Building Blocks: Time Management

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Building Blocks Time Management
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What is the Value of Time?

• To realize the value of one month, ask a mother
  who gave birth to a premature baby
• To realize the value of one week, ask the editor
  of a weekly newspaper
• To realize the value of one hour, ask the lovers
  who are waiting to meet
• To realize the value of one second, ask the
  person who just avoided an accident
• To realize the vlaue of one millisecond, ask the
  person who won an Olympic medal

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Outline

• Introduction
• Set goals
• Learn to prioritize
• Create a schedule
• Stop procrastinating
• Start delegating
• Concluding thoughts

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Introduction

• Time management skills are essential skills for
  effective people
• Many people spend their days in a frenzy of
  activity, but achieve very little, because
  they're not concentrating their effort on the
  things that matter the most

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Time Wasters

• Drop-in visitors
• Inability to say no
• Telephone interruptions
• Junk mail and email
• Lack of priorities
• Meetings

• Cluttered desk
• Long lunch breaks
• Lack of deadlines or checklists
• Excessive socializing
• Commute time
• Procrastination

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• Every minute we waste in frustration over a
  task is a minute subtracted from the time weve
  allotted to enjoy life
• -Mancini, 2003, p. x

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How Good is Your Time Management?

• How often do you find yourself running out of
  time?
• Are the tasks you work on during the day the ones
  with the highest priority?
• How often do you find yourself dealing with
  interruptions?
• Do you use goal setting to decide what tasks and
  activities you should work on?
• Do you find you have to take work home, in order
  to get it done?

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Improving Your Time Management

• Set goals
• Prioritize
• Schedule
• Avoid procrastination

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Set Goals
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Goal Setting

• People tend to neglect goal setting because it
  requires time and effort
• What they fail to consider is that a little time
  and effort put in now saves an enormous amount of
  time, effort and frustration in the future
• People with goals usually achieve more in life

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Goal Setting Tips

• State each goal as a positive statement
• Give your goals a priority
• Set realistic goals
• Set SMART goals and use the 5 golden rules

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SMART Goals

• S Specific
• M Measurable
• A Attainable
• R Relevant
• T Time-bound

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The Five Golden Rules

• Rule 1 Set Goals that Motivate You
• Rule 2 Set SMART Goals
• Rule 3 Set Goals in Writing
• Rule 4 Make an Action Plan
• Rule 5 Stick With It

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Backward Goal-Setting

• The idea is to start with your ultimate
  objective, your end goal, and then work backward
  from there to develop your plan

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The Backward Planning Process

• Write down your ultimate goal
• Then ask yourself what milestone you need to
  accomplish just before that, in order to achieve
  your ultimate goal
• What do you need to complete before that
  second-to-last goal?
• Continue to work backwards until you identify the
  very first milestone that you need to accomplish

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Learning to Prioritize
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Prioritizing

• How long do you spend each day on unimportant
  things
• Do you KNOW how much time you've spent
• Reading junk mail
• Talking to colleagues
• Eating a meal

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Activity Logs

• Will help you to analyze how you actually spend
  your time
• Record your time for several days on an activity
  log

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Activity Logs

• Without modifying your behavior note every time
  you change activities, whether opening mail,
  working, making coffee, gossiping, etc
• Once you have logged your time for a few days,
  analyze your daily activity log.
• You may be alarmed to see the amount of time you
  spend doing low value jobs!

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To-Do Lists

• By keeping a To-Do List, you make sure that you
  capture all of the tasks you have to complete in
  one place
• Essential if you're not going to forget things

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The ABC System

• All task can be given an A, B, C priority level
• A tasks are those that must be done and soon
• B tasks are those that should be done soon
• C tasks are those that can be
• put off without creating dire consequences

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How to Decide Whats Important

• Weigh tasks by
• High payoffs
• Essential to your goals
• Essential to your companys goals
• Essential to your bosss goals
• Cant be delegated

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Create a Schedule
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Pickle Jar Theory

• Clear your mind
• Now imagine that you have a huge empty pickle jar
  
• Now, imagine filling the jar with golf balls
• You're going to now squeeze in a handful of
  marbles
• Shake the jar and as the contents start to settle
  and create more room, add in a bit of sand
• Now, fill your pickle jar to the tip-top by
  adding back in some of the pickle juice

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Pickle Jar Theory

• No matter how full your schedule seems to be, if
  you try really hard, you can always fit more into
  it
• You can get important work done while still
  leaving time for the small things that make life
  fun

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Scheduling

• Benefits
• Understand what you can realistically achieve
• Plan to make the best use of the time available
• Leave enough time for things you absolutely must
  do
• Minimize stress by avoiding over-commitment

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Five-step process

• Identify the time you have available
• Block in the essential tasks you must carry out
  to succeed in your job
• Schedule in high priority urgent tasks and vital
  "house-keeping" activities
• Block in appropriate contingency time to handle
  unpredictable interruptions
• In the time that remains, schedule the activities
  that address your priorities and personal goals

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Effective Scheduling

• Requires scheduling system
• Calendar
• Datebook Organizer
• Personal digital assistant (PDA)
• The best solution depends entirely on your
  circumstances

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Stop Procrastinating
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Procrastination

• The thief of time!
• It is a habit
• The habit can be broken and replaced with new
  habits

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Procrastination
8 common causes

• Overwhelming tasks
• Unpleasant tasks
• Fear of change
• Fear of failure

• Addiction to cramming
• Disorganized plans
• Unclear goals
• Inability to say no

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Avoid procrastination

• The key to controlling and ultimately combating
  this destructive habit is to
• Recognize when you start procrastinating
• Understand why it happens
• Take steps to better manage your time and outcomes

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How to Overcome Procrastination

• Step 1 Recognize that you're procrastinating
• Step 2 Work out WHY you're procrastinating
• Step 3 Modify your behavior
• Such as rewarding yourself upon completion, or
  dividing the task into smaller units

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Start Delegating
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Start Delegating

• Delegating can save you time
• Delegation is the means of maximizing things
  done through others

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Start Delegating

• Common directions of delegation
• Downward those you manage/supervise
• Lateral swap responsibilities to match tasks
  with aptitudes and interests

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Start Delegating

• What can you delegate to others?
• Tasks you dont want but others might
• Tasks for which someone else might be better
  qualified

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Do You Find it Hard to Delegate?

• 6 reasons people often give for not delegating
• Ill lose control
• Im the only one who can do it right
• Ill look bad for giving it to someone else
• I do not have the authority
• I may become dispensable
• I never thought of it

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How to Delegate Effectively

• Identify the task
• Identify the right person for the job
• Explain the assignment and benefits
• Set standards and deadlines
• Establish reporting method
• Evaluate results and provide reward

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Concluding Thoughts
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Time Management Tools

• Includes
• Your goals
• A scheduling system
• And your ability to prioritize and delegate

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Tips

• Make your first hour of the day productive
• Schedule some open time for flexibility each day
• Expect the unexpected
• Carry your organizer/calendar with you at all
  times

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Tips

• When possible handle papers only once
• Avoid clutter
• Learn to say NO
• Always look for ways to work smarter not harder
• Have something to do with you at all times

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Resources

• Frings, C. (2003). Increasing personal
  productivity through effective time management
  (3rd ed.) Denver, CO CACMLE.
• Mancini, M. (2003). Time management. New York
  McGraw-Hill.
• Roesch, R. (1998). Time management for busy
  people. New York McGraw-Hill.
• Time Management on the Mindtools website at
  http//www.mindtools.com/pages/main/newMN_HTE.htm

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