I just got back from our companies annual management meetings in Santa Cruz, well a week or two ago anyway. The picture is the view I had, normally you can see the ocean on the horizon but it rained all weekend. Of course as I was packing Jenn grabbed my umbrella but left it out after I assured her there would be no need.

Anyway, there was a training on time management that really impressed me. The trainer began by defining the words "important" and "urgent". Important things carry with them serious consequences and urgent thing require immediate attention. An urgent thing is not necessarily important however. For example, a ringing phone is urgent, it demands attention, however, it might not be important. The call could be a wrong number a telemarketer etc. Without boring you with all the details what I left with was the need to focus on those things that are important but not urgent. This includes things like planning, excercise and relationship building. There is no buzzer creating urgency about excercise or example but is does carry serious consequences either for good or for ill. Also I liked that he listed relationship building. Friendships can slip apart because while they are important to us they don't have a sense of urgency and so they are put off.

The other thing that I came away with was a desire to make lists. He urged us to have a system that was integrated and portable. The idea being that it would always be on our person. When we have a question about how we should be spending our time we can consult the list. Or when we remember something that needs attention but can't be dealt with presently we write it down. I hope that this training will stay with me as I am one of the worst time managers. Wish me luck.