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Execute Success: The Evaluation Process

I saw a fleet of fishing boats . . . I flew down almost touching the craft and yelled at them, asking if I was on the right road to Ireland. They just stared. Maybe they didn’t hear me. Maybe I didn’t hear them. Or maybe they thought I was just a crazy fool. An hour later I saw land.
Charles Lindbergh

The steps outlined in these next postings will measure your progress on a daily, weekly and phase-to-phase basis. We have segmented the postings into the following discussions:

I: Daily Task Measurement.
II: Weekly Goal and Benchmark Evaluation
III: Weekly Role Evaluation
IV: Daily Character Attribute Evaluation
V: Weekly Character Attribute Evaluation
VI: Life Phase Evaluation
VII: Starting a New Life Phase
VIII: Objective and Goal Evaluation

Daily Task Measurement

Last week, we discussed assigning and measuring Daily Task Measurement. You will assign tasks that need to be completed as diagramed on the worksheet below:

But sometimes, tasks that you scheduled for “2 hours on Monday” will not get completed. You simply reschedule the task later in the week or into next week. One key rule in any time management program is to stick with your schedule. If you fail to complete the task as scheduled, place the work aside and move on to the next scheduled assignment. Uncompleted tasks at the end of the week can be scheduled for completion later on.

There are other reasons why you might fail to complete your schedule tasks. See if any of the following reasons apply to you:

1) You fail to achieve your goal tasks because there isn’t enough time.

When you find it difficult to allocate, say, “60 minutes each day to complete a goal task,” try assigning less time for a given task. For example, let’s say that you want to develop a reference book for investing in securities. You set a task to write each day for 60 minutes. But given your other commitments to career, education, and family, you can’t find the full 60 minutes each day to complete this task. Try to assign a task to write for 15 minutes each day instead. It’s far better to write a little each day then to not write at all.

You might need to change your lifestyle to find more time. For example, you could awake 30-60 minutes earlier. You could take public transportation to work so that you can work while commuting. You could hire outside services such as gardeners or house cleaners to perform some of your routine chores. And you can always free up your day by minimizing leisure time in front of the television or computer.

2) You fail to achieve your goal tasks because you lack discipline.

Discipline is the foundation of all goals. A house built upon a sandy foundation will eventually crumble with the onset of a storm. A house requires a solid foundation built upon rock and concrete to protect its structure from the elements. Likewise, goal plans require a similar foundation built upon discipline to protect the goals from procrastination, laziness, lack of self-esteem, etc. Without a solid foundation, structures like a goal plan will collapse.

Many tasks in your goal plan will require a special discipline such as physical strength, educational aptitude, social skills and spiritual qualities. It becomes necessary that you build discipline in all five character attributes. Strengthening the character attributes rounds your character so that you can achieve any required task. If you lack discipline, I suggest that you return to the attribute chapters (Ch. 7-11) and repeat the steps in each chapter to build self-discipline and motivation.

3) You fail to achieve your goal tasks because your goal planning and execution may be too advanced.

Crawl before you walk, walk before you jog, jog before you run, and run before you rollerblade. In other words, if you just completed your MBA and set an objective to become a CEO of a Fortune 100 company, you must first achieve some important first-level goals to support your advancement up the corporate ladder.

If you are tempted to skip steps to advance quickly up the goal pyramid, watch out! You could be heading for disaster, particularly when you fail to develop first-layer skills that support goals further up the model. I suggest you go back and review your goal plan if you find it too advanced. You might rewrite your plan and identify a different set of priorities that can help you achieve difficult tasks. Remember there is a hierarchical order to success. You need to obtain important skills and accomplishments before attempting goals higher up the hierarchy.

4) You fail to achieve your goal tasks because you are attempting too many tasks.

Attempting too many things can lead to discouragement and failure. It would be nice to achieve every task assigned. But we must remain realistic. We need to go to school. We need to work to support our family. We need to work overtime to build our careers. All of which competes for your valuable time. Try to reduce the number of tasks assigned for a given day. It is far better to achieve fewer tasks each day than none at all because of discouragement.

Next week: we discuss weekly goal and benchmark evaluation.

You can find the day planning systems we are illustrating in this discussion in our FREE appendix file (Appendix as Form-N and Forms O.1-O.7 ).

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Tags: Achieving Success, building success, success building steps, success building tips