of year, I try to keep the concept of kaizen in mind. Kaizen is a Japanese word meaning change for the better. It is also frequently used in conjunction with productivity programs that encourage you to pursue continued improvement. Similar in concept to the “baby steps” from the movie “What About Bob”, kaizen encourages us to make even the tiniest imaginable change. Even the smallest incremental improvement can many times have a huge impact over time as the effect is compounded. In addition, smaller changes are easier to implement and have less chance of failure.

Can you think of just one very tiny change to make in your life… just a little one… sort of your own baby step?

New Year’s Again

I’m getting a late start in new year’s planning as I got the crud that is going around the country right before New Years. Sitting on the couch and watching movies that I didn’t like the first time around is not really conducive to productive planning. In reviewing my goals from last year, I am reminded of an article I read once that suggested that we replace the word “resolution” with “intention” in our annual planning. Last year I replaced New Year’s Intentions with the verb “choose”.

• I choose to be happy
• I choose to be successful
• I choose to work on this project instead of that project.

My problem in planning the year is not in deciding what to do as much as it is deciding what I will NOT spend my time on. There is always more available to do than there is time to do it in.

Are there things you could leave off of your list that would allow you more time to excel at the remaining things on the list?

Organization and Goals

While writing/updating the Official ACT QuickStudy Guide for Sage, I keep an elaborate spreadsheet tracking how many hours I have spent on the project, how many pages have been reviewed, how many days until identified deadlines, how many pages/day I have to complete to make my deadlines, and more.

Since ACT! 2008 is Vista compliant, I am also reshooting all of the screen captures and making notations in the book about differences between the current Microsoft world and the new one (Vista and Office 2007). My college-aged son is helping me with the screen captures. Some of his comments about working 8 to 5 versus project work have made me realize how important it is to have goals and methods of tracking our progress. It is what keeps us … sane. It helps us to know if we really are ahead of the game or struggling to keep up.

Impossible goals are what makes life interesting, and sometimes challenging, and many times fun. It’s the organization that makes getting there manageable