Time Management Session 2 Judith Shawcross

Today’s Agenda Introduction Review Goal Setting & High Return Activities How do we spend our time –Review logs Break Prioritising 4 Rules of Effective Planning and Organisation Homework setting 2 Interesting things to try

Review Homework (1) Goals Task: Write down your goals and make sure they are SMART. Example: Submit a full draft of paper X to my PI by 4pm on Friday 6 th July Is this SMART? What questions should I ask to check?

Some SMART Questions! Where am I now with this task? How long has it taken me to date? How long will it take me to complete this? How certain am I about this – what are the risks or uncertainties? Do I really have the time when I consider the other commitments that I have in the time allocated for this task? How important is this task compared with others I have?

Reviewing Goals Working in small groups of 2 or 3 take it in turns to explain your goals and seek feedback on them. Are they really SMART? Time Allocated 10 minutes

Task: Identify your top High Return Activities? How can you test that you have identified a High Return Activity? Check that it is an activity that is directly responsible for achieving your goals. How can you measure whether you are doing them? How can your PI measure whether you are doing them? Review Homework (2) High Return Activities

Review Activity By table - share your High Return Activities. How similar / different are they? Is there a clear reason why? Are they linked to your goals? How can you measure if you are doing them?

Researcher Maintenance Conferences Networks Reading Tools Skills Admin

Time Budget Approx 44 working weeks / annum Maintenance Time Allowance ? 1 week – training and development 2 weeks – travel to & conference attendance 1 week – seminar / network event attendance 1 week – admin / IT issues 2 weeks – essential reading 2 weeks – proposal writing, peer review papers 9 weeks for maintenance ~ 20% of your time – 1 day/week – 1 hr 36 mins/day What about play time?

GOALS To have my research published in Nature by July 2012 To co-author a book on carbon nano- tubes. Milestones High Return Activities Long Term Short Term Researcher Maintenance

Review your goals and high return activities Take a few minutes to individually reflect on the conversations that have just taken place and make a note of any goals that need a rethink / rewording

Critical questions 1.Am I doing the right activities? 2.Am I doing them at the right time? 3.Am I spending enough time on these? 4.Am I doing these activities in an effective and efficient way? 5.If no, why? What is stopping me?

Review Homework 3 – Time Log Task – Record how you spend your time for a minimum of 3 days Analyse this carefully - what activities should you eliminate, reduce? - what activities do you need to do more of?

Group Task Share your Time Logs in groups of 2 or 3. Identify your three most significant time issues

How to deal with Key Issues?

Effective Time Management – The 3 D’s Decision Making e.g. –What are my goals / milestones? –What do I need to do this month / week /day –Prioritisation – what is most importance? Discipline e.g. –Writing down and reviewing goals –Planning – What activities need to be done & when –Reviewing progress Determination e.g. –Seeing a particular task through to completion

Self Discipline Your rules for how you behave that support you Examples: Exercise - I go for a run 3 times a week and play football on Sundays Work - I don’t look at my first thing - I do my most important task first Coffee – I don’t drink coffee after 6pm because it stops me going to sleep

Prioritising Activities Apply the 80 / 20 (Pareto) Rule –20% of your activities will account for 80% of your results What are the consequences –Long term thinking improves short term decision making “Failures do what is tension relieving while winners do what is goal achieving” Dennis Waitley –Is what I’m doing contributing directly to my goals?

Prioritising Activities A = Critical B = Important C = Nice to Do D = Delegate E = Eliminate Urgent vs. Importance Matrix Important Activities Critical Activities Distractions Interruptions Urgency LowHigh Low High Importance What should High Return activities be? If you have more than one A activity on your list prioritise A1, A2, A3

GOALS To have my research published in Nature by July 2012 To co-author a book on carbon nano- tubes. Milestones Tasks Time Resource Risks Goal Planning Sheets

Goal Planning Sheets 1.SMART Goal 2.Benefits to be gained / Losses to be avoided 3.Potentials Issues / Problems and potential solutions 4.List activities and identify order, duration and deadlines 5.Identify ways to measure progress 6.Identify others involved

4 Rules of Effective Planning & Organisation 1.Have one system only for planning and organising. 2.Plan, review & schedule – monthly, weekly, daily 3.Do, Diarise or Ditch for communications 4.Stay tidy and organised One minute of planning saves ten minutes in execution – Brian Tracy

Your system needs to be able to capture your goals, tasks and schedule HAVE ONE SYSTEM ONLY FOR PLANNING AND ORGANISING. Why? You don’t miss anything No double bookings Enables you to see everything all together RULE No. 1 You can use meeting / note books but make sure you transfer all your actions / tasks.

RULE No. 2 Plan, Review, Schedule Monthly Set aside 2 to 3 hours at the end of each month to plan, review and schedule the next months and the immediate month in detail. Review your goals – what are the key goals for this month? Prioritise - which of these are most important? Plan how to achieve each of these in detail. What will your high return activities be? How can you measure if you are on track.

RULE No. 2 Plan, Review, Schedule Scheduling Use a big picture of time – month to view Ensure all your timed commitments are there –Meetings, training, seminars, teaching, Schedule blocks of time to achieve your goals and work on your high return activities. Don’t fill up your schedule completely If a task is going to take 1 hour or more then schedule it REVIEW – DOES THIS LOOK ACHIEVABLE?

RULE No. 2 Plan, Review, Schedule Weekly Set aside ½ hour at either the start or end of every week to review planning and schedule for week ahead Review your progress – did you achieve everything you planned? If not, why not? Review your commitments for the following week and ensure you have allowed sufficient time for any preparation / travel etc. Review your priorities – put them in order. Revise schedule as required.

RULE No. 2 Plan, Review, Schedule Daily Spend 5 minutes at the start and end of each day reviewing planning Ensure you have a detailed time plan for the day and remind yourself what it is Ensure high priority tasks are done first – schedule these for when you work at your best Group small tasks – e.g. Communication Review what you have achieved at the end of the day

RULE No. 3 DO, DIARISE OR DITCH - for communications Set yourself some time each day to deal with correspondence –This could be twice a day / once a day –This should not be first thing in the day If the task arising is short and important i.e. less than 15 minutes then DO it. If the task arising is longer and important i.e. An hour or over then DIARISE it – schedule it in your calendar. If the task arising is not important then DITCH it.

RULE No. 4 STAY TIDY & ORGANISED - If it takes you more than 2 minutes to find something then you need to be more organised.

Goal Planning Sheet Example Exercise 1.Individually look at the example and review the Task Description section on page 2 2.In groups discuss how this would help you in scheduling this project 3.In groups discuss what problems there might be and how you would overcome them

Homework 1.Develop your own (single) system for planning and organising yourself. 2.Complete Goal Planning Sheets on some key goals to enable you to populate your planning and organising system. 3.Put into practice strategies for dealing with one or more of your most significant time issues. 4.Prepare an Annual Time Budget

Two simple/interesting things to try Listen to Baroque music e.g. Bach –Helps to improve concentration and creativity Use SCORE technique by Jim Fannin –Self-discipline –Concentration –Optimism –Relaxation –Enjoyment Ref: Simon Reynolds A thought management system that improves productivity

Key Messages GOALS SMART Questions will enable you to check whether your goals are ACHIEVABLE & REALISTIC A = Critical B = Important C = Nice to Do D = Delegate E = Eliminate Decision Making, Discipline, Determination Researcher Maintenance FOUR RULES Have one system only for planning and organising. 2.Plan, Review, Schedule Monthly, weekly, daily 3.Do, Diarise or Ditch 4.Stay tidy and organised