T I m e m a n a g e m e n t

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American Management Association / www.amanet.org

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4.
“My biggest goal in life is . . .” If you could wave a magic
wand and accomplish a single big goal in life, what one goal,
either short or long term, would have the greatest positive
impact on your life? Now, complete these sentences: 
“My biggest goal in my career is . . .” 
“My biggest goal for my family is . . .”
These are some of the most profound and important
questions you can ever ask and answer for yourself. When
you become clear about your answers—which will not be
easy—you can then ask yourself what changes you would
need to make to bring your time usage and your life priorities
more into alignment with each other.
Napoleon Hill observed that life only begins to become
great when we decide clearly upon our most important goal
in life.
What are your most important goals?
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Think About Your 
Vision and Mission
T
H
R
E
E
O N E O F T H E B E S T
and most profound books written in the
last few years is Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow.
His insight is that we need to use two different types of
thinking to deal with the variety of situations we face in our
daily lives.
Fast thinking is the type of thinking that we use to deal
with short-term tasks, responsibilities, activities, problems,
and situations. We act quickly and instinctively. In most
cases, fast thinking is entirely appropriate for our day-to-
day activities.
The second type of thinking that Kahneman describes is
slow thinking. That’s when you step back and take more
time to carefully think through the details of the situation
before deciding what you are going to do. Kahneman’s
American Management Association / www.amanet.org

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insight is that the failure to engage in slow thinking when it
is required and necessary is the cause of many of the mis-
takes that we make in life.
To become excellent in time management, and to get
your entire life under control, you need to engage in “slow
thinking” on a regular basis. Start with the question, “What
am I trying to do?”