Now that you have a Mission, and a general idea of the kind of lifestyle that can make that Mission happen, let’s work to make that lifestyle a reality. This means getting down to the nuts and bolts of Time Management, which is a process consisting of these six steps:
1. Budget your time based on the goals listed in your Mission.
2. Schedule your week based on the Budget.
3. Follow the Schedule and Track your time usage.
4. Tally your actual time use at the end of the week, and then Review your progress.
5. Reflect on what you did right and wrong. If necessary, Refine the Budget and Schedule. Then, Repeat steps 3 through 5 the next week, and Do It all over again.
6. Watch yourself get more productive!
No, it’s not rocket science. Like Mission Management, Time Management is actually quite simple to understand. It’s also easy to do. The key, as for every technique I recommend in The Lifelong Activist, is to take things slow and easy, and to aim for only a small amount of positive change at a time. That way, the process itself remains unthreatening, and so you’ll be less likely to abandon it.
The following chapters discuss each of the above steps individually.
