Managing Time , PRIORITIES and Ourselves

1. Managing Time, PRIORITIES and Ourselves URGENT Joan Falkenberg Getman NERCOMP Northeast Regional Computing Program March 9, 2009

2. Topics • Current time management • Workflow • Lists and plans • Priorities • Streamlining work • Delegation • eMail • Barriers: distractions & interruptions • Procrastination • Stress management • Creative and productive

3. Objectives • Become aware of how you spend time. • Introduce time management approaches. • Explore personal barriers and “bad habits” • Redefine procrastination. • Identify approaches, tips and tools you might want to try.

4. Where have all the hours gone? How do you want to spend your time?

5. Preferences • What does your ideal work environment… Look like? Sound like? • How does that compare with your real work space? • What is your most productive time of day?

6. Workflow

7. Taking inventory & Making decisions Workflow is part of time management • Collect • Process • Organize • Review • Do “Getting Things Done” David Allen (2001)

8. Collect • Get your stuff together, so you can process it. • Open items that need decisions. • Physical and virtual stuff. What do you use to collect?

9. Process How often do you process your stuff? • What is it? • How important is it? • Does it require you to do something? Yes or No?

10. Process If NO, make another decision: • Trash it? • Maybe someday – review it again? • Reference material? File it. If YES, then what is the next step? • Do it now (small) • Do it later. • Delegate.

11. tbd

12. Organize After you make the decision: move the items to containers… Project list (to be broken down into next steps) Project plan Calendar: “hard landscape” – actions & deadlines Reminders – next steps (actions that take <2 minutes) Reminders – waiting for (delegated items) Reminders- do it later (reminder on calendar)

13. Organize Non action items go: Trash! Tickler file or list! Archive/storage/files – as simple as possible. Review the Parking lot list: ideas, someday stuff

14. Review Make it a HABIT to review your lists – choose a consistent approach and schedule to do this. System won’t work otherwise…

15. Do What you choose to do will be based on: • Hard deadlines (calendar) • Priorities What is optimal to do? - Given resources, available time and your energy.

16. Lists: Get it out of your head

17. Lists are reminders Different levels of lists Goals: long term, mid-term and near. Items to do. Projects: subtasks and specific timelines. Responsibilities: Outreach, research, evaluation. Waiting for list… Someday, maybe – often these are ideas.

18. (effective) To Do lists

19. Typcial list • Quarterly Report - due today! • Vacation • Prescription • Eric – portfolios • Upgrade virus software • Email • Faculty workshop - Moodle

20. Weekly list • Personal: Vacation • Make airline reservations • Schedule time away • Choose hotel • Admin: • Upgrade anti-virus software • Write 3rd quarter report ETC.

21. establishing PRIORITIES Urgent? Important?

22. Stephen Covey’s Four Quadrants

23. What’s at the top of the list? • Who sets our priorities? • If everything is urgent and important – prioritization and negotiation maybe necessary. • Where in the quadrant do “life” priorities fit?

24. Doing the work • Review calendar – a chronological list of hard deadlines. • Review prioritized lists: now, soon, all else • Choose what you want to get done and when.

25. Streamlining:How you do the work • Use templates and repositories. • Personalize your web interface • Consider digital? or paper? • Leverage web-based collaboration tools. • Develop routines. • Specific checklists…travel, faculty event, etc. • Try ‘Timeboxing’

26. Timeboxing Either, we can work as hard as we can until it is “done” or we can fix the amount of time we have available and do the “best” we can.

27. TImeboxing 15 Timeboxing tip: • Make a Dent in Big Tasks • Get rid of mosquito tasks • Overcome procrastination • Conquer perfectionism • Sharpen focus • Increase efficiency • Boost motivation • “Fuzzy goals” spend limited time • Kick off creative exploration • Raise time awareness • Create a work rhythm: hard/easy or work 50/rest 10

28. Timeboxing • Get meaningful work done first • Balance your life: time blocks for exercise, fun and friends • Plug time sinks • Rewards Litemind: Exploring ways to use our minds efficiently

29. Delegation How NOT to delegate

30. Delegation Delegation is a time management strategy that involves a review and feedback loop! Do you have a checklist?

31. “Management Time: Who’s Got the Monkey?”

32. You’ve got (too much) mail!

33. Controlling email • Convert email into actions, filed information • Careful filtering and ruthless deleting • Finding the important ones • Turn off the alert – no autochecking! • Use templates for routine messages • Scheduled reading and email “dashes” See 43 Folders: Inbox Zero

34. Merlin Mann: 43 folders Inbox Zero Breaking it down: email work is actually comprised of a few distinct but related tasks, how often do you realistically need to do each of these things? • Checking for/being notified of any new email — even dumb stuff • Scanning your new messages for items needing time-critical input from you • Quickly responding to the time-critical items • Processing “the pile” into actions, calendar events, and messages in need of a short response only • Responding to new and non-critical messages that have accumulated • Performing occasional meta-work like mailbox refactoring, rules tweaking, etc.

35. 43 folders: email dash A straw man schedule: provisionally decided on the least email focus you can possibly tolerate, and try experimenting with a schedule along these lines: 1. New email check + scanning + super-fast responses: 2 minutes every 20 minutes 2. Non-critical responses: 10 minutes or 5 emails every 90 minutes 3. Processing “the pile”: 2 minutes every hour + 15 minutes at the end of the day 4. Metawork: 15 minutes twice a week 5. Further culling, responding, and clearing “the pile”: Through the day, as available, in 5-8 minute dashes And apart from that? Email is off. Closed. Quit. You’re doing other things. Can you do it? Merlin Mann, 43folders.com

36. Will it last?

37. intermission Reality Check! What is a habit? b. an acquired mode of behavior that has become nearly or completely involuntary How long does it take to develop a new habit? 21 days! Go slow, focus on one change at a time.

38. Focus and Flow “Flow” is a mental state of deep concentration. It typically takes about 15 minutes of uninterrupted study to get into a state of “flow”, and the constant interruptions and distractions of a typical office environment will force you out of “flow” and make productivity impossible to achieve.

39. Ahem…Interruptions "Cathy, could I talk with you for a minute? I'm having a real problem with ...." You glance at your watch and think of the report that's due in an hour. What do you do?

40. Not now. Tip 1: 3 statements: Empathy, Situation, Action *If its your leadership, frame it in terms of what will get set aside. Tip 2: Ask the person to leave me a note. Other ideas?

41. Distractions? Time Wasters?

42. True confessions PROCRASTINATION!

43. Sound familiar? • Even weekends are shadowed by “I should be…” • Unrealistic about time you need or have? • Vague about goals? • Indecisive?

44. Procrastination • What does it feel like? • What are the consequences? • In some sense we are always not doing something on our list – but what if you are actively avoid something? • What are the underlying reasons? Resource: The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play by Neil Fiore

45. Are we always procrastinators? No! Probably many activities and tasks we tackle with enthusiasm, energy and get them done quickly…hmmm.

46. Procrastination to Productivity Change your thinking! Choose to work. Create safety and address risk Break down BIG projects. Try Procrastination hack: '(10+2)*5’ Bursts of work and rest – like Timeblocking Rewards and breaks!

47. Good! Procrastination • “Active” procrastination. • Percolating ideas. • Stalling until we can do something from a better vantage point. • Deliberate non-action can be beneficial. • Ignoring something small or unimportant to work on something ‘big”

48. Ideal Week What does it look like? How does it feel? Try the “Unschedule”

49. Summary of Big Ideas • You can’t control time – only your behavior • Lists organize you and clear your head. • Be consistent - Create system & routines. • Change one habit at a time. Give it 21 days. • Learn to make decisions – don’t look back. • Use lists to remind yourself of the BIG picture. • Refresh, celebrate and enjoy your work.

50. Unless otherwise notedimages in this presentation are licensed under Creative Commons (CC).