time management for attendees

7/29/2019 Time Management for Attendees

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Time is On My Side

With apologies to the Byrds(which all of you are too young to remember)


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Is this you?

At the end of the day I wonder what I really accomplished

I keep forgetting some things I promised someone I would do

I am just so busy I dont know where to start my work

I am not sure what things I should do first

I start a lot of tasks but dont seem to get any of them done

I go to meetings but am not sure what value they are

If it is then you need to manage your timeand not let your time manage you


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Before we begin A little test?

1. There are six eggs in a basket. Six people each take one egg. How can it be thatone egg is left in the basket?

2. Acting on an anonymous phone call the police raid a house to arrest a suspectedmurderer. They dont know what he looks like but they know his name is John.Inside they find a carpenter, a lorry driver, a car mechanic and a fireman playing

cards. Without even asking his name, they immediately arrest the fireman. Howdo they know theyve got their man.

3. There once was a recluse who never left his home. The only time anyone everyvisited him was when his food and suppliers were delivered, but they never cameinside. Then one stormy winter night when an icy gale was blowing he had anervous breakdown. He went upstairs, turned off all of he lights and went to bed.

Next morning he had caused the deaths of several hundred people. How?


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Time Managementat the office and at home

Most of us arent as productive as we can be because We typically dont plan our day

We dont have a list of tasks that we want to accomplish

For each task we do know about we dont know how important it is relative tothe other tasks

We confuse what is urgent and what is important We get interrupted when we are trying to accomplish things

By our boss, by our spouse, by our children, by our co-workers

We dont organize our day (have a calendar) but let demands fromothers dictate what we do

This happens not only at work but also at home

So what can we do?


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To Do And Honey Do Lists

To manage your work at work and at home Make a list of all of the things you need to do this week

You can expand it to month and year once you get used to it (focus on the short term)

Put dates against each item Prioritize each item

I use A, B and C (from most important to least important)

Sort your list by date and priority Work on items for today based on the priority

Do A items before B items and B items before C items Try to finish each item before going on to the next item

Tomorrow morning first thing take the list and redo it Include any items from today that werent finished

and potentially adjust the priority

Keep the list on top of your desk where you will constantly see it Helps to refocus your attention after interruptions

You can (I do) keep two lists One that is work related To Do One that is home related Honey Do for obvious reasons


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Practice Session

Make a list of the things you need to do tomorrow and the followingday

In addition to the What that you have to do also list When it has to be done

Who else you need to make sure it gets done

The list should be accomplishments and not actions Tires installed on KBJ 347H

NOT

Go and see Auditor about new budget implications

The list should be discrete items not bundles Fix acceleration problem with KBJ 400 S

NOT

Get KBJ 400 S on the road

After you have made the list, put priorities on each item (A, B, C)


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The Doing Is the Important Partnot just the planning

Most of us multi-task (ie do many things at the same time)

Most of us multi-task poorly We do a little of many jobs but never really get one job complete

Often we then forget about some of the jobs we started and they are left, often,

never to be completed Best way to get a job done is to get the job done

Take a task and finish it

Try not to start another task

If you cant get it done then make a note on your To Do list of where you left offthe task

This is the big reason for breaking a big job down into small tasks and doing the small taskcompletely before going on to the next task


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Let Outlook (or any other Mailprogram) do it for you

Microsoft Outlook can do much of this work for you


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But I Still Cant Get EverythingDone

In most jobs there will always be too much work for the availabletime

The key is to get the important work done and leave the lessimportant work

There is a difference between IMPORTANT and URGENT

Most of us focus on the urgent and not on the important but theimportant is well IMPORTANT

Some urgent things are important but surprisingly most are not

And are they important to you or to someone else? Depending on who the somebody else is things can become important

to you.


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Example of Urgent vs Important

What examples do you have that are either urgent or important

Some of my examples are Getting Truck KXY 365F out of the yard (Urgent)vs

Participating in the KPI Meeting (Important)

Getting Truck KXY 365F to Oil Libya Terminal (Urgent) vs

Fixing the alternator correctly (Important)

Picking up your wife on time (Urgent) vs

Driving safely (Important)


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Managing Mail (electronic or other)

Handle mail only once When you read an e-mail (or snail mail)

Answer it then if you can If you cant at least send an acknowledgement that you will respond

(and give a time frame)

This delayed response becomes part of your to do list Calendar

To really manage time you have to know what you are supposedto do and when

Keeping a calendar (I keep two, one for work and one for home) Keeps you on track on where you are supposed to go and when and

for what Lets you prepare for all calendar entries

Need to prepare for every meeting Great way to remember anniversaries (How often have you forgot),

birthdays and special occasions


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Programs like Outlook can let you do this as well


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Keep it all in sync

In this mobile world we all have multiple devices(desktop computer, laptop computer, cell phone)

Need to keep calendars and to do lists in sync inall of these devices

Most phones/laptops have syncing programsthat allow you to keep them all up to date

Only real problem is you can only do that with onecalendar and task list

I have my Home calendar/task list on my phone and laptop I duplicate any critical activities from work on my home

calendar/task list


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Meetings

Know why you are meeting, what your role is and theexpected outcome

All meeting should have agendas Should be published in advance

All meetings should have expected time duration Be on time

All meetings should start on time People who are late are communicating that what they were

doing is more important that the meeting.

Best method is to send any discussion items inadvance so that you/your audience can read thematerial ahead of time


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How much should I keep

IT Department always want users to clean up their mail folders Saves buying more hard disks

Saves work of archiving all that data

But old mail can be priceless Saved a company I worked for over Ksh 15.0M when I was able to produce a 12

year old e-mail note from a customer who had a legal dispute with us

Besides hard disk space is cheap If it becomes an issue get a portable hard drive (you can get 1 TB for about

Ksh 10k and that will hold all the mail and other files you are likely to create in alife time

Paper files/letters are bulky but I still keep the past 7 years notes Just in case


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Any Questions

time management for attendees

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