Time management for the 21st century (2-days)

Target Audience

This workshop aims at people who are looking for means to organize themselves better to get more work done in the same amount of time and/or to coach their co-workers in that matter. 

Objectives

  • Set and maintain priorities
  • Use deadlines pro-actively instead of undergoing them
  • Define S.M.A.R.T.E.R. goals
  • Recognize time wasters and address them more consciously
  • Handle stress better by creating a peace of mind
  • Forget less and do more thanks to effective To-Do-lists (e.g. scrum board)
  • Schedule work more realistically, including the daily 'unforeseen' things
  • Fulfil their responsibilities better thanks to better follow-up
  • Be more assertive and say 'no' in a constructive manner (without the word "no")
  • Make more purposeful use of modern information and communication technology

Duration

This workshop takes two days of 6 hours of training, spread over 2 weeks. 

- Day 1: Time management = efficient and effective

- Day 2: Time management = attention management

Day 1 : Time management = efficient and effective

Introduction: time as such cannot be managed !

Time passes at a fixed pace of 60 seconds per minute, 60 minutes per hour, 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 52,14 weeks per year. Conclusion:
one cannot stretch time, store it of produce more of it. The only thing one can do is making sure to make the best possible use of the available time.
Are you ready for it ?

Basic principles of personal productivity

- Pro-activity and the circles of influence

- Defining goals and setting priorities 

- Managing deadlines: smaller steps, swifter progress

- The concept of 'Flow' and the power of progress reporting

- Reactive behaviour versus saying "no" in a constructive way

- Collaboration: be assertive, not aggressive (strive for win-win)

- Application (1) : the 'visually correct' schedule (demonstration in Outlook)

Homework: the daily planner

Participants are asked, from now on until the next workshop session, to close out every working day by scheduling the next working day using the daily planner template and to keep track during the day of what they spent their working time on really. At the start of the next workshop session, participants will exchange their experiences with this technique. Practice proves that having to schedule leads to more work getting done and that registering the time spent helps to get better in setting realistic expectations and ambitions.

Day 2: Time management = attention management

Introduction: Time management for the 21st century

- the excess of information, often with only little added value (e.g. newsletters, whitepapers, discussions per e-mail)
- the variety of channels (telephone, e-mail, instant messaging, different platforms, …) making you lose the overview and 
- the shortage of time to 'digest' this information (just think about: filing, following up and remembering)

Brainware: how to stay focused ?

- Stress & Burnout: a matter of good arrangements within the organization

- The reflecting brain cannot multitask - why do we keep trying ?

- Empty your mind = write it down: ok, but where and how is the best ?

- Handling distractions and interruptions (pomodoro, mind dump, 4x4 decision model)

- Fighting procrastination - do it now !

- Application (2) : a To-Do-list that does work ! (e.g. scrum board)