Great Lakes Training

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Project Management Institute Michigan Capital
Area Chapter
Mastering Time Priorities
Great Lakes Training Consulting 13153 Old
Hickory Trail DeWitt, MI 48820 (517)
669-1318 www.grtlaketng.com
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Other training programs offered by Great Lakes
Training and Consulting   DiSCovering the
Secrets of Motivation and Cooperation. Tom
Peters has said, People are enthusiastic,
motivated, and totally committed except for the
eight hours a day they work for you! The key to
building a dedicated, loyal, and
performance-driven workforce is understanding the
motivation that drives the workforce behavior.
Soft skills deliver high payoffs in improved
performance and productivity.   Dimensions of
Leadership (2-day seminar). In a successful
organization, leaders can be found at all levels,
from the boardroom to the mailroom. Leadership
is critical to a high performing organization and
is one of the evaluation criteria for the Malcolm
Baldrige National Quality Award. Are your
managers and supervisors leading or directing?
Are they bold or analytical? Dimensions of
Leadership helps discover what you value in
yourself as a leader, what kind of leadership the
situation calls for, and in which situations will
your style be most effective.   Eight Simple
Tools. Simple tools used with consummate skill
are truly the secret to successful process
improvement. These simple tools help businesses
improve the effectiveness of their businesses
processes, improving the bottom line, while
increasing the value to the customer. Learn to
use the problem solving and decision making tools
used by industry leaders such as Xerox, Ford and
General Motors, Hayworth, and others.   Unleashing
the Power of Teams. Discover the right roles
for the right people on your teams, and helps
your teams to assess both individual strengths
and the approaches to the team and innovation
process. Clarify the roles, simplify the
processes, and maximize the innovative
performance of your teams. Innovation is the key
to survival and success in the 21st Century. Tom
Peters says, Tomorrows victories will go to the
masters of innovation.   Moments of Truth in
Customer Service. The first time a customer
comes in contact with your organization a moment
of truth occurs and you will meet, exceed, or
fall below their expectations. Your frontline
people can only serve your customers as well as
your business processes and systems allow them.
Find out how to build a customer focused
organization that will anticipate and exceed your
customers expectations.   Managing Work
Expectations. Whether spoken or unspoken, your
expectations have a powerful impact on your
thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and are the key
drivers of your attitudes. Your attitudes, in
turn, influence performance, commitment, and job
satisfaction. People who have clearly defined,
well-communicated expectations find more
satisfaction and success in their work than
people whose expectations go unspoken and
unrealized. Learn how to establish a process for
identifying and managing work expectations.   Bala
ncing Multiple Priorities, Objectives, and
Deadlines. Do you feel like youre a slave to
your calendar? So many things going on at once
that you are losing control? TIME - The
irreplaceable resource, once used or wasted is
gone forever. Identify habits and learn new
skills in twelve different categories from goals
to interruptions, delegation, and
procrastination. This program is not a new
personal planner, but a unique assessment and
action plan to increase personal and
organizational productivity.   Balance Your
Scorecard. Without a solid and accurate
measurement system people have no idea how well
they or the organization are performing, and are
not able to take action or initiative to perform
at higher levels. A "Balanced Scorecard" does
not just provide a means to track your
organization's performance, but a strategic
management system to implement strategy and
manage your company or organization over the long
term.
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Universal Management Secret
Concentrate! Do first things first, then do them
one at a time
Six Key Time Management Questions

• What results do I intend to achieve?
• What must I do to get those results?
• What are the priorities?
• How much time will each activity require?
• When will I do each activity?
• How much flexibility must I allow for the
  unexpected things I cant control?

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Picking the Right Priorities

• Choose the ___________, not the __________.
• Focus on the _____________, not the ___________.
• Choose your own direction, instead of joining
  the parade.
• Do something that will make a ______________,
• not something __________ and _________.

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Wash car Mow lawn Trim bushes Repair
back Door hinge Repair kitchen Light
switch Fertilize lawn Paint mail box Sweep
out garage Run/walk 3 miles Take spouse To
dinner
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8-Step Model for When Too Many Things Are Due At
Once

• Summarize your day
• Focus on non-work relationships
• Get a good nights sleep
• Review your summary
• Take 10-15 minutes for closed-door planning time
• Reserve a small part of your day for load
  balancing
• Dont do anything new throughout the day

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The Triple Constraints
COST
TIME
RESOURCES
PERFORMANCE
Look at the situation that created the need for
the project. Ask a comparative question If we
had to sacrifice performance to meet the
deadline, what would you want me to do? Ask a
what if question. What if we cut this out of
the budget, what would be the impact? Why do you
want this done? If time, money and resource
limitations were not a problem, what would you
want?
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• Manage Your Paper to Manage Your Time
• What can I DROP ?
• What can be DELAYED ?
• What can be DELEGATED ?
• What can I DO ?

Projects
Memos
Actions
E-Mails
Phone Calls
Whats the Next Action?
Drop
Do
Delegate
Delay
Discard or Shred
Send with instructions Place reminder on calendar
and Tickler File
Task stays on the desk until it is completed
Return to In Basket
Place in Tickler File Schedule time in calendar
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Appendix A
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Notes
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Appendix B
Additional Resources
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Stephen
R. Covey PhD, Simon Shuster, New York, NY 1989
Defeating Procrastination 52 Fail-Safe Tips
for Keeping Time on Your Side. Marlene
Caroselli, SkillPath Publications, Mission, KS
1977 How to Run Successful Meetings in Half the
Time. Milo Frank, Simon Shuster, New York, NY
1989 How to Get Organized When You Dont Have
the Time. Stephanie Culp, Writers Digest Books,
Cincinnati, OH 1986 Manage Your Time, Manage
Your Work, Manage Yourself. Merrill Donna
Douglass, AMACOM, New York, NY 1985 The
Complete Idiots Guide to Project Management with
Microsoft Project 2003. Ron Black, Alpha Books,
Indianapolis, IN 2004 Getting Things Done.
David Allen, Penguin Group, New York, NY 2001