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Time Management Course Sample
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| Time Mgmt |
| Some estimates hold that 5% of the workforce is twice as efficient as the average person. Studies indicate the average worker wastes 3 hours out of every 8 with useless activities, and that same average worker uses inefficient methods to perform the tasks being done in the remaining hours. For less than $20, you can learn how to be far above average. You can launch yourself into the upper part of that 5%. We'll show you the concepts, and we'll walk you through examples. |
Excerpts from
Our Time Management Course Let’s start off with a true story. A high achiever works in an office with a more senior employee. This high achiever actually accomplishes more work in one day than this other fellow does in three months. That’s a 90:1 ratio. This occurs because the other fellow is a gross underachiever. By studying their respective methods, you can see what to do and what not to do. In any case, it is quite possible to get the 9:1 ratio referred to in the headline—this one case alone exceeds that by 1,000%! ----snip--- ----snip--- Here are the secrets to warp-speed working: Define what you are trying to accomplish
Examine each activity to see whether
it contributes to your goal (doing the right things)
Examine each activity to see if you
can do it more efficiently (doing things right)
Organize all incoming correspondence,
work in progress, and outgoing correspondence
----snip--- ----snip--- Define what you are trying to accomplish Let’s look at each of these in turn. The two people in question are actually editors. Let’s call the efficient one Larry and the inefficient one Shemp. Larry knows exactly what his job is, and he focuses on it. He avoids tasks that do not make that job happen. Shemp has a fixation about making compost piles of paper, moving office furniture around, and doing all sorts of needless activities in an effort to show how hard he works. Shemp forgets his mission is to get quality product out the door. Larry reviews his own work, having made a point of learning the insider secrets to doing his craft. Shemp, on the other hand, doesn’t have the time to review his work. So, he turns in work that is unacceptably poor. Shemp’s idea of his job is he must "manage paper." Larry’s idea is he must produce quality editorial content. Both men accomplish what they set out to do. If you are a project manager, your job is to turn out a quality project on time, and on budget. If you focus on the minutiae of your various charts and graphs or some other details and do not actively manage the flow of work, you will be successful as a manager of minutiae but not as a project manager. Thus, if you spend 39 hours with your charts and 1 hour with the work each 40-hour week, you will get—at most—1 hour of real work done. If you spend 5 hours of each 40-hour week working with the charts and 35 managing the work, then you could get 35 hours of work done. That’s a 35:1 ratio. You might spend an additional 10 hours with correspondence, etc. The biggest trap people fall into is confusing the ends with the means. You must eat to live, but if you live to eat, you will have obesity-related health problems. If you play with your charts to get the work done, fine. However, if you think your job is to manage the charts instead of the project, your project will not be a stunning success. ----snip--- ----snip--- Examine each activity to see whether it contributes to your goal (doing the right things) Larry has a special slot in his hanging mail contraption for outgoing mail. He takes his mail to the mail drop-off whenever he passes by it, but never makes a special trip. Shemp, on the other hand, has so many piles of paper, he must take individual correpsondence to the mail drop-off as soon as he’s ready to mail it. Shemp makes several trips a day to the mail drop-off, while Larry never really makes one. Thus, the company pays Shemp to walk its halls, while paying Larry to edit its articles. What you are looking for are the value-added and non-value-added activities. The simpler your system of doing things, the better. Shemp puts every article on multiple floppies, and prints out every edit of each article. Naturally, he has to make individual trips to the printer. Larry, on the other hand, keeps all of his articles on one zip drive, as well as on his hard drive. He keeps and manages no collection of floppies and folders, while Shemp spends several hours each week doing so. ----snip--- ----snip--- Examine each activity to see if you can do it more efficiently (doing things right) ----snip--- ----snip--- A huge time-waster is meetings. I am on the board of an organization that had 4-hour meetings each Saturday. Some more efficiency-minded people got these down to three. When I go to one of the meetings, I tell people I am leaving in one hour—and I do it. They know to have the real meeting in one hour. Most meetings are 15 minutes stretched to several hours. Don’t make that mistake. Some meeting tips:.... Click here to buy this course |
| Here's the table of contents from this time management course: Table of Contents Table of Contents_____________________________________________ 2 Introduction _________________________________________________ 8 Finding the time _____________________________________________ 10 Philosophy of Time Management_______________________________ 12 Why manage time? _____________________________________________ 13 Example #1 __________________________________________________________15 Example #2 __________________________________________________________15 The cost of poor time management ________________________________ 16 Example #1 __________________________________________________________17 Example #2 __________________________________________________________18 Define time properly ____________________________________________ 19 Define management _____________________________________________ 20 Planning_____________________________________________________________20 Measurement_________________________________________________________21 Control ______________________________________________________________22 Situational control choices _______________________________________ 23 Define time management________________________________________________24 Example #1 __________________________________________________________26 Example #2 __________________________________________________________28 Know the four elements of time management. _______________________ 30 Understand and practice the general principles ___________________ 34 Make and follow goals ___________________________________________ 35 Make and follow plans ___________________________________________ 38 Right things at right time_________________________________________ 39 Lead times ____________________________________________________ 41 Example #1 __________________________________________________________43 Example #2 __________________________________________________________44 Pop quiz on when to plan what work _______________________________ 45 Do work, not just activity_________________________________________ 46 Shed the unnecessary ___________________________________________ 47 Specific steps_______________________________________________ 49 Communication information ______________________________________ 51 E-mail ________________________________________________________ 52 Phone calls____________________________________________________ 53 Phone message systems ________________________________________ 55 Leaving phone messages ________________________________________ 58 Clarity ________________________________________________________ 59 Communication vagueness_______________________________________ 60 Collective monologues __________________________________________ 62 Organization tips _______________________________________________ 63 Project organization_____________________________________________ 65 Compartmentalization tips _______________________________________ 66 Aggregation tips _______________________________________________ 69 Separation tips _________________________________________________ 71 Safety ________________________________________________________ 72 Confidentiality _________________________________________________ 72 Quality _______________________________________________________ 72 Picking the fruit of your labors: turning problems into solutions _____ 73 Filing _________________________________________________________ 74 Conversations: End ‘em!_________________________________________ 76 Multitask vs. focus______________________________________________ 78 Multitasking ___________________________________________________ 81 Training others: sowing the seeds of time-savings ________________ 83 Lead and speak ________________________________________________ 84 Avoid enabling behavior _________________________________________ 86 Getting to the bottom line ________________________________________ 89 Show gratitude _________________________________________________ 91 Encourage correct behavior ______________________________________ 92 Take care of yourself ____________________________________________ 93 Stay well ______________________________________________________ 94 Positive attitude _______________________________________________________94 Emotional/spiritual _____________________________________________________95 Relationships _________________________________________________________95 Networking___________________________________________________________96 Diet __________________________________________________________ 97 Fat _________________________________________________________________ 98 Carbohydrates _______________________________________________________100 Protein _____________________________________________________________101 Core principles_______________________________________________________101 Food timing _________________________________________________________102 Food combinations ___________________________________________________103 Exercise _____________________________________________________ 105 Sleep ________________________________________________________ 109 What you can learn from a Teddy bear_____________________________ 109 Balance______________________________________________________ 111 Overworking__________________________________________________ 112 Feed your mind _______________________________________________ 113 Agenda-less meetings __________________________________________ 116 Some meeting tips: ____________________________________________ 118 Disorganized correspondence ___________________________________ 120 Organizing your correspondence _________________________________ 120 Incoming wounded ____________________________________________ 121 Mangled e-mails _______________________________________________ 123 The secrets of warp-speed working____________________________ 125 Do the right things _____________________________________________ 125 Set a goal ____________________________________________________ 126 Define what you are trying to accomplish __________________________________ 128 Ensure the goal is realistic______________________________________________130 Examine each activity to see if it contributes to your goal _____________ 132 Use constant feedback _________________________________________ 134 Doing things right __________________________________________ 136 Prioritize _____________________________________________________ 137 Plan the work, work the plan_____________________________________ 138 Examine each activity to see if you can do it more efficiently (doing things right) ________________________________________________________ 139 Specific activities______________________________________________ 141 Diet________________________________________________________________141 Exercise ____________________________________________________________141 Filing ______________________________________________________________141 Multitasking _________________________________________________________141 Organization_________________________________________________________141 Overworking_________________________________________________________142 Phone usage ________________________________________________________142 Sleep ______________________________________________________________142 Automating___________________________________________________ 143 Farming out __________________________________________________ 144 Having the right resources ______________________________________ 145 Using the right tools ___________________________________________ 146 Why bother?_______________________________________________ 147 Exercises _________________________________________________ 149
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