1. M ORE PRODUCTIVE IN 2011 Christo Bothma 28 January 2011

2. Agenda Choose the most important tasks – Close to the revenue line – Capture all your to-do’s in one place – Remember the 3 Q’s and 4 D’s Create the time to get things done – Avoid e-mails for the 1 st hour of the day – Beware multitasking – Stretch time by planning

3. Choose the most important task

4. Close to the revenue line Top – down prioritizing – Find what creates the revenue for your company i.e. billable hours, most products sold – Allocate a number to your To-do items – 1 being closest to your revenue line and 3 being furthers – When prioritizing be conscious of your revenue generators and perform them first (i.e. no 1’s) Why start with the most important tasks – This will give you a sense of accomplishment – Give you some breathing room Doing the workplace dance – Look at the time allocation to perform a task and try and balance time consuming and non time consuming items

5. Capture all your to-do’s in one place Keep a complete list of all your To-do’s – You can only plan and prioritize properly by having a complete picture of what you have to do Keep it all in once place – Find a suitable medium for your To-do list i.e. Paper, electronic or both. This should suite your personality Keep track of all your To-do’s – By keeping a complete written list will keep you conscious of where you spend your time

6. To Do matrix Example of a matrix

7. Remember the 3 Q’s and 4 D’s The 3 Questions – How long will it take – What is the return on investment (ROI) – What is the deadline The 4 d’s (delete, delay, delegate, diminish) – Delete – will anybody miss a project if not completed / performed – Delay – what projects can you delay until you have proper time to perform what is needed – Delegate – delegate items if someone else can do it better, faster or well enough (leverage) – Diminish – try and streamline regular items LET GO – It is important to let go of the non important items and not to stress these items

8. Create the time to get things done

9. Avoid E-mail for the 1 st hour of the day Focus on your most critical task for the first hour Managing email the rest of the day – Keep your email alarm off – Process emails fully during email session – Say what you need in the subject line – Start your email by telling the reader what you need from them – Keep emails short and to the point – Create stock / standard templates for routine requests Do not substitute emails for Human contact

10. Beware multitasking Brain power NeuroImage science journal - you cannot perform 2 tasks to the best of your ability at the same time Determine your concentration threshold – Determine what your best concentration threshold is i.e. 15min, 30min or a hour Focus on the completion – Break tasks down in manageable units – Work these units into your concentration threshold units

11. Stretch time by planning Group similar tasks – Group certain tasks together during pockets of your time i.e. return all calls during one session Sample daily Patterns – Layout a routine for yourself during your day keeping you focused Work with your energy cycles – Try and plan your routine to take your natural energy levels into account

12. Doing Your Best Work I hope your are more productive going forward

13. Resources Resource – “Never check E-mail in the morning – Julie Morgenstern” www.juliemorgenstern.com/

14. Q UESTIONS ?