Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. Section 1.2 Managing Your Personal Finances 19 management skills to get things done. Management skills put you in control. You make the decisions. You carry them out. You benefit from the right choices and occasionally suffer from the mistakes. Using a management system can help you manage human and nonhuman resources that are available for your use. Personal information management (PIM) is a system that individuals use to acquire, organize, maintain, retrieve, and use information. An example of a PIM system is Microsoft Outlook in which an individual can keep a schedule, record contact information, and complete other activities that help organize personal information. It helps users manage tasks, as well as personal responsibilities, to help manage resources. Using systematic decision-making is an important part of management. However, management involves more than making decisions and solving problems. There are stages of management that must be applied, which include planning, action, and evaluation. Planning “A job well planned is a job half done.” This familiar saying points out the importance of planning. Whether you want to reach a career goal or find a summer job, you need a plan. This applies to almost anything you want to achieve. For example, deciding what to wear to school may involve very little conscious planning. Choosing what to wear to a wedding or a job interview takes more thought. Building an appropriate wardrobe for your lifestyle can be a major planning challenge. The planning phase of management involves identifying goals, obstacles, and resources. Consider these questions: What goals do you want to have or achieve? What obstacles stand between you and your goals? What must you overcome? What resources can you use to overcome the obstacles and reach your goals? Figure 1-3 shows two goals and a plan for accomplishing each one. Listed with each goal are the obstacles and resources related to it. Try putting together a similar plan for achieving something you want, such as a summer job, racing bike, or part in your school play. Action Planning is of little value without action. Action involves putting your resources to work to overcome the obstacles that stand between you and your goals. Success depends on two key personal characteristics—determination and flexibility. Determination keeps you focused on the final goal and helps you stick with the project to the end. Determination is especially necessary when things are not going so well. When working on a tough math assignment, you may feel like giving up. Determination keeps you working until the problem is solved. Flexibility helps you adjust to new and unexpected situations. It helps you find ways to revise and improve your plans. Imagine that you have two goals for the weekend: earning money for a camping trip and writing a book report. You have a babysitting job on Saturday and plan to spend Sunday afternoon on the
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