Some highlights from Time Management discussions yesterday

Had a great time with the good folks at Bimbo Bakery. Our Time Management crash course was a blast. We covered the basic principles:
Time Audits
Goal Setting
Energy Matching
Batching

We also discussed many ways to handle the deluge of email and other interruptions. Here are some other hightlights from from the day.
Other best practices to remember:

1. Unload your brain into a planner at the end of the day. You’ll sleep better and be prepared to jump into duties the next morning.

2. “Kiss that frog!” Procrastination drains energy. Complete the task that weighs on you and you’ll have more energy.

3. Plan for the unexpected. Provide time in your schedule for “Murphy’s Law” events. A more realistic schedule will keep you less stress and you won’t disappoint others. If you have extra time, use it to improve processes.

4. Having time to think and improve processes is the best way to leverage time. Your improvements will save more time and eliminate fire-fighting at work.



© 2011 Laura Lewis-Barr all rights reserved

Time Management for 2011--Ruthlessly Protect The Gift of Time

Is "using my time more effectively" on your list of resolutions for the new year? Remember that time management has an emotional component. Make sure to deal with the emotions under your habits. These principles are from my popular "Tenacious Time Management" presentation.

Tenacious Time Management--Principles
 Ruthlessly set priorities.
 Courageously plunge into “A” tasks.
 Heroically hold focus.
 Dare to match tasks to energy cycles.
 Boldly batch tasks.
 Fearlessly decide—touch each task once.
 Face the truth—do a time audit.
 Assertively use smart goals.
 Bravely defeat procrastination.
© 2010 Laura Lewis-Barr all rights reserved

Time for a Challenging Reminder from Thomas Merton

Why are we always so busy? Too busy for friends. Too busy to relax or have a moment to reflect on our lives. Does our busyness protect us from loneliness? Does it make us feel important?

I've shared this provocative quote before but it seems worth repeating. Written in the 1950's and ever more pertinent as life accelerates every year.

"There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence…overwork. The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form of innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone and everything, is to succumb to violence. The frenzy...destroys our own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of our own work because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.”
Thomas Merton

Time Management and Storytelling--The Beginning, Middle, End

People crave stories. We learn most effectively through stories and some researchers even believe that they have a therapeutic effect on the listener.

I’ve been studying storytelling for most of my life. I’ve used this knowledge to write plays, screenplays, and speeches and to teach public speaking. Recently a client asked me to define “story.” I gave her the simplest definition: a story contains a beginning, a middle, and an ending. Even professional storytellers and screenwriters begin their work from this deceptively simple goal. Today I’ve also noticed how this structure might explain good time management tactics.

I’ve been juggling lots of different balls lately: my training business, my writing, a film project, training research and more. I’ve noticed that I’m at my best when I can follow a project to a logical place of completion: a beginning, middle, and end. I’m far less effective if I jump from idea to idea, or if I’m interrupted in the middle of a project.

Do you ever find yourself confused and overwhelmed by the number of projects on your desk? See if you can construct some uninterrupted time and follow the course of your project from beginning-middle-end. You don’t have to complete the task to find a natural and satisfying place to end. Not only will your work be smarter and more efficient, you’ll also feel more energized and productive. © 2010 Laura Lewis-Barr all rights reserved

Creating more effective meetings!

My clients constantly complain about having to attend “useless” meetings. These meetings not only obliterate large chucks of valuable time, they also damage morale.

How can we improve our meetings?

1. First, we must eliminate all unnecessary meetings! This will require a major paradigm shift. Ask yourself: Am I only giving information to my group? If so, use email. Worried that they won’t read your email? Ask them to respond to you within a certain time. (BTW- how do you know they’re listening at a “data dump” meeting? Believe me, they aren’t. ) Even if you can’t eliminate a meeting, you should be able to shorten it significantly. No part of a meeting should be a data dump. That is what emails are for.

2. Only call a meeting when an idea or news requires discussion. If you’re presenting controversial or upsetting information (layoffs, etc.) DO NOT use email. A meeting will allow the listeners to express their feelings, concerns, questions, and thoughts. This is a great use for a meeting.

If you have a problem to be solved or a process to be improved, meetings are an ideal use of the team’s time. But do you know how to lead a discussion so that they best ideas are produced and your time is used effectively?

I’ll tackle this question in my next post. © 2009 Laura Lewis-Barr all rights reserved

Time Management: My Excuse for a Messy House.

If you were to surprise me with a visit to my home today--I’d be mortified. Laundry sits in the living room, the kitchen is full of dishes and newspapers, the bed isn’t made, and files cover surfaces in every room. Still, if you thought I’d been sleeping or watching TV (while eating bonbons) you’d be wrong. Today has been an awesomely productive day: I wrote several proposals for speaking/training events, and have contacted several clients.

One of the key principles in Time Management is not getting distracted from a chosen priority, especially during peak energy times. Morning is the best time for me to write proposals and today I stayed energetically “in flow.”

It can be tough to avoid distractions: it’s hard on my ego to see the house looking this way. But the rewards are great.

Can you let the non-essentials go while pursuing your goal? If your spouse or office mate comments on your temporary disaster area—just remind him/her that you’re employing good Time Management techniques. Then, when the big jobs are done and energy is lower, you can file and straighten.

My own house will be cleaned tonight--during a Law and Order re-run. © 2009 Laura Lewis-Barr all rights reserved

Sharpening the Saw

I have a million writing/training ideas floating in my head, pleading for my time. Meanwhile, Rick and I are readying our home for sale. On Thursday I woke up feeling weak. Not sick, but worn out and tired. I forced myself to work but by the afternoon, feeling spent, I left early and went to bed. I slept hard for 3 hours. I expected a cure but the next day I felt the same: listless, weak, worn-out. I completed some simple tasks and begged off my more taxing duties. I took an excess of vitamins but nothing seemed to help. I continued to rest.

That evening I poured out some deep and powerful worries to Rick. Old vulnerabilities, shame and frustrations suddenly erupted. I struggled not to project these feelings onto Rick and to trust in his support and compassion. We talked for a long time. Then, after some time, I felt much better, and lighter.

On Saturday I woke up revitalized. I had a very productive day and was still going at 12:30am (very unusual). I finally forced myself to stop working and go to bed.

Such a complete change! Perhaps I just needed a rest from my many duties. Perhaps my weakness was psychological and I needed to unload some (previously unconscious) worries. Either way, despite the mountain of duties demanding my time, I needed to stop. It was easier to give myself the first (half) day and much harder to be patient the second day. But that self-care is vital, not merely to stay healthy but also to reach new breakthroughs. (My progress on Saturday night was a step forward on a long term project.)

How do you give yourself breaks to keep healthy and to produce your best work? © 2009 Laura Lewis-Barr all rights reserved

The Many Benefits of Mindfulness Meditation

Just finished listening to a great interview on Shrink Rap Radio with Psychologist Elisha Goldstein. Dr. Goldstein’s work focuses on the power of mindfulness meditations to help us combat stress, addictions, and other psychological maladies. Did you know that regular meditation can actually change the brain?! Dr. Goldstein shared research from Sara Lazar, Ph.D.

Using MRI brain scans, she (Sara Lazar, Ph.D.) found thicker regions of frontal cortex, regions responsible for reasoning and decision making, in those who had a consistent mindfulness practice compared to those who did not. Additionally, she found a thicker insula, considered to be the central switchboard of the brain that helps us coordinate our thoughts and emotions. She suggested that because our cortex and insula normally start deteriorating after age twenty, mindfulness meditation might help us make up for some losses as we age.

I bolded the text in my excitement. These are great findings. Meditation is a free resource we can all use to make very practical and positive changes in our lives. Dr. Goldstein continues….

This all makes sense because rather than just falling into an old habitual way of reacting to something, when we are present, we are more likely to be aware of all the options and possibilities and actually make better decisions. When we are present, we are more likely to regulate our emotions and act from a great place of calm and balance. As we practice this, we are more likely to remember to do it and as we remember to do it, brain lays the tracks for that to happen again and again. (for the entire article read here)

But how do we find time to meditate? Dr. Goldstein offered two choices: “formal,” (sitting down for a specific time) and “informal” practices. The latter focuses on noticing the present moment. A person showering would direct their attention away from future thinking (worries or plans about the day ahead) and to the present moment—the feel of the water or soap on their skin. Dr. Goldstein described a busy mother who used this informal method. She practiced being present with her children, slowing down to look them in the eyes and really listen to their responses. She savored their breakfast time together, noticing each element. This slowing down and meeting each moment is a form of meditation that even busy people can integrate into their lives.

Whether at work or at home, taking time to practice formal or informal “mindfulness” will have powerful effects. Research suggests that even 5 minutes of daily meditations can help us be healthier, happier and more productive, creative, and resilient.

© 2009 Laura Lewis-Barr all rights reserved

The "violence" of being too busy

"There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence…overwork. The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form of innate violence. To allow
oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone and everything, is to succumb to violence. The frenzy...destroys our own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of our own work because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.” Thomas Merton

Time to Take A Break?

The Chinese word for busy consists of two characters “heart” & “killing.”

Time Management is like Poker

If you pick a new card, you must discard another. © 2009 Laura Lewis-Barr all rights reserved

Time Management Secret Weapon

Begin that daunting task!

When facing my messy basement or planning a big seminar, the project can seem overwhelming-- until I plunge in.

So pick a place to begin. You can start anywhere. I choose a corner of my basement, take a breath and.... go!

Begin. Your genius will soon join you. © 2009 Laura Lewis-Barr all rights reserved

Email Addiction and Time Management

Thank you to Businessballs.com for these fascinating factoids.

• Compulsive checking of emails and being continuously available to incoming text messages, etc., is considered by some experts to be driven by the same impulses that are experienced by gamblers, i.e., following the principle of unpredictable occasional reward, and similar descriptions of such behaviour.
• 
  Surveys regularly find vast amounts of wasted time spent by workers dealing with emails and email interruptions. A 2008 report in the Guardian newspaper staggeringly calculated that a worker who checks/responds to email interruptions every five minutes wastes 8.5 hours a week, given the recovery time required after each interruption.

Our Greatest Time Management Challenge

I teach a terrific Time Management class. It is full of great tips and proven principles. But lately, I’ve been contemplating the deeper issues of time. Everyone seems to feel deluged with duties. My clients speak of time pressures and seek desperately for a magic bullet to solve their workload dilemmas. How did this happen? Even 15 years ago, the cultural pace seemed slower, didn’t it? Are technological advances speeding up our lives? Or is it the increasing number of brilliant minds who churn out more to learn, know, and experience? I cannot keep up with the books, articles, and emails that interest me.

Meanwhile, I’ve recently been talking with several friends who are depressed. Like everyone else--their “to do" list is enormous and growing. They have too many errands, too many details to juggle, and too much to learn in a day. I can relate. Without enough “down time,” I feel overwhelmed and spent. I want to hide from the world and recharge. I’m lucky that my schedule often allows me to do this. But my friends don’t feel able to get off their treadmills. Is this why they’re depressed? Some psychologists believe that depression is our psyche’s way of getting us to go inward, to the deepest parts of ourselves that need attention.

As our “needs” and “oughts” grow we will all be forced to make hard choices regarding our time. If our employers are asking too much of us, will we be able to suggest changes? Time is a finite resource. We can learn to be efficient and use it well but we are human beings—not machines. We cannot force our bodies, minds, and spirits to exceed our own capacity for work. In this era of technological wonders, accepting our human limitations will be the greatest time management challenge we face.

© 2009 Laura Lewis-Barr all rights reserved

Maintaining Forward Motion in a Challenging Project

If you’ve read any biographies of writers, you know that most talk of their commitment to writing everyday. This is their most vital creative discipline. I’ve recently discovered (the hard way) why professional writers’ everywhere commit to this challenge.

I had been moving forward on a few ambitious writing projects. Then, as I became busier with training events, seminar preparation claimed my writing time. I wasn’t worried. I would begin again when my schedule allowed.

Big mistake. As I’ve tried to re-enter the creative stream, I find that my thoughts (and some papers) are hidden from me. I sense that it will take some time to re-discover the unique path I was exploring.

How does this relate to the workplace?

I talk in my Time Management seminars about “flow” and the need to allow ourselves time to get deeply into a project, without being constantly interrupted. I’m pretty good at blocking out distractions in a single day but I’m reminded that maintaining creative flow may require staying connected to a project. Even if I only have brief segments of time to spare, I can ensure higher levels of productivity and creativity, if I revisit my writing endeavor daily.

Do you have highly challenging projects that would benefit from daily review? © 2009 Laura Lewis-Barr all rights reserved

Time Management and the Water Cooler.

During a workshop, Julie talked about long-winded co-workers she avoided. She felt bad about this and feared alienating friends at work. But since each individual could cost her 30 to 60 minutes of her day, Julie was frustrated. What could she do? She tried to be pleasant and keep her chats brief but her tactics often failed.

Julie noticed that she did enjoy talking with a few of her co-workers. What made them different from the others? These were people who added value to her day. They provided important information about her job, or, if the discussions became personal, the stories were briefer, more focused, and without repetition. Her other coworkers sometimes repeated the same stories or clichés for days--even weeks!

What value does your communication have for other people? Do you waste time rehashing old ideas or repeating the same information to each colleague individually?