Sowing Your Oats

Last week I attended a training class for work. The 2-day class was intended to make me a better Assistant Store Manager. One of the things covered was called OATS.

Objective

Action

Time

Schedule

The basic premise of Oats is to plan your work. For example, O, as you can see above, is for Objective, or in other words, you set your goals for the day and week. Next comes the Action, what Action are you going to take to achieve said Objectives. Followed by how much Time will those actions take to achieve said objectives. Finally, you need to Schedule yourself the allotted portion of Time needed.

The same is true for personal finance to. Most of the readers of this blog want to get Debt-Free. So that is the Objective. Next, what Actions are we going to take to achieve that Objective? For me that means work more hours (others it may be get a 2nd job) and as Dave Ramsey says, "sell so much stuff, the kids think their next." Then we have to set down and come up with a realistic Time frame. Finally, time to Schedule your time to achieve your end objective.

Objective = Get Debt Free

Action = Sell Stuff and work more hours

Time = a realistic Time frame to become Debt Free

Schedule

It is important to remain focused and get to the end goal as quickly as possible, still you must remain realistic in the process.