I know someone who is very deliberate about how he spends his time. Even when most people think he is doing something useless, asking him the why reveals a complex far thinking purpose. As I have started to do more retrospectives, I have found that I am lacking in such depth of thinking deliberately. I find that I am very excited about doing projects as they come up and also helping people with things I am able to.
Often, I find that I end up being so engrossed in a new project that I ask myself why I am not prioritizing what I should be. In the end, time is scarce. I also noticed that the more you help people, the more they expect it from you. As a close friend once said, everyone should guard their time. "If you decide to give your time to someone, they should feel honored. Not because you are special but because you value your time highly." he said with conviction.
So last year, I decided to take that to heart. When I joined a few organizations to help with COVID, I made some plans around the end goals. I created a folder ambiguously titled - 'End Goals'.
These were the 8 skills I decided to work towards as I spent significant time on different projects:
a) Project management
b) Data analysis
c) Leadership
d) Communication
e) Presentation skills
f) Problem Solving
g) Time management
h) Building network
Now looking back at the time I spent and the skills I focused on, I am happy that I spent the time I did. If it wasn't for my own set of personal goals, the frustrations of some of the bad experiences from last year would have discouraged me completely.
I am still working on getting better at the skills but using the opportunity made me get better than I was before. I am now fully on board the idea of identifying end goals when embarking on anything that takes time. I have been debating what my end goals of writing daily is. Beyond the skill of writing better, I want to have a definitive list of skills I want to improve. I will share when I finalize it.
Often, I find that I end up being so engrossed in a new project that I ask myself why I am not prioritizing what I should be. In the end, time is scarce. I also noticed that the more you help people, the more they expect it from you. As a close friend once said, everyone should guard their time. "If you decide to give your time to someone, they should feel honored. Not because you are special but because you value your time highly." he said with conviction.
So last year, I decided to take that to heart. When I joined a few organizations to help with COVID, I made some plans around the end goals. I created a folder ambiguously titled - 'End Goals'.
These were the 8 skills I decided to work towards as I spent significant time on different projects:
a) Project management
b) Data analysis
c) Leadership
d) Communication
e) Presentation skills
f) Problem Solving
g) Time management
h) Building network
Now looking back at the time I spent and the skills I focused on, I am happy that I spent the time I did. If it wasn't for my own set of personal goals, the frustrations of some of the bad experiences from last year would have discouraged me completely.
I am still working on getting better at the skills but using the opportunity made me get better than I was before. I am now fully on board the idea of identifying end goals when embarking on anything that takes time. I have been debating what my end goals of writing daily is. Beyond the skill of writing better, I want to have a definitive list of skills I want to improve. I will share when I finalize it.
