Super Cop gives tips for getting in alignment with your goals!
If we want to get more out of our life, we need to become more conscious of how we spend our time and be more attentive to it. We also need to asses the activities we engage in and see whether they add value to our life or just drain away our energy. It is equally important to be conscious of the kind of people we spend our time with, the conversations we engage in and the social or official programmes we attend. We need to look for ways to constantly streamline our lifestyle with a view to eliminate unproductive activities, negative conversations, interruptions and distractions. By monitoring our time with attentiveness and watchfulness, we can eliminate unwanted activities.
Conversely, we can do things that we enjoy or those that develop us personally or professionally. It is important not to allow others to gain control of our time and direct our life. This is the only way by which we can have greater levels of personal satisfaction and achievement. For instance I went to a five-star hotel for a dinner last week, which was hosted by a private airline. There was only one person known to me in the party – a former Home Secretary. He also was in the same condition. So we stuck with each other till l excused myself and left the party after 45 minutes by my stop watch. It becomes a frustrating exercise when you are among the unknown faces. You have to keep on smiling and keep your jaws stretched with an artificial grin.
I did not stay on for dinner because it would have meant another wait for two hours. In fact, I was one of the late arrivals and the first to leave. This enabled me to do one hour of reading before going to sleep. Whatever I do or want to do, I first assess whether it is the best use of my time, energy and expertise. If something does not meet these criteria, then either I totally cut out such an activity or give it the minimum time or combine it with some other useful activity. It is important to focus on doing useful things to meet your objectives and goals. Whatever you do, it must fit within your overall mission and should push you towards your goals. I must also admit that before I realised how much of time I was wasting, I spent hours and hours in the inane company of many known and unknown people. I have never met or interacted with such people again in my life.
Decide on your personal or organizational goals and be clear about your strategies and the road map to get to your destination. Your team members too should focus on activities that help in coming closer to those aspirations. There should be an ongoing evaluation in order to assess the effectiveness of your current approach. Check your road map regularly to ascertain if you are on the right track. As the Police Chief of Bidar District in Karnataka, I had made it a practice to evaluate the crime control performance of all Police Officers working under me. I would review their work in a monthly meeting.
I continued this practice right till my retirement as Director CBI. It enabled me to know what was happening in the organisation and whether each person was conscious of his responsibility and role.
It is equally important to assess your personal effectiveness and whether you are moving towards what you wish to achieve. A feel-good factor about your daily work and routine is essential for achieving your objectives. There is no better way to do it except to review your progress periodically.
If you have to struggle too much to achieve your objectives, then you must examine what is missing in terms of information or expertise. Or maybe you just need to look at your problem differently. Probe and uncover the obstacles so that you can go beyond them. Clarify your needs and wants. There might be many things that you want to do, but they may not be necessary or appropriate. Cut out whatever is not essential for the achievement of your goals. Develop skills to delegate work that can be done by others and make them accountable for what they do. Concentrate only on those things that you must do yourself or those that help you develop personally or professionally. The cost of spending your time without focus is that you would need to spend an equal amount of time to get the right results all over again. Remember that you cannot recover lost time. The crux of effective delegation is to most effectively use your own time resources and those of your team.
Nobody can be a specialist or an authority on everything. It is futile to try to be an expert of everything. That way, you may become a jack of all trades but master of none. Determine the best use of your time. The art of delegation is an essential ingredient of leadership and personal effectiveness. Delegating means not being an obsessed control freak and letting others do their work. This is one way not to be in a constant state of struggle and stress. If all the time, you are resentful towards others, you will not be happy and you will create tension in others too.
Learning to focus on the present is the only way to excel in whatever you are doing. It is the only way to use your time effectively and without stress. The present time is the only reality. Thinking and worrying about what will happen tomorrow or next week or next month or next year means living in the future. Keep in view that worrying leads to stress and drains your energy.
Worry takes you away from the present and plunges you into a gloomy future. One way of overcoming worry is to stay busy. If you want to be effective in any sphere, you have to begin by taking control of your time and staying put in the present.
Without a clear idea of what you want to accomplish, there is every chance that you would forget your sub-goals, which are likely to lead you to your main goals. I find that unless I put most things in writing, I will either neglect them or forget them. My wife told me last week that she wanted to start with a new telephone diary. I said that since I was going to the market, I would get it. I did not add it to the list of the things to be done, believing that I would remember it. It totally escaped my mind though I visited a stationery shop to purchase fax roll for my fax machine. Writing a daily ‘to-do’ list is as important as writing your business plan. It is certainly not a waste of time. In fact, it can save plenty of time. Something emerges when you put empty vague ideas out of your head and consolidate them on paper. Surprisingly, it makes it easier to move forward onto whatever you want to do, whether it is a project related to your profession or a simple ‘to-do’ list.
I have also seen that when you decide on what to do, quite often measures, methods and persons appear out of nowhere who can help you to achieve your goals. It may appear magical, but it is true. Some time back, my old tape recorder started giving trouble. I wanted to buy a new one but I was not sure if I would get the right and genuine stuff. A visitor came to see me to discuss some of his problems. I asked him about his background. He replied that he had worked in a top audio company. I asked him how I could be sure that the music system I was going to purchase was not a spruced-up second-hand piece. He took me to a genuine dealer who supplied me what I wanted. If I had not put this item on my ‘to-do’ list, I probably would not have asked for any help. Making your ‘to-do’ list or a business plan involves nothing more than asking yourself a few questions about what you want to do either today or on a long-term basis. It also entails revising what you have planned to mirror your changing needs and focus. It is equally applicable in developing and focussing on your entrepreneurial activities, finances, “production” goals, overcoming potential barriers and developing your business or personal strategies.
Joginder Singh is former director of CBI, India. He has written several books on personal development.
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