Time Management - Marc Mancini

Rocks, Blocks, Goals, and Clusters 59
reality, not much more productive or engaging than our
imaginary football game. To motivate yourself and others—to
know if you have won—you absolutely need goals
that can be measured.
• Written. “I read it, so it must be true!” Something written
has a peculiar power to convince. Writing down your
objectives and having others read them (if you supervise
them, they may need to read your goals) brings authority,
accountability, and permanence to your priorities. The
Sheraton Anchorage has printed goal statements all over
its service corridors; it’s one of the best-run hotels in the
country.
• Accountable. Without accountability, goals melt away, forgotten.
Remain flexible; feedback may prompt you to
revise targets you set for yourself or for others. But hold
to your goals.
• Deadlined. If you set a deadline for your tasks, you’ll have
a much better chance of achieving your goal. Better yet,
tell someone else that you set that deadline. It will make
you more accountable.
The same applies to deadlines you set for others. Always
give a precise time of completion and periodically review
progress toward your objectives.
Goals, of course, can be long- or short-term. But for some
reason, we often fail to set aside blocks of time for serious longterm
goal setting. Each year—perhaps as a New Year’s resolu-
Describing Your Goals
30 years ago, a certain woman set as her goal “to have a
body like Elizabeth Taylor’s.” How likely would it be today
that she’d set exactly the same goal in exactly the same words? Bodies
change over time, fashions change over time, and the goal today would
almost certainly be expressed differently.
It’s important that you say what you mean when setting goals—and
that you review your words from time to time to determine whether
or not they continue to express what you really want to achieve.