Oh no! It happened again … Daylight Savings time snuck up on me … and I almost missed it! It seems that it returns earlier and earlier each year. I recall when it used to arrive in April, or at least after the spring equinox. After all, many of us in North America and Great Britain refer to the beginning and end of Daylight Savings time with the following short phrase that helps remind us that the time changes occur in the spring and autumn seasons … “Spring Forward, Fall Back.”
This time, however, I was not prepared for the time change and because I unplug electronically on the weekends to charge my internal batteries, I missed the announcements and did not realize the time change occurred until Sunday night after dinner, when I sat down to catch up on a few shows the DVR recorded. So, to answer the question, posed in the image at the top of this blog post from Count Rugen, the six fingered man from the hit movie, The Princess Bride … How do I feel? Well, this time, because I was not prepared for the time change ahead of time, I feel a bit cheated that one hour was sucked out of the weekend. I confess, I got a bit spoiled when I resided in Arizona where the time zone there does not require citizens to change their clocks.
So, how do I prevent this from happening to me again … stay organized and plan ahead! In short, I looked up the time changes for the remainder of this year as well as next year and marked them on my calendar today. The art of strategic management requires components like planning ahead to ensure important events (such as time changes) are not missed. This is an effective way to help us stay better prepared so that we remain on schedule and avoid the embarrassment of showing up late for a significant appointment.
So, for all those like me, who want to stay organized and plan ahead, I have provided below for your convenience, the upcoming dates for the time changes through the end of 2015:
That’s it for this time! Please stay tuned for my upcoming article where my research work takes a closer look at the many different trends that occur in managing company strategies and the role an external analysis plays in the development of the strategic planning process with respect to organizational management.
Until then … stay organized!