Managing Your Time: Maximizing Your Potential

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Managing Your TimeMaximizing Your Potential

• Presented by
• Jeff Becker LCSW-C, CEAP
• MCPS Employee Assistance Program
• 240-314-1040

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What Do We Do With Our Lives

• Spend
• 27 years sleeping
• 3.3 years eating
• 5 months waiting at traffic lights
• 8 months opening unwanted mail
• 1 year looking for misplaced objects
• 2 years attempting to return phone calls
• 4 years doing housework
• 5 years waiting in lines
• 13.8 years working
• Watching TV ( of leisure time males-39,
  females 37)
• Social time/surfing on computer?

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Workshop Goals

• Analyze your present use of time
• Identify barriers to effective time management
• Examine priorities, values and their relationship
  to managing time
• Learn effective methods for improved time
  management

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MCPS Employee Assistance Program

• Short term counseling , assessment and referral
• Cost
• Eligibility
• Problem types
• Referrals (self, supervisor and other)
• Confidentiality/records
• Other services workshops, crisis response,
  newsletter, access point to mediation
• Times/location

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Fill out your to-do lists!

• (No more than 8 items can include tasks from
  both work and home.)

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What are your biggest time management challenges?
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Best Strategy Lets share!
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Time Management Strategies

• Put 80 of effort into top 20 of
  responsibilities
• Avoid perfectionism/procrastination
• Structuring/organizing usual and occasional tasks
• Learn to say no to unreasonable requests
• Organize/schedule activities on the basis of
  your priorities

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80/20 or Pareto Principle

• Sorting the critical few from the trivial many
• What are the 2-3 most important things you do?

Vilfredo Pareto 1848 - 1923
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Procrastination

• Putting off what needs to be done in a way that
  results in consequences
• Causes?
• What to do
• Recognize it how do you know?
• Address why youre putting it off (unpleasant?
  difficult?)
• Get over it! (create a reward think about the
  consequences have someone check on you break
  into smaller units)

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Inspiration

• If you can dream it, you can do it
• Walt Disney
• Disneyland was built in 366 days, from
  ground-breaking to first day open to the public.

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Perfectionism

• When is it a problem?
• Why is it done?
• A form of procrastination to avoid
  criticism/rejection inability to sort priorities
• What to do
• Whats the standard? Is it OK not to get an A?
  What else could you be doing?

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Structuring and Organizing Usual and Occasional
Tasks

• Systems are better than brains
• Cooking shows
• What are some repetitive tasks?
• Student work Parent meetings The classroom
  Print and non-print materials Lesson plans, etc.

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Saying No Setting Limits

• Why is it hard to say no?
• Dont catch the ball! Think before you respond.
• If you are sure you need to say no, say it
  sooner than later.
• How should one say no?
• Create alternatives if possible. Can you do part
  of the request ?

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Values and Priorities
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Values

• Accomplishment
• Travel
• Peace of mind
• Security
• Good health
• Financial security

• Family
• Spirituality
• Altruism
• Friendship
• Longevity
• Free time

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Happiness comes when activities align with
values, not from ones ability to control things
and be efficient. Stephen Covey
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Prioritizing (Covey Model)
Urgent
Not Urgent
Important
I
II
III
IV
Not Important
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I. Urgent and Important

• Crisis
• Pressing problem
• Deadline driven projects
• Preparation for imminent events

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II. Important /Not Urgent

• Preparation for future events
• Values clarification
• Increasing personal skills and growth
• Relationship building
• Healthy recreation
• Anticipate and prevent problems

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III. Not Important/Appears Urgent

• Interruptions to planned work time
• Some meetings
• Other peoples priorities and expectations

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IV. Not Urgent/Not Important

• Trivia and busywork
• Junk mail
• Some phone calls
• Escape activities
• Time wasters

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Article Exercise

• Organization
• Prioritizing
• Prep time
• Grouping activities
• Bringing too much work home
• Nine Ways to Save Time

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..and finally

• Learn To Say No
• Take Care Of Yourself
• Focus On What You Have Control Over
• Practice Stress Management Techniques
• Know The EAP Is A Support For You

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Thanks for coming! For more information about
the EAP, contact us at 240-314-1040or visit
our website athttp//www.mcps.k12.md.us/departmen
ts/eap
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TIP 1 THE POSITIVE APPROACH TO TIME MANAGEMENT

• Your prime purpose at work should not be to avoid
  wasting time, but to achieve significant results.
  The former mindset encourages you to keep busy
  the latter encourages you to be productive.
• LESS IS SOMETIMES MORE

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TIP 2 HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY

• When interrupted by someone asking if you are
  busy or whether they got you at a bad time, tell
  the truth. Don't feel obligated to change your
  schedule unless it's an emergency.

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TIP 3 ACTIVITY ANALYSIS

• People have a tendency to take on additional
  tasks during slow periods. This causes problems
  when it gets busy. Continually evaluate your
  activities and eliminate those that are
  unimportant and bring little personal
  satisfaction.

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TIP 4 PROCRASTINATION IS BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH

• Tim Pychyl, Ph.D., associate professor of
  psychology at Carleton University in Ottawa,
  found that procrastination is physically harmful.
  College students who procrastinate have higher
  levels of drinking, smoking, insomnia, stomach
  problems, cold and flu. (Psychology Today,
  July/August, 2003.)

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TIP 5 IT TAKES 21 DAYS TO FORM A HABIT

• When putting time management ideas into practice,
  give them time. As Dr. Archibald D. Hart claims
  in his book, Habits of the Mind, nothing kills
  motivation like impatience.

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TIP 6 INADEQUATE SLEEP CAN BE A TIMEWASTER

• Inadequate sleep reduces innovative thinking by
  60 and flexibility in decision-making by 39.
  (Organizational Behavior Human Decision
  Processes, 1999.)

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Getting Organized (Clock vs. compass)

• First Generation Tools (reminders)
• To-do lists
• Checklists
• Rubrics
• Telephone memo books
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• Second Generation Tools (planning and
  preparation)
• Calendars
• Day planners
• Databases (PDAs, etc.)
• Third Generation (planning, prioritizing and
  controlling)

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The Problem is Severe!

• By some estimates, people waste about 2 hours per
  day.  Signs of time wasting
• Messy desk and cluttered (or no) files
• Can't find things
• Miss appointments, need to reschedule them late
  and/or unprepared for meetings
• Volunteer to do things other people should do
• Tired/unable to concentrate
• Poor time management is stressful!

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Scheduling Yourself

• You don't find time for important things, you
  make it.
• Everything you do is an opportunity cost.
• Learn to say "No"

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• "Procrastination is the thief of time" 
• Edward Young, Night Thoughts, 1742

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Balancing Act "Work expands so as to fill the
time available for its completion" Parkinson's
LawCyril Parkinson, 1957
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Action Items

• Get a day-timer (or PDA) if you don't already
  have one
• Start keeping your TODO list in four-quadrant
  form or ordered by priorities (not due dates)
• Do a time journal, or at least record number of
  hours of television/week
• Make a note in your day-time to revisit ideas
  from this talk in 30 days - at that time, ask
  yourself "What behaviors have I changed?"