1. Coach Michele’s Group Coaching June 28, 2011

2. 2Copyright (c) Michele Caron, 2011 Today’s Topic Success and Productivity – Beyond Time Management

3. 3Copyright (c) Michele Caron, 2011 Credits Many of the ideas for today’s talk are adapted from the work of Mark Forster, and his book: Get Everything Done and Still Have Time to Play – Available on Amazon

4. 4Copyright (c) Michele Caron, 2011 Beyond Time Management It’s funny that we call it “time management”, because when it comes to getting things done TIME is the factor we control the least! TIME marches on, no matter what we do, it is always a constant It is really *attention* management that is the key to productivity

5. 5Copyright (c) Michele Caron, 2011 Opening Discussion When it comes to productivity, what kinds of challenges do you or your clients face?

6. 6Copyright (c) Michele Caron, 2011 Today We’ll Discuss How do we know we have a problem with time management? Review standard time management techniques – what works and what doesn’t work about them Resistance – The enemy of getting things done! Some techniques for getting things done!

7. 7Copyright (c) Michele Caron, 2011 How do we know we have a problem with so called time management? Always behind Don’t know where to start Don’t finish things Always rushing Constantly putting out fires You need negative pressure to do anything

8. 8Copyright (c) Michele Caron, 2011 Discussion What are some other symptoms of poor time management? What are some of the larger consequences?

9. 9Copyright (c) Michele Caron, 2011 Standard Techniques Prioritizing – Works well to determine urgency in emergency situations...Possible traps include never getting to things that are important, but not urgent…Also, if you simply have too much on your “to do” list, it just is never going to work… Do it now/One touch rule – Good in certain circumstances…Mainly establishing routines where you know what next step is. But, can lead to constantly doing “whatever comes up”. There are times when “don’t do it now” would be an even better rule To-Do lists – Usually not everything gets done, you can keep adding and adding things…More useful are checklists, specific actions for one task, wherein a to-do list might include many unrelated tasks

10. 10Copyright (c) Michele Caron, 2011 Standard Techniques Continued Scheduling your time – Can be good in that you are forcing a structure on yourself and making yourself understand how long things take…Bugaboos are urgent things come up, and we may not actually do the thing when we planned to – Forster makes the distinction between scheduling (a bunch of unrelated things) and a programme (specific steps of a larger task, such as the steps you need to do to get to work on time, wake up 6:30, shower 6:40, breakfast at 7, etc) Go with the flow…Only works if you have a certain amount of structure in your life. The structure is like the banks of a river, the river is the flow. If you have no banks, you just have a swamp!

11. 11Copyright (c) Michele Caron, 2011 Discussion Any comments or observations about the standard techniques? Why doesn’t “standard” time management advice fit everyone in all situations?

12. 12Copyright (c) Michele Caron, 2011 Resistance Resistance happens when we find it subjectively easier to deal with one thing over another Resistance increases as task is avoided…Until it becomes virtually impossible to do without significant painful motivation Resistance decreases when you DO the thing you are resisting

13. 13Copyright (c) Michele Caron, 2011 Discussion In our experience, or with our clients, what can resistance result in?

14. 14Copyright (c) Michele Caron, 2011 Dealing with Resistance Build systems in our lives that stop resistance from building up Take action before resistance builds up Invest in creating more pain around avoiding things, or reward in doing things! Break daunting items into smaller chunks As coaches, we may have other higher level ways of eliminating sources of resistance, because it is really resistance to life It’s often the most useful things that we resist the most!

15. 15Copyright (c) Michele Caron, 2011 Exercise Get a blank piece of paper Think of a problem you’ve been resisting Write as much as you can, thoughts, ideas, feelings, possible solutions, as fast as possible, without stopping You have two minutes, GO! Look over what you have written and underline anything that looks important Discussion

16. 16Copyright (c) Michele Caron, 2011 Creating End Points Creating end points for tasks increases our productivity and lowers resistance Set burst times of 5, 10 or 20 minutes During the concentrated “burst” there is no time to think all the time wasting ideas…How long will this take me, I can’t believe I got in this mess, this sucks etc. Bursts break inertia and resistance

17. 17Copyright (c) Michele Caron, 2011 Burst Technique Create a list of 3-5 things you need to work on…for example, emails, writing your book, returning phone calls, last months billing and social networking Do each in 5 minutes burst – always stop right at the end of the five minutes and move right on Anything that doesn’t get “done” gets increased by 5 minutes, so next time around, you’ll spend 10 minutes on it, and so on This decreases resistance as you go, so it is easier to work longer and longer

18. 18Copyright (c) Michele Caron, 2011 Summary Techniques you use have to depend on situation Techniques should help you overcome resistance Structure will allow you more free time Forster has many more excellent techniques and shows you how to go further “beyond” time management

19. 19Copyright (c) Michele Caron, 2011 Final Discussion What would it mean to you, and your clients, to be more productive? What are your “take-aways”?

20. 20Copyright (c) Michele Caron, 2011 Next Session Next session: Tuesday, July 5th This is our productivity/success call Have a fantastic week!