Time management
Keep to the schedule: “Punctuality is the courtesy of kings,” but it is rarely the norm in YLD projects. Volunteers tend to sleep superbly and turn up groggy-eyed and late for every scheduled start time. You will have to decide yourself how you are going to deal with this perennial problem. One way is to shout and scream and cancel lunch! Other, potentially more effective ways, are to schedule extended hours at the end of the day to make up for time lost in the morning, or plan a long lunch that can absorb early delays. More critical for time management is how to deal with days lost to rain, transportation failures, or delays in material delivery. Too many setbacks such as these can leave a gaping hole between your schedule and reality. So prepare for it. Give yourself a buffer zone within your time-table to prevent setbacks from being disastrous. The trick is to know when it’s the right time to be strict and when it is OK to be a little more lax. The best thing is to get every team member on the same page with the schedule who is doing what by when, and when the absolute drop-dead deadlines are for delivery.

Goal management
Getting the job done: In the preparation section, we recommended that you set “milestones” in the schedule for the project so that you can register achievements along the way. This is an excellent way of motivating and inspiring your team. If you are involved in a long-term project, you need to break it up by setting achievable goals within do-able time spans. Your job as manager is to steer the team toward the next milestone. Keep the focus on that, rather than leave them wondering how on earth they are going to achieve the broad, end-goals of the project. Between milestones, you can invent targets for the days for the morn ing and afternoon sessions, even for individual hours or short breakout sessions. This way, the whole project will become results or goal-oriented. And that makes your project easier to report as each day you will be able to acknowledge a goal achieved, a target reached.

'Cambodian Motivation'
"I find my motivation through focusing on dreams - high achievement takes place in the framework of high expectation and dreams offer the highest expectations of all.Dreams give us hope and when they come true,joy and happiness. When you have a dream inside you,listen,really listen,and work towards it coming true. First,figure out what your dreams are.Listen to yourself and what you really want.It doesn’t matter if you think it is silly or can’t come true. What do you need to do to reach your dream.Write out the steps towards it and break them down into baby steps:a phone call to make or letter to send.Make these small steps. Hold onto your dream.Try to always be gentle and kind with yourself.When you do something, anything,celebrate it,notice it and realise you’re coming closer to your dream.Feel the joy and wonder of that. So reach for your dreams.Follow them.Believe in them.Get others to believe in them,and they can come true." - Chariya Ear,23,Cambodia Back