This is the sixth Blog in a series on personal management and how to lead a life worth living and be happy. Using SMART objectives to translate passion and interests into achievable outcomes or expectations. These are often used with annual Business Plans or with employee performance reviews, but are equally helpful in defining realistic personal outcomes.
Typically these passions and interests are substantive things - an overseas trip, writing a book, making furniture, art work, running a campaign or a conservation project for example. If you meet your expectations on achieving one of these, you feel really good and happy. You feel you're living a life worth living. It's obvious, but sometimes we don't plan these well and give them realistic timescales. We think we can do more in one day than is possible.
So here's how I think about my interests and how I break them into manageable parts, that I call projects.
Here's an example of one of my current projects:
Rats and mice are introduced pests and a major predator of native birds and insects here in New Zealand. We have lots of birds on our property and unfortunately also a healthy rat and mouse population. So I'm going to create a rat trapline across the property to reduce the rat population and allow more birds to breed. It's the sort of thing that could be on my 'to do' list for years and never get done!!
Have a listen to our dawn chorus to hear what we wake up to. Click on the Soundcloud link below.
So I have a project to create a rat trap line because I'm passionate about the natural world, and our beautiful birdsong. This is how I think about this sort of thing. I use the mnemonic S.M.A.R.T. to help me create an objective for this project.
S - Specific
M - Measurable
A - Achievable
R - Realistic
T - Timetabled.
So how many traps do I need? One every 50m along a line across the property. Each line 100m apart, therefore on our property a dozen traps. I'm going to make simple wooden tubes with mesh ends. Rats like to be able to see through a tunnel. A hole allows the rat in one end, and there's a trap in the tube. I'm going to make 1 trap a month as life is busy with other things. Therefore my SMART objective becomes:
To create a rat trapline across the property making 12 traps over the next year.
It's specific - 12 traps.
It's measurable - trap lines in place/ number of dead rats.
It's achievable - simple, easy to make traps.
It's realistic - 1 trap a month, should be doable amongst the rest of daily life.
It's timetabled - 1 year.
This is an example of being realistic about your passions and interests. It's about planning and setting realistic timetables so that when your in the doing phase (action) and when you complete a project you meet your expectations and are happy about it. (If you're interested in rats and other predators of NZ visit the Predator Free NZ website.)
The first rat trap tunnels being made.
I use the mnemonic PARM - Plan, Act, Reflect, Modify. The above example illustrates the planning and action, you'll also reflect on what is working and what is not, therefore modifying as you learn along the way.
This is a way of thinking that may seem too logical and not spontaneous enough for you. However if you're procrastinating about starting something, or if you're agonising over something, or you're frustrated because you never get to that task that's really interesting, then this way of thinking is helpful. If you never get to the interesting, important things in life how can you be happY!?
The next blog will cover Project Management.
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