The Design Trust webinar: Making time: Strategic time management for creatives

1. The Design Trust webinar: Making time: Strategic time management for creatives Patricia van den Akker

2. What you will learn today • Today is about YOU (and not about quick fixes and to do lists!) • Time management questions: • What’s your relationship with time? • What’s your time preference? • Creativity & freedom versus structure & discipline • Feeling overwhelmed? Urgent versus Important • Learning to say ‘no’ • Do you procrastinate? • Getting into action: • Creating the right business for you • Make time • Planning for non-planners • Create your own action plan • How to keep your plan alive

3. Time management Q1: What’s your relationship with time? Will you ever have enough time? Hint: Did you have enough time today?

4. Time management truth: Time management is NOT about the amount of hours available, or the amount of work we got on. It’s about how we THINK about time …

5. Are you ALWAYS busy? Or … Is it that you LIKE to be busy?

6. Your time relationship questionnaire From: The Mind Gym – Give me time

7. Busy = excitement: dove • Part of our identity: energy & exciting • Time is a challenge, try to fit in even more • Love to choose from wide variety of tasks • Busy = frustration: hawk • It’s frustrating I can’t do everything • Too much to do, too many alternatives • I will never have enough time

8. What am I?

9. So what? Striving doves: congratulations! With this attitude you’re trying to improve your time management, but you don’t let it frustrate you. What to do if you aren’t a striving dove? • There is nothing wrong with being a hawk! As long as you don’t mind feeling that you never have enough time. • Ask yourself what’s the benefit of being a hawk? Can you imagine that indeed there isn’t enough time to do it all? • But what if you want to have it all? Then imagine your perfect day, but you get a call from a friend. You will need to make a choice! You can sulk about it or celebrate that life is rich enough for there to be lots of choices. • Life is like a game … especially because there are limitations, it makes it more challenging, enjoyable. • If you are ‘resigned’ what could you do to make your goals more meaningful for you? How can you save time?

10. Time management Q2:What’s your time preference? Are you a planner or spontaneous?

11. Do you like to plan or be spontaneous?

12. Talking points … • What are the strengths of being organised/spontaneous? • What are the weaknesses? • When does your strength become a weakness? • It isn’t black & white: Are there specific times or circumstances you are more organised or more spontaneous? • Are you able to adapt if needs be? • Are you choosing the right projects and clients to fit with your preferred style? Who or what would be a better fit?

13. Some quick fixes for both

14. Time management Q3: Creativity, freedom & rule breaking versus structure, discipline & habit

15. ‘Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.’ Thomas Edison

16. Talking points … • Do you think that being disorganised is part of being ‘creative’? What’s your attitude to being organised? • What effect does overwhelm, being disorganised, feeling muddled have on your ability to be creative? • Is your disorganisation an excuse for not being more successful? • Is your super organisation actually procrastination? • What do you like about chaos or hoarding? Where in your work can you let this be a positive? • What are your habits or routines to get into the mood for work? • Get into action: Which areas of your work do you want to be more organised about?

17. Time management Q4:Feeling overwhelmed? Constant interruptions? Urgent versus important

18. Stephen Covey: strategic time management There will always be interruptions, choices to be made, but what’s really important to you? Where do you spend most of your time? (honestly!)

19. Stephen Covey: The 4 quadrants You need to identify your priorities, what you want, then organise yourself, and execute.

20. Talking points … • Tip: spend 20% of your time working in ‘Important, non urgent’ and you will be more satisfied with your achievements and become more effective. • The story of the monkeys • What or who are your biggest distractions? What do you need to avoid/conquer them? • How do you deal with email, social media etc? • Get into action: • What 5 activities will you start doing in ‘Important, non urgent’ from tomorrow? • What is the best time of the day/week/year to do them? • How will you make time to ensure you will do that? • Any light bulbs?

21. ‘I find television very educational. Every time someone switches it on, I go into another room and read a good book.’ Groucho Marx

22. Time management Q5: Learning how to say ‘no’

23. Learning to say ‘no’… • What is stopping you from saying ‘no’? • Don’t want to cause offence or disappoint somebody • Feel guilty • Don’t want an argument • … • The advantages of saying ‘no’ • Setting clear boundaries gives clarity to you and others, can create respect. Become proactive, not reactive. • Don’t spread yourself too thin as you wont do anything well • Good for your confidence and self-belief • Creating the life and business you want and are best at • Doing your best work for your best clients • Stops your resentment …

24. Saying ‘no’… • Avoid the question in the first place • Be alert, read the body language. • Say ‘no’ in the past: avoid being taken for granted next time • Give the facts (that you are busy, don’t do that type of work) • A softer version of no (but still a no!) • It’s all about the tone of voice and body language. • Give the facts or reasons why you can’t say yes. • Show empathy: ‘I’m sorry I cant help you with that.’ • Say what you can do instead (and what you cant do) • Ask more questions before agreeing to anything. • Make sure you are being understood: ‘I’m sure you understand?’

25. Time management Q6: Do you procrastinate?

26. Let’s talk about procrastination … • What do you keep putting of? What’s been on your to do list for months … • And what do you do instead? • Are you being busy with being busy? Research, social media, developing, planning, but not actually reaching out to potential clients … • What is REALLY stopping you? • What are you afraid of? • What are you resenting?

27. 7 beliefs that stop you • Perfection: ‘I need to get it right’, ‘It must be perfect’ • Certainty: ‘I must know everything before I can launch’ • Assistance: ‘I need x to help me with that’ • Immunity from failure: ‘I can’t get this wrong’ • Freedom: ‘I wont be told how to do this’ • The right environment or place: ‘I do my best work under pressure’, ‘I need to be in the right mood’ • Ease: ‘I shouldn’t have to do things I don’t enjoy’, ‘Why isn’t this easier?’

28. What to do about your procrastination? • Is it bothering you or is it actually helpful? Have you listened to your gut feeling properly? What’s it saying? • Replace your rigid demands with softer alternatives e.g. ‘I must get a perfect result’ becomes: ‘I’d like a perfect result’ or ‘I am learning’ • Become more self aware of when you procrastinate • When you plan think about everything that can go wrong. And put options in place to solve that. • Get busy! Stop thinking, start doing … • Drop ‘should’ from your vocabulary! Who says you have to do this? Tame your inner critic and replace it with a friendlier version. • Get realistic with your time planning. Aren’t you over optimistic? Keep time sheets to know the facts. • Break big jobs down into smaller chunks • Work with others or get accountability • Give yourself a reward for the journey, not just the end goal (or the opposite!)

29. Get into action 1: Create the right business for you

30. Create the right business for you • Are you spending enough time ON your business? Think about important vs urgent: planning, strategy • Where can you make the most impact? Focus on that. Write your own future job description, what work is better down by somebody else? Delegate. Automate. Systemise. • Have a niche: focus on your talents & dream clients, easier to raise your profile & credibility, stand out in the market. • Are you working with clients that match your (time) values? Are you working on your dream projects? • As a sole trader you don’t need to do it alone! • Do you work part-time? Set realistic goals. What can you do online? Other jobs can give structure to your day.

31. Get into action 2: Make time And why ‘to do lists’ don’t work

32. Making time • Tip: spend 40% on creation, 40% on marketing, 10% on admin and 10% on self development • Regularity & consistency is crucial to get work done • Ring fence your (creative) time: put it physically in your diary. Say ‘no’. • What are the different jobs that make up your work? Do you use different energy for different jobs? What’s best time of the day?Prioritise, identify time required and deadline. • Visualise your big future goals: Create a plan, a collage • What creates the right frame of mind? Be in control of it. A special place? Music? Getting ‘dressed for work’? Daily routine? • Feeling stuck? Go on an Artist date! How to feed the toddler – Julia Cameron

33. Why to do lists don’t work … • They are never ending … • How many lists have you got on the go? (honestly!) • They set you up for failure and frustration • You are comparing apples with pears: some tasks take 3 min other 3 days to complete • The ‘feel good’ factor: You choose the easiest to tick off and some jobs stay on for ever or get deleted without being finished • Many complicated and important jobs will never be on your list

34. Try this instead • Capture data and info in specific folders ‘buckets’ and focus on one bucket at a time. • Create a more specific list and allocate a specific time. Use an alarm clock. Make it a game. • Plan per business function instead e.g. Wednesday = marketing day, Friday doesn’t exist (?!) • Interesting planning systems: • www.Lifeismessy.com • www.productiveflourishing.com • Stephen Covey: plan per role and allocate in diary • www.rememberthemilk.com • www.wunderlist.com

35. Try this instead

36. Get into action 3: Planning for non planners

37. ‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here? said Alice. ‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat. ‘I don’t care much where,’ said Alice. ‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat. Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

38. Why planning is a good thing … • Creating a plan will help you to think and plan ahead. To turn your ideas into action. To prioritise. You will be more likely to succeed if you have a business plan than if you haven’t. • Writing down your goals will help you succeed. • Working on a plan collaboratively will increase the changes you will succeed. You will get buy in. • But planning can become a form of procrastination too …

39. 6 top tips to goal setting & planning • Start with the ‘end in mind’. Think about the big picture: Why does your business exist? • What do YOU want? Set juicy goals! • Set SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time bound e.g. instead of ‘I want more money’ state: ‘I want to have a salary of £18K in 2015’ • Break big goals down into smaller chunks • Stretch a little but don’t stress out • State your goals in the positive: Where do you want to go to, not where do you want to run away from

40. Create your 1 page action plan • What’s your time management goal by 31 December? • ‘I want to save 6 hours/week’ • ‘I want to stop wasting time on Twitter & create a social media plan’ • ‘I want to feel more in control and less stressed in my business’ • ‘I want to launch my website (on my to do list for 2 years …)’ • ‘I want to spend 4hours/week on ‘urgent, non important’ work • Achieving that, what would that give you? • What will your reward/punishment be if you (don’t) get there? • What’s stopping you now? What do you need to do, have, learn, be? Identify max. 3 things. • Which 5 daily/weekly actions will help you to achieve your goal? Who will help you? How much money is involved? • How will you build accountability?

41. Create your plan of action

42. How to keep your plan alive • It’s a working document, keep adding to it. • Update every 3 months. • Make it visual and accessible e.g. large poster • Put it somewhere visible • Have a monthly meeting with yourself to review plans, what’s working and what needs more work. • Get a friend or colleague to be your accountability partner. Or work with a coach, mentor or adviser. • Announce your plans and goals publicly. • Make your bigger vision visual. • Create a routine (have some kids!)

43. More info about time management • Stop procrastinating webinar with expert Nichole Bachmann for our Business Club members • Mark McGuiness: free ebookTime Management for Creatives • www.99u.com • www.productiveflourishing.com • www.gettingthingsdone.com • www.fourhourworkweek.com • www.mindtools.com • Kick Ass Creatives The Time Machine ebook