Oregon daily emerald., November 21, 1986, Supplement, Image 54

people get what some call 'To Do' list
frustration, because they schedule their
day, and they write their list, and every time
they go to do something on the list, they get
a couple of additional things to do So
rather than feeling they're gaining ground
by the end of the day, they're frustrated
because their list is bigger”
But an overgrown "To Do" list doesn't
necessarily mean you haven't done your
job, argues Blanchard "The best way to
evaluate your day," he says, “is to ask
yourself if you accomplished the most im
portant things Did you work on the things
that have the most to do with your goals?
Remember, always use your goals as the
way to schedule your day and evaluate it"
Writing a "To Do" list will only quantify,
and not qualify, your work day "Writing a
list is not the answer,” insists Blanchard
Because what are you trying to ac
complish? You have to have a picture of
what you're trying to accomplish so that
you can move towards it And so it's that
picture that drives your scheduling, drives
your time management all the time
Blanchard's theories of time manage
ment. as you may have guessed by now,
are goal-oriented His favorite definition of
a goal is "a dream with a deadline," and it is
a definition that fits nicely here "Goal
achievement is a journey, not a destina
tion," he says "You have to stay on track
The way you organize your time and your
day is how you're going to manage that
journey You can say you're heading for
Boston, but unless you have a map. you
might never get there Too many people go
through life and just let life come at them,
rather than get a sense of where they 'd like
to go "
If you embrace Blanchard's goal
oriented teachings, then you will learn to
look on your "To Do" lists as, simply, a
method of organizing and trafficking your
workload, and not as a gauge of success or
accomplishment
CASK IN POINT
Charlie Green, a 23-year old graduate of
Swarthmore. is up to his waistline with
things to do That's because the company
he launched with his boyhood friend,
Michael Dickerson, a Stanford graduate,
has gotten off to a running head start. Green
and Dickerson invested $2,500 to produce
30 dozen pairs of boxer shorts (that's right,
boxer shorts), with the logo of their
hometown Georgetown University Hoyas.
and sold out their inventory in less than two
weeks Not bad for a pair of upstarts in the
underwear business.
Green and Dickerson knew they were on
to something, and they launched a com
pany called College Concepts which now
sells boxer shorts with the logos of 50
universities, and, beginning this football
season, all 28 NFL teams They project an
nual sales approaching $2 million by 1987.
Business, you should excuse the expres
sion, is blooming
Definitely, there's not enough hours in
the day," laments Green "I don't get as
much done as I’d like to. but that's because
so many more things seem to get in the way.
Actually, it's lucky that business is going so
well, but that makes it really hard to step
back and evaluate what you're doing You
/ust don’t have time. That phone starts ring
ing as soon as you try to take your mind oft
your work ”
So how does Green cope with the sudden
pressures and demands of the business
world? Well, for one thing, he sets aside
some time at the beginning of each day to
sort through his "in" box, to keep on top of
his correspondence before the work day
draws him too tar away from his desk For
another, he and his partner have sort of
stumbled on a system tor tracking the flow
of information, such as orders and licensing
contracts, in their cramped offices "We
have a very tight filing system," he admits
"Actually, the way we arrived at the filing
system was pretty much trial and error. We d
start filing one way and discover as we were
using the files that there was a much better
way of filing things I'm constantly revamp
ing my files because I find that there might
be a better way of cross-referencing things "
Green thinks of himself as an organized
person, although to look at the muck and
clutter in and around his desk you might
think otherwise. "But at the end of the day,
my desk is neat." he insists. "During the day
you’d have to be me to know what the heck
was going on there, but I know where
everything is. Nothing ever gets lost around
here. That's one of the most important
things to us."
Most of Green's organizational methods
are of his own devising, born of the sink or
swim school of business management. For
instance, he and his partner each keep a
separate notebook that serves as their
operational bible. "I keep everything in
there." Green explains, "things to do.
responsibilities, people to contact, phone
messages Let me give you an example.
Someone calls me up and says, “I'm really
interested in your product, we distribute to
ten different places. I think we can help you
in areas you're weak " I’ll take his name and
number in a particular notebook, which is
basically a notebook of miscellaneous infor
mation, and I'll send them out a sample and
number the entry. I check through the book
every day to make sure I’ve followed up on
everything, to make sure I haven't forgotten
to send anything out to anyone
"At the same time, I cross-reference my
appointments from my calendar to my
notebook, so that if that distribution person
wants to meet with me on, say, the 20th of
the month, then the 20th doesn't all of a sud
den creep up and appear on my calendar "
In other words, each of Green's hands
knows what the other is doing By doubly
noting his appointments and reminders, he
assures himself of being prepared for
anything that comes his way
As for his personal life, well, Green
doesn’t leave himself much time for
anything outside the world of boxer shorts
"Generally I use the weekends to get my life
in order," he says "I basically organize
everything at the beginning of the week
And I keep a pretty rigid schedule I work
from about nine to eight, then I work out for a