Personal Improvement Process
Vision/mission statements
The main goal I am determined to achieve is the correction and improvement of homework delivery process due to my usual lateness in this field, thus the vision statement is to improve timing of my homework delivery.
At first, it is necessary to create the system of values, principles, standards, according to which I will be acting as well as measuring the effectiveness my activity, namely the mission statements (Talbot 2003). The following mission statements, aimed at proper regulation of homework delivery process, can be set:
The tasks I am given are to be finished as soon as possible, at least 4-6 hours before hand;.
Data discussion
The variations, which affect my activity, my process of homework delivery are different. Among them the following are to be mentioned: lateness, procrastination, last minute passing of the project, not scheduled time, absence of time management, tardiness.
The metric I am to use in this project is the estimation of role of the factors, which cause such phenomenon, and the change between the time scheduled and time started, namely comparison of these data and defining whether I have managed to start working on the task on the planned previously time. The main new information incorporated into analysis will be the average time spent on the task and the concrete start of working on the task. The data for the project are collected by observation and consequent writing them down during the month. Since the data for metrics are to be collected by the project leaders (Kovacich 2003), in this particular case, such duty is put on me, on the leader of my own project.
Improvement discussion
The improvement process will look the same as the bowling play consisting in oiling on lanes so as to improve the speed of the ball and the technique of play. Under these circumstances, we can also conclude that there are no variations, which could not be changed, since all of them are subjective and can be influenced on my own. Thus, all of them are changeable, meaning it is the target of my improvement process to produce impact on them.
Particularly, I will have to organize my work in accordance with the schedule I will develop before starting the improvement process, in which main time boarders are to be provided, in particular the need to pass the task not later than 4-6 hours before the deadline as well as the need to avoid time-wasting activities.
All that has to be done according to three main right solutions to such issue, which has arisen: it must be done timely (the methodology has to be applied as soon as possible); effectively (it has to be based on objective and effective assessment of the potential consequences), efficiently (Thornton 2003). Also, I have to focus on objectives, spend less time on unimportant tasks, do jobs before they escalate, reduce specific time-wasters, develop effective daily regime (Croft 1996).
Also the Pareto’s rule 80/20 has to be applied, namely it will lead to spending the time on the things that are, no doubt, important for me. 80 percent of my results can come from 20 percent of my time, and the other 80 percent are merely wasted: this time either does not produce results or almost does not produce (Croft 1996)
Paying attention to the factors, which make me fail the tasks assigned to me it is possible to start the improvement process, namely with defying the barriers on your way to achieving the goal, ‘to speeding the ball’.
Pareto chart and its analysis
The Pareto chart shows us that the main influence on my disability to cope with the issues on time as well as to provide the professors with the assignments within the deadline has absence of schedule, thus everything has its roots in lack of time-management as well as in the existence of internal factors causing unwillingness to spend some time working on them.
This model also proves the importance of time in our daily life. It is stated that: ‘time is unique resource: you can’t get more of it than your twenty-four hours a day, you can’t get it back once it’s lost, you only get to use your limited supply of it once, this isn’t the dress rehearsal, it’s a real thing’ (Croft 1996)
Cause and effect chart and its analysis
Since these three factors are the main in context of my failure to cope with educational obligations on time and the absence of schedule is, perhaps, the insight of mine, I am determined to do my best so as to eliminate the time-wasters from my routine, among which are surfing the net, in particular in social networks, reading all the news available. Also, among the toughest tasks to deal with is procrastination, since its basis is in lack of motivation. However, having obtained such practical task as this one, I can conclude that the main goal for future in order to avoid procrastination will be to find practical aspect in all the assignments I am involved.
Summary
Having concluded which factors influence my failure to organize my homework delivery process as well as paying attention to those, which have the greatest impact among the others having used Pareto metric and the cause-effect one, I can state that proper organizing of my day, in particular by providing myself with the schedule, in which the main principles on when to start and finish my work, what to avoid during its completing, is to be provided. Strategic management plan, which I am about to pass so as to reach the target of improvement, will help to find spare time for other activities, which can be characterized as “outside university’ ones, as well as give me a chance to manage to cope with the educational tasks, which I used to fail.
References
Croft, C. (1996) Time Management London: International Thompson Business Press. Print
Kovacich (2003) Establishing a Metric Management System Retrieved from:
http://media.techtarget.com/searchSecurity/downloads/KovacichCh09_sample.pdf
Talbot, M. (2003) Make Your Mission Statement Work: Identify Your Organization’s Values and Live Them Every Day Oxford: How To Books, Ltd. Print
Thornton, A.C. (2004) Variation Risk Management: Focusing Quality Improvement in Product Development and Production Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Print
