ORDER
-Josiah Diaso
I think it is important that I begin this write up by defining success away from the widely held belief that success is the apparent abundance of possession and/or prestige. Don’t get me wrong, material abundance can be a measure of success if one sets it as a goal, but it must not be mistaken to be success in itself. Success in the context of this write-up is defined as attainment of set goals.
I believe strongly that all of life is built upon definite principles, and that the consistent application of these principles will always lead to remarkable results.
Let me expound on this a little…
In physical science, we learn that nature achieves its end of regeneration and propagation by the continuous working of natural principles. There is in nature the principle of cause and effect, which according to many is one of the most profound natural principle upon which is hinged the very essence of things. Newton describes it thus, “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”. Implying that you get only to the extent that you give. For example, the beauty of rainfall is achieved by an interplay between evaporation, transpiration and condensation, which individually are effects of causes and in other scales, causes of effects that eventually culminates in rainfall. The variability of rainfall in different regions of the world with differing conditions that affect the working of these principles are telltale.
The point of the foregoing explanation is that all of nature adheres to definite principles for goal attainment; and we too as humans (Natural entities) must adhere to natural principles to reach our ultimate desires. For this write-up, we may want to consider principles in terms of virtues; virtues that when one possesses is almost guaranteed to result to success.
THE VIRTUE OF “ORDER”
Order has been defined as the planning of time and organizing of resources. Some writers have hypothesized that order is the first principle of things. According to them, order precedes everything else; fact of which is agreed on by both creationists and evolutionists. According to the creationists, before the creative process began, it was imperative for the creator (God) to impose order on things: He separated night from day, he divided the dry land and the sea before he brought anything to be, as a matter of fact, things were brought about by the order that God put in place; trees began to grow and nature flourished because processes were instituted. The evolutionists have it that from a chaotic universe, a big bang occurred that set things in their ordered places necessitating life to evolve.
Similarly For the human individual and organizations, what precedes any level of success is order. Nothing meaningful has ever been attained in disarray. According to Lawyer and Author Sydney Newton Bremmer; “The methodical man by an orderly arrangement of his work conserves the energy of body and mind that is often frittered away and without adequate returns by the unmethodical man”. Bremmer in this quote asserts that orderly arrangement of work amounts to far better results than an unorganized work. As the definition of order entails, there is a need for proper planning and procedures to be put in place as a beginning point prior to job/task execution. Bryan Tracy has this to say on the need for planning (order), “every minute you spend in planning for a task saves 10 minutes in the execution of it”. As the quote by Bryan Tracy implies, efficiency defined as utilizing less resource either of time and other inputs of production to gain higher output is achieved when ordering or planning is done. It is important to point out that every area of an individual’s life requires the imposition of order, and it is not only limited to your job or task execution per se.
In this series we will highlights 3 areas that requires ordering if we must attain remarkable levels of success
- Ordering your time (Time Management)
- Ordering your resources (Budgeting)
- Ordering Your Energy (Stress Management)
- Ordering your time (Time Management)
One of my professor friend’s in college Professor Maurice Ebong would say, Time is actually the only resource we truly have, every other resource is gotten from the wise use of the resource of time. That statement never did leave my memory; it stuck like a glue because of its profoundness. Have you ever wondered why the same adjective used to describe utility of money is used for time? People are often asked how they SPEND their time, just like they are asked how they spend money. I personally think that this is no coincident; time is actually the currency with which our lives are transacted. We get returns on our time by the quality of investment made into it; what we spend our time doing. Just like money, time must be budgeted for, and the best way to do that is to allocate task to time and time to task. Plan for time before it comes, chiefly because it is fleeting. Time is always in the future; immediately the present comes it becomes your past, so you must plan for it. Wasted years comes in seconds and minutes, the time spent doing nothing when you should be doing something is what comes together over time and amount to wasted years, and the easiest way time is wasted, is not planning for time. Our lives are built into time, when time is wasted our lives are wasted.
One very effective way to measure how well your time is being spent is to set targets. Setting targets is basically time-based planning. It requires breaking down long-term goals into sub-goals to be achieved in progressively specified time. Targets create a focus for your activity, it gives you something to aim at. Basically, setting Targets does two things;
- It puts in proper perspective the need to take decisive actions. When you have a target, it creates urgency for action.
- It serves as your guidepost. It tells you if you are moving fast enough or too slow for the goal you have set for yourself.
Another way to actually make the best use of your time is to plan your day. You tend to achieve more for a day if you have defined beforehand what you intend to achieve for that day. As a guide, have a To-do list handy, this creates a focus for your day and helps you conserve energy.
On our next edition we will take a look at ordering your resources…
Cheers…