Time Management



	Exercises 1..4 Exercises 5..13 Exercises 14..17 Exercises 21..23 ------------------------------- 18. Weekly Goal Management Worksheet #1 Prepare Report 2 - Use the "Weekly Progress Report" format on page R3. - Fill out the report using the A123 goals from your Goal Priority List above. (H) Prepare Report 3 - Use the "GOAL/ACTION Report" format on page R3. - Fill out the report using the A123 goals as above. - Develop at least ten possible actions for each goal. - Prioritize the possible actions, and mark the A123 actions. (H) Prepare Report 4 - Consider this as an analysis of your situation, for an executive two levels about you. Submit Your Work (Page R4) *********************** Weekly Progress Report ********************* A-1 Get everything organized for Prakash to get back to normal and back to work Progress Since Last Week - Took him to the hospital twice last week for Orthopedic check up and Physiotherapy. - Posted all his social welfare medical claim forms. - Handed over all his medical certificates and required forms to the HR department at work. Planned Progress For This Week - Take Prakash to the hospital this week for Physiotherapy. - Collect social welfare forms for this week and post it on time. - Let HR know that he will be joining work in two weeks and ask them to put him on “Available for projects” list. - Inform the fire warden at work about Prakash being on crutches when he will be back at work so that they know that they have to have a stretcher ready in case of an emergency. ********************* A-2 Master the art of Time management and help others with their time management too Progress Since Last Week - Finished exercise 26. Timesaving techniques from the website. - Worked on the current exercise - Have roped in my cousin (Raja) to read the book and do the exercises mentioned in the book. - Have sent out a mail to a few friends for the exercise 28. Timesaving Techniques From Interviews Planned Progress For This Week - Finish at least two exercises this week. - Talk to another cousin (Indu) about the course and get her to read Alan Lakein’s book. - Make a habit of asking “What can I not do?”. - Chose one timesaving category each day of the week and try to find more techniques in them by asking different people or reading or by searching on the Internet. ********************* A-3 Get the database ready for the Italian team before the meeting on Friday Progress Since Last Week - Spoke to the Italian team about their requirements - Contacted the DBA team in UK with the requirements for the Italian team - Have reported progress to the team lead in UK. - Have allocated a space to copy the files over. Planned Progress For This Week - Follow-up with team in UK and see when they can copy the files over in the required area. - If both of the DBAs are busy and cannot do this work find out who else can do this. - In case of a problem, report ASAP to the Team lead in UK and also to the Italian team so they know in advance as to what the problem is. - Have a report on this work by Friday morning for the 10:30 am meeting. ********************* GOAL/ACTION Report ********************* Goal - Get everything organized for Prakash to get back to normal and back to work - A-1: At the beginning of the week, sort out the time required from me for Prakash. - A-2: Delegate work if possible – Ask a friend who has some spare time if he/she can take him to hospital. - A-3: Make a separate A-1 list for activities involving Prakash – like posting his social welfare form every Monday, Physiotherapy every Tuesday, etc - Get Prakash to type out all the emails that he wants to send, save them on a floppy and then send it. - Update his manager once a week on what his level of improvement is. - Ask Prakash to make his A-1 list everyday and see how much of it he can do it by himself ********************* Goal - Master the art of Time management and help others with their time management too - A-1: Finish the Time Management course in four weeks. - A-2: Find friends and relatives to share information regarding Time Management. - A-3: Make a habit of asking “What can I not do?”. - Continue to make the A-1 list everyday and work off it - Learn new techniques from people, books, Internet, etc - Concentrate on one thing at a time and work towards finishing the A-1 goal on the list ********************* Goal - Get the database ready for the Italian team before the meeting on Friday - A-1: Get requirements from Italian team. - A-2: Check space constraints and access constraints and sort out any problems before hand. - A-3: Ask the UK team for the required files to be copied over in the right directory. - Database should be ready and reports done by Friday morning 10:30 AM - If no information is ready by Wednesday COB then call DBAs in UK and ask for alternate contact who can supply the files - Keep team lead in UK updated with all information. ********************* Report 4 - Analysis of my situation, for an executive two levels about me The above is my Goal Management worksheet, the first in the series of four. I intend to do one each week for the next four weeks. This is a part of my Time Management course. As a part of this course I list my goals and prioritize them. I also write down action items for achieving each goal. I start with three goals the first week and keep adding a couple more each week. In the above list, I have one personal goal, one work related goal and one goal to improve my skills which will help me improve my personal and work life. As the course progresses each week, I hope to add two more goals to my list and work on them. As the week progresses I also intend to change the items in “Progress Since Last Week” and “Planned Progress For This Week” areas respectively. ********************* ********************* MY COMMENTS FROM A BROADER PERSPECTIVE In my opinion this exercise must have been done each week. Instead of limiting the number of goals each week to 3/5/7, etc, we should have been allowed to add whatever goals that we want to add and move them around each week. This would have given a clear idea of how the goals evolve. Also it would have been interesting for us to see the change that Time Management has made in us. ********************* 19. Timesaving Techniques From Interviews Arrange Interviews - Briefly interview ten or more people; more is better. - Choose people you consider good at Time Management. - Talk in person or on the phone to key individuals. - Send emails to the rest. Ask questions 1. What is your best timesaving technique? 2. What other timesaving techniques do you use? (3 or more) 3. Do you have additional techniques for [category of your choice]? 4. Do you have any suggestions as to how to get the most out of one my favorite techniques [technique of your choice]? Display your results in an email - Name (real or fictitious). - Answers to the four questions. - You comments on their Time Management skill and awareness. (H) - Repeat the above for each person interviewed. (H) (Optional) - You may want to find more techniques on the Internet or from books. Add To Your Timesaving Techniques List - Select those you wish to add. - Enter them in the email, and integrate them into you list. Submit Your Work (Page R4) ********************* Name : Kannan Ramanathan 1. What is your best timesaving technique? I plan my Long term Strategy (only up to 3 years Ahead) and Short term goals (Weekly) and Try to stick on to my plan as much as possible. I am flexible with my short term goals but very strong with my long term strategy. 2. What other timesaving techniques do you use? (3 or more) 1)I use my PDA for Organizing my Meeting and use it to Remind me. 2)Fear.. I love the word. I think that is my good driving force. The more I fear the more I get success. Don’t ask me how I handle. It changes from time to time. But I never let fear take over me. -- Which saves my time a lot. 3)I combine my planning and working on goals as one integrated step. 4) When I have a goal or a strategy then I better have a plan or I will go crazy. I stopped thinking about life time goals, I think just 3 years ahead which saves a lot of time. 3. Do you have additional techniques for being organized? No. 4. Do you have any suggestions as to how to get the most out of one my favorite techniques "Planning"? Do not waste time on trivial details of planning. Be flexible with your plan. Always have alternative plans handy with a good strategy. It may not be the best but it will definitively save you time. - My comments on their time management skills and awareness Kannan was the first to respond saying he was ready to be interviewed. He seems pretty organized and understands the need to manage time properly. From what I spoke to him, he seemed to have sorted his priorities right and seems to go through mails/paperwork only once and taking the required action immediately. ********************* Name : Manikandan Palanimuthu 1. What is your best timesaving technique? I generally try to concentrate on one thing at a time and enjoy doing it. I try to be efficient and work smart and try to do things right the first time. I tend to set deadlines for goal and try and stick to it. I also try and delegate whatever I can to others. 2. What other timesaving techniques do you use? (3 or more) 1) I work in a paperless office. I check mails and anything that can go into the trash can goes to the trash can right away. I try not to clutter my desk with things that I don’t require. 2) I try to find a way to relax when I am tired and take regular breaks. Sometimes looking a problem for hours may not help and the problem gets solved with some clear thinking after a short break. 3) I tend to base my tasks in and around my goals – mostly long term goals. I tend to focus more on actions that will have long term benefits. 3. Do you have additional techniques for being organized? I try and do things at a certain time each day/week. I try to be punctual and stick to doing everything on time as much as possible. 4. Do you have any suggestions as to how to get the most out of one my favorite techniques "Planning"? Plan well ahead on short term and long term activities and set priorities that should definitely help in time management. - My comments on their time management skills and awareness Mani’s idea on planning is as good as the A-list in his own terms. He seems pretty clear on his time management skills. Also he seems to have a few different ways of doing time management, most of them were ones that I have learnt over the past few months. ********************* Name : Maria S 1. What is your best timesaving technique? Be 'realistic' when you plan use the 'body, mind and soul approach' as in: Body- include some type of Physical exercise/activity-in your every day plan (30 mins?!) Mind – planned time for Academic/job related obligations. Also include some 'relaxation time and breaks' (watching tv, internet, phone conversations, listening to music) but, after the scheduled time, have to quit! Soul- Always include- 15-20 minutes for 'quiet time- pray, meditate- or just silence'...it can alleviate anxiety- and make the schedules go smoother! 2. What other timesaving techniques do you use? (3 or more) 1) Learn to 'overlap'/multi-task' , if one has to! 2) Limit Unreasonable/Unimportant interruptions/distractions examples taking a phone-call while working - keep them short! 3) Motivate yourself- or be around people who can motivate you when you find yourself- slacking up! 4) Once or twice a month forget the plan and do what you like and have fun! 3. Do you have additional techniques for being organized? No. 4. Do you have any suggestions as to how to get the most out of one my favorite techniques "Planning"? Always be practical, flexible and try to stick to plans as best as possible! - My comments on their time management skills and awareness Maria seems to do her planning based on body, mind and soul rather than long term and short term goals or work and personal goals. Though she says it is nice to forget planning once in a while, I feel she knows what time management is and is very good at it. ********************* Name : Prakash Devendra 1. What is your best timesaving technique? I consider 'Planning' as my best time saving technique. 2. What other timesaving techniques do you use? (3 or more) Prioritizing the work is probably the next best technique. I also work on improving my 'Productivity/Efficiency' to bring down the time spent on a specific assignment. Delegating as much as possible to handle the routine works so that I could concentrate on some other work. Also 'Delegation' is the best technique to carryout specialized jobs. 3. Do you have additional techniques for being organized? Another technique I find interesting is 'Multi tasking' whenever possible. 4. Do you have any suggestions as to how to get the most out of one my favorite techniques "Planning"? Write down your thoughts about T2D (things to do) as when they appear in your mind. Writing down on a small piece of paper or a post-it will do. Planning need not be a 'Once-in-the-morning' process. It should be dynamic and continuous. Do not hesitate to change the plan according to the changing scenarios and change in priorities. - My comments on their time management skills and awareness Prakash seems to have summarized the course in his answers! He seems to be well aware of time management skills. ********************* Name : Vee M 1. What is your best timesaving technique? I do not use any special timesaving technique. I take things as they come, one at a time. 2. What other timesaving techniques do you use? (3 or more) As I said earlier I do not use any specific timesaving technique. 3. Do you have additional techniques for being organized? I use my outlook to save all my schedules for the day and set out reminders. 4. Do you have any suggestions as to how to get the most out of one my favorite techniques "Planning"? As such I do not plan much. I work in a production support environment where the only things that I can plan in advance are meetings. When there is a problem everything else takes a back seat including the planned meetings. - My comments on their time management skills and awareness Vee M seems to follow a bit of time saving techniques though she does not realize that. The very idea of planning meetings in advance and then changing the priorities based on production support problems shows using time management skills – planning and prioritizing. Also the idea of using outlook to save her schedules for the day is another time saving technique. I feel that she uses time management skills without realizing that she is doing it. ********************* Name : Kay AR 1. What is your best timesaving technique? With two small children and a husband who is never at home, I find it difficult to find time for myself. I do not use any specific time saving technique, but stick to waking up at 6:00 each morning and try to go to bed at 11:00 each night. In between these I have to set the house, take the kids to school and other classes like swimming, gymnastics, ballet, etc and also find time for my course on computers. It has been tough but I am still hanging in there. I guess there is something that I do that makes me find time for all these but I am not sure what. 2. What other timesaving techniques do you use? (3 or more) I have a timetable set for the children. I take them to school / pick them up at a particular time each day. I have particular days and time set for each one of their classes. Also set time for them to do things like they have a TV time which is an hour each afternoon. 3. Do you have additional techniques for being organized? No 4. Do you have any suggestions as to how to get the most out of one my favorite techniques "Planning"? My planning is more of having a time table of doing things for children at a particular time and then slotting time for my studies between that. - My comments on their time management skills and awareness Kay seems to use the simple technique of having a timetable and sticking to it. The time table seems to cover everything from the time she wakes up to the time she goes to bed. And it seems to work for her. Maybe if she learns a bit more about time management she could get the best out of her life. ********************* Name : Ms. Kelly 1. What is your best timesaving technique? I have a diary in which I note down all my appointments. I prefer to stick to my schedule as much as possible. In case of an emergency though I am ready to be a wee bit flexible to sort things out. 2. What other timesaving techniques do you use? (3 or more) I delegate as much as work possible to the staff who work under me. This way I get to work on more serious issues without worrying about smaller problems that can be solved by my staff. 3. Do you have additional techniques for being organized? I ask people to let me know well in advance if they are looking for appointments to meet me. 4. Do you have any suggestions as to how to get the most out of one my favorite techniques "Planning"? Plan well in advance but be flexible to get the best out of any situation. - My comments on their time management skills and awareness I have known Ms.Kelly for a long time as I do interpretations for her. I know she plans well in advance and she does that for herself and people that work with her. She normally gives me at least a week’s notice for all the appointments she makes with me. Even if she has to cancel an appointment, she tries to let me know well in advance. I really appreciate her time management skills. ********************* Name : Azhagan 1. What is your best timesaving technique? I try to concentrate on one thing at a time. When I am writing (Azhagan is a writer), I do not attend calls or entertain visitors. 2. What other timesaving techniques do you use? (3 or more) I sleep very little. If I have to get a work done, I will not sleep till it gets done. 3. Do you have additional techniques for being organized? I am a freelancer and generally work at my own time. So I am not that very organized. 4. Do you have any suggestions as to how to get the most out of one my favorite techniques "Planning"? Plan well in advance. When you sit down to do something have a rough plan for it ready, that makes work easy. Getting more information on what you want to do also helps in planning. - My comments on their time management skills and awareness Azhagan seems to be another one of those people who do know a bit about time management and use a few skills, but do not think much about it. ********************* Name : Darshini 1. What is your best timesaving technique? Sorry, I do not use any time saving technique. 2. What other timesaving techniques do you use? (3 or more) None. 3. Do you have additional techniques for being organized? At the moment I have nothing much to do so I do not have to be organized. 4. Do you have any suggestions as to how to get the most out of one my favorite techniques "Planning"? No - My comments on their time management skills and awareness The only person that I have met so far that has no time management skills what so ever is Darshini. She is not working and has no goals set for herself so far. As a twenty year old she has not achieved any thing and I am not sure if she has any goals set for her future either. Maybe a year from now when things will be different for her, she might want to look at Time Management techniques. ********************* Name : Jo 1. What is your best timesaving technique? As a project manager, my job involves time management quite a bit. 1. I schedule meetings at a certain time each week. 2. I work for four days a week from my office and one day a week from home. 3. I set out one evening a week for socializing with friends. 2. What other timesaving techniques do you use? (3 or more) Delegate, Delegate & Delegate! Do not do things that you don’t have to do. 3. Do you have additional techniques for being organized? I use Microsoft outlook for work related schedules and reminders and a pda for personal schedules and reminders. 4. Do you have any suggestions as to how to get the most out of one my favorite techniques "Planning"? Estimate in advance how much time you need to do things, this is a part of planning and as much as possible stick to your estimates. - My comments on their time management skills and awareness As a project manager, Jo uses her time management skills a lot. She seems well aware of the techniques and uses them very well. ********************* ********************* MY COMMENTS FROM A BROADER PERSPECTIVE This was a real interesting exercise. It took me ages to get response from different people. Some of them, people who manager their time well were ready for the interview or sent me a mail immediately whereas the rest of them had to be reminded a good few times before I could get a reply off them. This exercise made me realize where I stand with respect to Time Management. Also I got a few different views that I hadn’t thought about earlier. Like Maria’s way of splitting up her goals into body, mind and soul rather than work and personal or long term and short term gave me a different insight into time management. People like Vee M think Time Management is a very serious idea and it takes “Time” to do time management. But what they do not realize that they are already using time management techniques on a smaller scale. Some of them use some of the time management techniques and still make the most out of it. There are also people like Darshini that do not know anything about Time Management. Using Time Management consciously will help a lot. ********************* 20. Weekly Goal Management Worksheet #2 (Submit one week after Worksheet #1) - Start with your work from Weekly Goal Management Worksheet #1. - Add two more goals to your worksheet, making a total of 5 goals for reports 2 and 3. - Use worksheet #1 instructions. - Every day this week, devote a minimum of 15 minutes to further evolving this worksheet. - Continue to evolve action steps for all goals. - Transfer action items to your To Do list for completion. - After you've evolved your worksheet for seven days: Submit Your Work (Page R4) ********************* Weekly Progress Report ********************* A-1 Get everything organized for Prakash to get back to normal and back to work Progress Since Last Week - Took him to the hospital twice last week for his final Orthopedic check up and Physiotherapy. - Posted all his social welfare medical claim forms. - Handed over all his medical certificates and required forms to the HR department at work. - HR and his team manager have been notified about him getting back to work on the 26th of October. - Informed the fire warden at work about Prakash being on crutches when he will be back at work so that they know that they have to have a stretcher ready in case of an emergency. Planned Progress For This Week - Prepare for getting back to work. He will start in a new office so his train/bus pass has to be purchased by weekend for the month. - Take care that all his belongings have moved from his desk in the old office to the new office. - Check if he has everything ready like the Id card for the new office. - Help him with his physiotherapy at home so that he will gradually reduce and stop limping. ********************* A-2 Prepare for the wedding Progress Since Last Week - Decided on a new date. - Spoke to our parents back in India about booking a wedding hall. - Have spoken to the managers about carrying over holidays to January rather than taking the holidays this year. Planned Progress For This Week - Organize for wedding invitations to be printed - Decide on dates to travel and provisionally block tickets. - Find out a list of people who wish to travel from here for the wedding and collect information required for them. - Find out if the previous caterers and photographers are available for the new date. A-3 Master the art of Time management and help others with their time management too Progress Since Last Week - Have sent out mails to few more friends regarding 28. Timesaving Techniques From Interviews and am waiting for a response. - Worked on the current exercise - Have sent out reminders to friends about replying for my mail. - Spoke to my cousin (Indu) about the course over the weekend and I have asked her to get a copy of Alan Lakein’s book and start reading it. Planned Progress For This Week - Finish and send the current exercise on time. - Work on the next assignment on a everyday basis - Make a habit of asking “What can I not do?”. - Chose one timesaving category each day of the week and try to find more techniques in them by asking different people or reading or by searching on the Internet. Work towards moving up the ladder at work Progress Since Last Week - Contacted the team that were doing PMP certifications and got notes and presentations off them - Have joined the study group - Downloaded books from intranet - Have added this objective to the list of objectives that I have for the year 2004-2005. Planned Progress For This Week - Attend the study group meeting on Thursday. - Go through chapters 1 & 2 in the book. - Make a draft of the completed application for the next week’s session. - Talk to the manager and see if the training budget for next year can be used for the exams. Help the Italian team and Irish team with getting their requirements scoped Progress Since Last Week - Attended the meeting on Friday with the report. - Contacted the DBA team in UK with the requirements for the Italian team and the Irish team. - Have reported progress to the team lead in UK – Monday team meeting. - Sent out the minutes of meeting for last Friday. Planned Progress For This Week - Get the detailed requirement from the Italian team. - Find out if travel is required again to Sheffield to sort out problems. - Review the requirements of the Italian and Irish team - Have a report on this work by Friday morning for the 10:30 am meeting. ********************* GOAL/ACTION Report ********************* Goal - Get everything organized for Prakash to get back to normal and back to work - A-1: At the beginning of the week, sort out the time required from me for Prakash. - A-2: Delegate work if possible – Ask a friend who has some spare time if he/she can take him to hospital. - A-3: Make a separate A-1 list for activities involving Prakash – like posting his social welfare form every Monday, Physiotherapy every Tuesday, etc - Get Prakash to start driving so that he can go to the hospital by himself. - Get Prakash to type out all the emails that he wants to send, save them on a floppy and then send it. - Update his manager once a week on what his level of improvement is. - Ask Prakash to make his A-1 list everyday and see how much of it he can do it by himself. - With just a week to get back to work, get his pass, id, desk, etc sorted. ********************* Goal - Prepare for the wedding - A-1: Book the wedding hall. - A-2: Print Invitations. - A-3: Find out if known decorators, caterers, photographers, etc are available for that date. - Provisionally book tickets for travel - Organize accommodation for friends who are traveling from here. - Chart out a local travel plan in India for before and after the wedding. ********************* Goal - Master the art of Time management and help others with their time management too - A-1: Finish the Time Management course in three weeks. - A-2: Find friends and relatives to share information regarding Time Management. - A-3: Make a habit of asking “What can I not do?”. - Continue to make the A-1 list everyday and work off it - Learn new techniques from people, books, Internet, etc - Concentrate on one thing at a time and work towards finishing the A-1 goal on the list - Constantly work towards improvising on techniques - Do not break the habit formed now of using time management techniques ********************* Goal - Work towards moving up the ladder at work - A-1: Join the current batch of students doing Project Management Certifications. - A-2: Form/Join a study group outside work time. - A-3: Fix up an exam date for next March and work towards passing the exam in the first attempt. - Get all the study materials required - Get sample questions and information from people who have already done the exams - Attend all sessions without fail. ********************* Goal - Help the Italian team and Irish team with getting their requirements scoped - A-1: Get requirements from Italian and Irish team. - A-2: Review requirements and do the feasibility study - A-3: If required travel to Sheffield to get the work done. - Work towards having the reports done by Friday mornings for the meetings - Always update team in UK, Italy and Ireland by mid week about the progress. - Keep team lead in UK updated with all information for the client meeting on Mondays. ********************* ********************* MY COMMENTS FROM A BROADER PERSPECTIVE 1. Improving my life. When I put down my goals and the actions required for attaining my goal, I clearly define what I want and what I have to do to get it. By doing this everything is made simple. It is easy to follow a written set of ideas rather than have a vague idea in mind and try to follow it. My immediate priorities in life are to get Prakash back to normal life and also reorganize the wedding for the new date. They are the two most important ones though there are a few others that will closely follow the above two. By next week, my A-1 will have changed to something else as I am hoping to see Prakash back to normal working life by then. 2. Improving my work. For work, I have put down two goals this week; the goal from last week has evolved to become a new goal which involves actions from last week and also a new set of actions for the new changed goal. As for the other goal, it will improve my work skills, and general management skills which include time management as well. So doing project management will help me in improving my life, work and time management. Because of this, this goal has a higher priority than the other work related goal. 3. Improving my Time Management skills. As for Time Management skills, the goal itself hasn’t evolved much but what I want to do is to keep up the habit that has been formed. The very idea of working on this exercise everyday of the week and sending it on time every week is going to help me keep up the habit. I am also trying to get more and more people to try out Time Management with me. That should help me a lot as when there is company it is easy to do anything. ***********************