Time Management
Training Courses:
We help the participants in our
Time Management training courses to accomplish their time management goals through the use of our
Time Management Use Analysis Tools which include case study
analysis, time management skill analysis, group problem solving, priority
analysis, time management games and exercises, and on line pre-work.
For free, no obligation information on how we can help
you please contact
us today.
Participants in our Time Management training courses will learn:
- How to devote more time to important activities every day
- How to prevent those daily “fires” from undermining important
goals
- To identify and communicate goals that keep priorities straight
- How to design an effective To-Do list
- How to deal with interruptions
- The art of delegating low-priority tasks
- How to organize your “busy work,” errands, etc.
- How to use Time Blocks to maintain effectiveness
- How to eliminate most annoying paper work
- To balance professional responsibilities with personal time
- To choose and use time management tools
- How to set goals and evaluate them so that they provide value
- How to stop procrastinating NOW
- How to say NO (in a nice way, of course)
- Identify and arrest time bandits
Time Management:
Effective Time Management Courses - Prioritize Your Task List For Personal and Professional Growth
Most engineers and technical professionals have "to do" or task lists where they keep track of their daily tasks but they often miss an important step-they don't prioritize the list. By prioritizing the engineer can clearly see what is important, a crucial step to improve time management. The following exercises illustrate the point.
Open the middle drawer of your desk at home or in the office and quickly remove ten unrelated items and set them in front of you. This is an example of what I found:
- A pen
- A quarter
- Ticket stub for the movie Avatar
- A piece of wrapped candy
- A key
- A business card
- A ruler
- A paperclip
- An tiny address book
- An unwrapped breath mint
Now prioritize the ten items, number one being the highest priority and number ten the lowest priority. Give a reason for each decision. Here is what I came up with:
- The key (#5) was a spare house key that I forgot to return to its hiding place the last time I locked myself out of my house.
- The pen (#1) was sealed in a felt covered box and had been gifted to me while I was working in Japan.
- Chocolate caramels (#4) are my favorite wrapped candies.
- The movie Avatar was cool and I decided to keep the ticket stub (#3).
- The quarter (#2) will go into my coin jar.
- The ruler (#7), relatively new, had both inches and centimeters on it.
- I'm always looking for paperclips (#8) so I will return it to the drawer for another day.
- The business card (#6) reminds me that I need to make new ones.
- The address book (#9) belongs to someone else and I have no idea how I came across it.
- I threw the unwrapped breath mint (#10) into the trash can.
Notice that I prioritized not on the value of the article itself but on how much importance I attributed to it. My key has no value to anyone except to me and my family. To a diabetic my chocolate caramel might be on the bottom of the list.
Now try the same exercise with your ten most important issues at work. For purposes of illustration I will include a hypothetical list for one workday that has not been prioritized:
- Schedule meeting with vendor regarding design changes.
- Group meeting at 10 am.
- Check e-mail and voice mail.
- Download and test new software script.
- Obtain latest list of design parameters from co-worker.
- Update project design schedule.
- Work on best practices for the office.
- Order RAM upgrade kit for laptop to improve performance.
- Lunch at Asian restaurant.
- Download photos from a vendor.
I prioritized this workday list as follows:
- Download and test new software script (#4). This short script enabled me to automatically upload parameters into a data bank, saving me at least two hours of time.
- Schedule meeting with vendor regarding design changes (#1). I've been procrastinating on this all week, afraid the vendor will not accept a two week delay. As a first step I talked to my boss and he advised me to schedule meeting tomorrow, promising to get me some help to reduce two week delay period.
- Lunch at Asian restaurant (#9). I met my wife and son-my family is near the top of the list when it comes to prioritization. I returned to work happy and refreshed and accomplished a lot.
- Group meeting at 10 am (#2). I presented an Excel spreadsheet designed to accomplish several design calculations as my "best practices" contribution.
- Work on best practices for the office (#7). The hour I spent prior to the group meeting on my spreadsheet was very productive.
- Update project design schedule (#6). Not only did I update it, but I prioritized the schedule, too.
- Download design photos from a vendor (#10). Close inspection showed a flaw in the design. I reported it to the vendor, which might have saved some time that could have been lost.
- Order RAM upgrade kit for laptop to improve performance (#8). Completed order.
- Check e-mail and voice mail (#3). I took the advice of improved time management expert and only checked e-mail and voice mail in the morning and afternoon.
- Obtain latest list of design parameters from co-worker (#5). I deleted this item because the script I downloaded performed this function automatically.
By prioritizing and analyzing a "to do" list just as he would a project under review an engineer can improve time management to become more organized and progress toward his or her goal of professional and personal growth.
Doyle Matthews: link
Category: Time Management Courses
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