PMI NE WI January 2015 Effective Time Management in the Workplace: Eliminating the Biggest Time Wasters Presented by: Julie M. Kowalski Of Spizzerinctum Group LLC

2 Effective Time Management The choice is Yours!

3 What is Effective Time Management? Identifying what is important to YOU and giving those activities a place in your schedule! Creating days that are meaningful and rewarding to YOU!

4 Effective Time Management The Big Black Hole We can loose 4 hours a day to this! What is it?

5 Effective Time Management The BIG BLACK HOLE = Needless Interruptions What are needless interruptions? "unanticipated events"

6 Effective Time Management Interesting Statistics On average we experience 1 interruption every 8 minutes, or approximately 6-7 per hour In an 8 hour day that totals around 50 – 60 interruptions The average interruption takes approximately 5 minutes 50 interruptions / 5 minutes = 250 minutes or just over 4 hours out of 8 or 50% of the workday

Types of Interruptions Total interruption: Completely occupy one’s conscious mind & disallow any thought relevant to the task (i.e.. Actively participating in phone conversation) Dominant interruption: Largely occupy the mind, leaving thought about the task to slowly develop in the back of one’s mind (i.e. recreational web browsing) Distractions: Do not stop one from consciously working on task but do draw attention away from it thus slowing the accuracy, thoroughness and speed of completion (i.e. instant messaging friends) Background activities: may not be obvious but divert some portion of one’s attention away from task. (i.e. listening to music)

Top Time Wasters 1.Lack of planning, prioritizing and focus 2.Procrastination 3.Interruptions 4.Lack of delegation 5.Unnecessary meetings / meetings without an agenda with time slots

Top Time Wasters 6.Crisis management, fire fighting 7. and internet 8.Not saying 'No' 9.Lack of organization and untidiness 10.Not enough time-off or time for yourself

Top Time Wasters 11.Lack of tools – forcing workarounds 12.Too many ways to “forget” 13.Lack of clarity in action items / responsibilities and follow through 14. Multi-tasking

12 Most Common Time Management Mistakes 1.Failing to keep one to-do list 2.Not having a weekly plan 3.Not having goals / prioritizing 4.Failing to manage distractions / interruptions 5. Procrastination

Procrastination What exactly is Procrastination? The act of putting off an essential task until a later time The act of replacing high-priority actions with tasks of lower priority Doing something from which one derives enjoyment, and thus putting off important tasks to a later time

13 Why We Procrastinate 1. Lack of relevance 2. Acceptance of another’s goals 3. Perfectionism 4. Evaluation anxiety 5. Ambiguity 6. Fear of the unknown 7. Inability to handle the task 8. Feeling overwhelmed with a situation

12 Most Common Time Management Mistakes 6.Taking on too much 7.Thriving on “busy“ 8.Multitasking 9.Not taking breaks 10.Ineffectively scheduling tasks 11.Checking your s first thing in the morning! 12.If everyone is doing it I must do it too!

3 Reasons why we don’t get done what needs to be done! 1.Our beliefs 2.Negative Mental Programming 3.Self-Limitations

16 21 Effective Time Management Tips 1. Ask yourself “Is what I am doing right now the best use of my time?” 2. Know thyself and thy time wasters and STOP 3. Practice not answering the phone just because it's ringing and s just because they show up. Disconnect 4. Schedule / Block time – you have to “make time” as you will never “find time”

17 21 Effective Time Management Tips 5. Use “to do lists” – include “where” in the schedule – great apps (Put Things Off) 6. Eat that elephant one bite at a time - work on larger tasks for short periods of time 7. Create start and stop times as well as what you will accomplish in that amount of time 8. Plan more time than you actually think it will take

18 21 Effective Time Management Tips 9. Stop trying to multi-task and start practicing mindfulness 10. Challenge your own tendency to say 'yes' without scrutinizing the request - start asking and probing what's involved - find out what the real expectations and needs are 11. Take 2 minutes to think about better options

19 21 Effective Time Management Tips 12. Re-condition the expectations of others as to your availability and their claim on your time 13. Always probe deadlines to establish the true situation - people asking you to do things will often say 'now' when 'later' would be perfectly acceptable

Skill building exercise List SPECIFIC realistic ways you can recondition others (what will you say / do?). Please be prepared to share with the large group!

21 21 Effective Time Management Tips 14. Do not start lots of jobs at the same time - even if you can handle different tasks at the same time it's not the most efficient way of dealing with them, so don't kid yourself that this sort of multi-tasking is good - it's not 15. Manage your environment 16. Appropriately challenge anything that could be wasting time and effort, particularly habitual tasks, meetings and reports

22 21 Effective Time Management Tips 17. Have a regular place for things and put them back when you’re done with them 18. Use a calendar and write down everything you need to do and when you need to do it – on the same calendar 19. Relearn how to focus 20. Stop procrastinating 21. Build coping skills to deal with challenges

Work smart or hard! A man was hired to paint the stripes down the middle of Main Street. The boss issued him a can of paint and a paintbrush and checked up on him after an hour and he noticed he was making reasonable progress. When the boss visited him at lunchtime, he saw that progress had slowed dramatically. At the end of the day, the boss counted only two new stripes since lunchtime and called his new worker to account for the lack of results. The worker said, "Well, just look how far I am from my paint can!"

Work smart or hard! Where do you need to move your paint can?

Myth or Fact? 1.Time management involves getting more done in less time 1."To do" lists help get things done 2.The biggest time wasters include telephone interruptions, visitors, meetings and rush jobs 3. Time is money 4.Activity means productivity 5.We work best under pressure 6.Attending a time management workshop will make me more productive

The Time Trap We can go with the flow of human nature; after all, if it’s natural, it must be right. OR We can take a hard, unflinching look squarely into the face of time to see what practical efforts our time habits have on our jobs and our lives. And we can decide if we want to make some changes by confirming the powerful pull of human nature

27 THANK YOU Thank YOU for allowing me the privilege of spending this time with you! It has certainly been my pleasure! Please do not hesitate to call me if I can be of assistance to you, your company, or your team or another professional organization to which you belong. I would be honored to talk to you. I am always willing to brainstorm, learn and share with others! Spizzerinctum Group LLC Energy Enthusiasm Success Julie Kowalski