Work from Home or Goal Time Spend Audit

November is my birth month, and last year I was overjoyed and thankful. I had been blessed with life; good health, a job, an amazing son, a beautiful family, friends and a discovery of my purpose. And as I drove to work early one of those November mornings, the word ‘Number’ which was on a billboard popped at me as I swiftly drove by. With it, this verse from the Bible whispered in my ears as the noise from the radio receded to oblivion.

“Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Psalm 90:12

I’m not sure that anyone on this earth can count the number of days they will live for. In fact, the ravage of the COVID-19 has crashed those of us who were living in the clouds unceremoniously to earth. But as we try to stay safe, we should number our days in relation to the goals that we have set to achieve, by not wasting the time we have been given.

In other words, you can still set out to achieve your intended goals even with the chaos around the world. All it takes is to intentionally do a PPRR, what I like to call a Goal-Time-Spend-Audit.

Planning

With the picture of our goals in sight, we must plan the activities we will spend our time on quite jealously because time has a way of fleeing. Yes, this stay at home time will fly by so quickly before we begin to settle into it, so it’s best to make hay while the sun shines. Any time lost cannot be gained. Therefore, you want to clearly articulate how you spend your time, so you successfully balance work-stuff and personal-stuff. Start from when you awake to when you go to sleep. This is not the time to sleep too late. Set time-tasks-goals for yourself.

Questions to ask

• What do you spend your time on?
• What time do you spend on work-stuff?
• What time can you dedicate to focus on your personal stuff?

Performing

With our days planned, we must perform the required activities to get us closer to achieving our set goals. It is like building a Lego house with a child. You have the picture in the instruction manual, which you follow to build one piece at a time until you have your Lego house. We must take one hour at a time to perform our activities and be disciplined about it.

Questions to ask

• What are the things you can do at home to take you closer to achieving your purpose?
• What are the things you can do to personally-grow you?

Reflecting

With honesty and dedication, we should make time at the end of each day to access how we performed on our time-goals, what we did great, what we didn’t do so great, and how to rectify the not so great the next day. It will help us assess our performance and show us the gaps that need to be plugged, and most important is that it will keep us accountable. Because sometimes the Lego house in our hands may look like what’s in the picture, but there might be something that’s not quite right.

Questions to ask

• What’s in the picture so far achieved that doesn’t sit quite, right?
• What do you need to take down to get it right?
• What do you need to improve in you to do better?

Refining

With the goal and timeline in mind, you should go back to the drawing board to access with an open mind. Because sometimes our original picture may not be ‘it’. The Lego House in our hands that we consider to be flaws may turn out to be the ‘next big thing’. Would you need to refine what you started to build, or would you refine the picture you started the journey with by building your masterpiece? Your modification may just be gold.

Questions to ask

• What is the main goal of my purpose?
• Will my adjustments take me to the promised land?
• What will I lose with these adjustments?
• What will I gain with these adjustments?

These days at home are precious, don’t waste them.

Take time to do something for yourself, which includes relaxing to rediscover yourself.

When we number our days towards achieving our goals, we grow a heart of wisdom.

Remember to stay safe by maintaining the recommended social distance. Practise the advised self-hygiene, be responsible by self-isolating and most of all by cultivating a positively active state of mind until we overcome.