Part One

In his book, The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama wrote, “I serve as a black screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.” Since he won the presidency, I have been projecting my own views as a black man on him. I have come to the conclusion that hope will prevail and good times will come because of his election. I am however realistic enough to know that it will only happen if I work for it and if I become the agent of the change I need to make that happen. Amongst the wonderful things I heard during the campaign, the one that has stayed with me is when Obama said that, “we are the change we seek.” In the light of that, I have decided to make a change a week until he is inaugurated on January 20th, 2009.

Here is my change number two:

I now make daily list of things to do – Organization has been proven to be the difference between the campaign Obama ran and the one his competitors ran beginning with Hilary Clinton to John McCain. Being able to manage competing demands, time, and setting up priorities are what determine if one is a success or a failure.

For some reasons, despite knowing all the maxims about planning, I am one of those who resist it. I know for instance that, “He who fails to plan, plans to fail.” I have in the past find myself making a list of things to do. I end up doing the easy tasks. For the next day, I transfer the undone difficult and unpleasant tasks. And day after day, I continued to transfer the undone ones. In a Time Management class, I found out that the solution to difficult or unpleasant tasks is to break it down to little pieces. If that doesn’t work, provide reinforcement to yourself if you accomplish that task. For example, tell yourself you will go for a treat after you accomplish a particular challenging task.

The good thing about having a list is that at the end of the day, you can look at the list and get a sense of accomplishment when you check off the things you did. A list also helps in reducing distractions that daily drag us away from relevant tasks. But most importantly, a list helps us to give structure to our day. With a list we can anticipate the day, project, map out our path, and take control of the day as much as possible. Without a list, we are virtually handing over the day to environmental factors.

The time spent making a list pays for itself. Those who go grocery shopping with a list come out faster and buy less of the things they do not need.

It has been said that when a gentleman wakes up and is a success, check very well, he has not been sleeping. He has been planning his day. He has been maximizing his time. We all get the same 24 hours a day, the difference in the number of things we accomplish depends on how we allot and utilize that time that is available to us. The simple truth is that I am the Federal Reserve Chairman of my most valuable legal tender – time. And so are you. Make each day a good day.