State of Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services Human Capital Management

TIME MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES

Facilitator’s Guide

Meeting Your Professional Training Needs

Learning Outcomes

Through engaging in the workshop, the learners will :

1. Plan and prioritize tasks effectively; o Understand the importance of goal setting o Apply Time Management Matrix to prioritize tasks efficiently o Write appropriate to-do list

2. Improve concentration; o Understand the difference between switch-tasking and multitasking o Identify sources of interruptions o Apply techniques to handle interruptions efficiently

3. Overcome procrastination; o Identify the reasons for procrastination o Apply strategies to overcome procrastination o Take advantage of occasional procrastinations

4. Delegate people effectively; o Understand delegation dilemmas o Avoid common delegation mistakes o Apply tips and strategies to delegate people effectively

Overview of Learning Activities

Activity Time

1. Five things in common 30 min

2. How good are your time management skills 20 min

3. Prioritization – Lucy’s Tasks 25 min

Break 10 min

4. Prioritization – Urgent or important 45 min

5. Prioritization – To-do list 25 min

6. Concentration – Multitasking 30 min

Lunch break 75 min

7. Concentration – Interruptions 30 min

8. Concentration – Handle interruptions 35 min

9. Concentration – Flow 15 min

Break 10 min

10. Overcoming procrastination 40 min

11. Delegation 45 min

12. Closure 10 min

Total time: around 6 hours

Instructional Materials

Description Quantity

1. Participant’s Guide

2. Prezi document 1

3. Facilitator’s guide 1

4. Video 10

5. Flipchart 4

Video List

1 Time Management Matrix

2 To-Do List

3 Focus On One Thing One Time

4 Time Blocking

5 Do Your Toughest Task First

6 Unconventional Cures for Meetings

7 Takes of Mr. Existence (Procrastination)

8 Take Advantage of Procrastination

9 Conquering Your Inbox Emails

10 How to Delegate

Objective: Identify the common issues involved in time management while getting to know each other.

Activity 1: Five Things in Common (30 min)

Step 1 Introduction to facilitator (5 min)

Facilitator: Choose the way that you feel most comfortable with.

Step 2 Group activity: Five things in common (15 min)

Step 3 Discuss time management issues in the activity (5 min)

1) Each group finds out five things in common in the group. 2) Each group writes down the ideas on the whiteboard and presents to the class. 3) Question: Which group had the most creative ideas?

Ask participants following questions: 1) Did you plan? 2) Did you prioritize? 3) Did you get interruptions or distractions? 4) Did someone in your group do almost all the work?

Step 4 Discuss learning objectives (5 min)

Through engaging in this workshop, you will be able to: 1) Plan and prioritize tasks effectively; 2) Improve concentration; 3) Overcome procrastination; 4) Delegate people effectively

Activity 2: How Good Are Your TM Skills? (20 min)

Step 1 Quiz: How good are your time management skills? (10 min)

Participant’s Guide Page 4: Ask participants to finish the quiz individually and add the score based on the instruction.

Step 2 Score interpretation (5 min)

1) Let participants know that this quiz is not absolutely accurate about time management skills. It is just used as a way to identify areas for improvement.

2) Guide participants to review the score interpretation.

Objective: Understand your strengths and weaknesses in time management and identify areas for improvement.

Step 3 Open discussion: You goal for this training? (5 min)

Question: Do you have a goal before you came to the workshop? If yes, share it with the class. If no, make one now.

Activity 3: Prioritization – Lucy’s Tasks (25 min)

Step 1 Open discussion: Why is goal setting important (15 min)

Step 2 Individual activity: prioritize Lucy’s tasks (10 min)

1) Present the sample Lucy’s tasks to the participants, ask them to put the tasks into four groups based on priority.

2) Ask several participants to share their rationales about grouping the tasks.

1) Sample summary: Goals help us focus on what is really valuable and important to us. No matter how efficiently we are able to work, if we are on the wrong track, we are wasting our time.

2) Optional activity: Ask participants to write down their goals for year 2014, leave their email addresses, and send their goals to them by the end of 2014. See how far they’ve gone then.

Objective: Understand the importance of goal setting; get hands-on experience in prioritizing tasks.

Break: 10 minutes

Activity 4: Prioritization – Urgent or Important? (45 min)

Step 1 What’s the difference between important and urgent? (10 min)

Step 2 Time Management Matrix (20 min)

1) Individual activity: Group Lucy’s tasks into the four quadrants. 2) The whole class: Share ideas about how you grouped Lucy’s tasks. 3) Play video 1 and discuss the time management matrix based on the script

(P’s guide page 8).

Step 3 Prioritize your own tasks (15 min)

Individual activity: List the tasks that you are currently doing this week. Ask yourself: Are the tasks important to your goals or they are merely urgent? Share your ideas with the class.

1) Present the Time Management Matrix to the participants and ask them to choose the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th priority in the matrix.

2) Open discussion: what’s the difference between important and urgent?

Objective: Understand the difference between urgent and important tasks; apply Time Management Matrix to prioritize tasks.

Activity 5: Prioritization – To-Do List (25 min)

Step 1 Do you write To-Do list? (5 min)

Step 2 How to write to-do list (10 min)

1) Show the participants different types of to-do lists (embedded in Prezi) and ask them their preferences and why.

2) Play video 2: How to write to-do list.

Open question: How many of you write to-do list on a daily basis? Could you share your tips with the class? Note: It’s not a must to write daily to-do list, but if we know how to write to-do

list effectively, it will help us work smart.

Objective: Apply techniques to write to-do list effectively.

Step 3 Write your own to-do list (10 min)

1) Share some to-do list applications with participants (Embedded in Prezi & P’s guide page 11)

2) Ask participants to write their own to-do list for tomorrow (P’s guide page 11).

Activity 6: Concentration - Multitasking (30 min)

Step 1 Multitasking is a lie (25 min)

Step 2 Focus on one thing one time (5 min)

1) Play video 3: Focus on one thing one time 2) Open question: what stops us from concentrating on our tasks?

1) Open question: can you concentrate on your work easily? Can you multitask (example: watch TV while working on a project)?

2) Exercise P’s guide page 12: Multitask is a lie (refer to handout for facilitators) 3) Summary: what did you get from this exercise?

Sample script: Typically, a person will take twice as long to complete this exercise when switch-tasking vs. focusing on one task at a time.

Objective: Understand the difference between switch-tasking and multitasking.

Lunch: 75 minutes

Activity 7: Concentration – Interruptions (30 min)

Step 1 Sources of interruptions (10 min)

1) Open question: what are some of the sources of interruptions? Which one bothers you most? Facilitator should write down the participants’ answers on the flipchart. (Example: messy office, conversations, phones, emails, random thoughts, surfing webpages, social media, unimportant meetings, etc.)

2) Discuss the negative impact of interruptions (information embedded in Prezi) Note: we do need breaks or social conversations and it’s impossible to eliminate all of them, but we should try to minimize the negative impact especially when we are doing something urgent and important.

Objective: Identify different sources of interruptions and their negative impact; identify solutions to handle interruptions.

Step 2 Handle interruptions (20 min)

1) Discuss how to handle the interruptions as a large group. Facilitator should copy the responses on the flipchart.

2) Facilitator should inform the participants that following activities will tackle some of the interruptions.

Activity 8: Concentration – Handle Interruptions (35 min)

Step 2 Time Blocking (15 min)

1) Say: One effective way to minimize the negative impact of interruptions is to

block time. Play video 4: Defrag Your Calendar by Batching Tasks 2) Ask: If you have several equally important tasks, which one you will do first?

The easier one, or the tougher one? Facilitator should explain the benefits of doing toughest job first. (Suggested content resource for the facilitator: YouTube video: Work Smart: Do Your Worst Task First). Note: There is no correct or wrong answer, the important thing is to spend most of your time focusing on the most important tasks).

Objective: Apply techniques to handle interruptions effectively.

Step 1 What does your desk look like? (5 min)

1) Open question: do you think an organized work environment important? Why? Note: A clean desk is not necessarily important for some people to concentrate, but it will save us a lot of time if we know where our stuff is whenever we need it.

2) Contrast messy desks and organized desks (pictures embedded in Prezi).

Step 3 Conduct Efficient Meetings (15 min)

1) Open question: What are some of the behaviors that waste our time in a meeting? How will you handle those behaviors in a meeting? (Example: unclear goals, too many irrelevant participants, unsettled disagreements, no follow ups, etc.)

2) Play video 5: Unconventional cures for meeting

Break: 10 minutes

Activity 9: Concentration – Flow (15 min)

Step 1 Why you cannot focus (5 min)

Step 2 Flow (10 min)

1) Facilitator should explain what flow is (refer to Participant’s Guide Page 13) and the diagram embedded in Prezi).

2) Open question: how to achieve flow. 3) Facilitator should guide the participants to go through the tips on Participant’s

Guide Page 14.

Open question: Sometimes even if you have the perfect work environment and you are not sick, but you still cannot focus on your task. Why?

Objective: Understand how to achieve the state of Flow.

Activity 10: Overcoming Procrastination (40 min)

Step 1 Are you a procrastinator? (15 min)

Step 2 Overcome procrastination (20 min)

1) Open question: Why do we procrastinate? (Refer to Prezi, elaborate on the four reasons: unpleasant job, overwhelmed, disorganized, and perfectionists)

2) Facilitator should asks participants to share their tips for overcoming procrastination, and present the strategies. (Refer to Prezi)

3) Take Advantage of Procrastination (Facilitator should makes participants aware that occasional procrastinations are unavoidable, but we can take advantage of them. Suggested content resource: YouTube video: How to Procrastinate Productively).

1) Opener: play video 6 Tales of Mr. Existence 2) Quiz: Are you a procrastinator? (Participant’s Guide Page 15) 3) Facilitator should explain the scores .

Objective: Apply strategies to overcome procrastination.

Step 2 Let’s tackle our inbox emails from today! (5 min)

1) Open question: One of the things that we procrastinate most is to deal with our inbox emails. How many unread emails in your inbox? More than 10, 50, 100?

2) Play video 7: Conquering your email inbox

Activity 11: Delegation (45 min)

Step 1 Delegation dilemmas (15 min)

Step 2 Delegation mistakes (15 min)

1) Participant’s Guide Page 19: Group activity: Identify the delegation mistakes that Jason may have made.

2) Facilitator should make a summary (refer to Prezi & P’s guide page 20)

1) Participant’s Guide Page 18: Discuss Jason’s delegation dilemmas and list the concerns Jason may have. Facilitator should make a summary (refer to Prezi).

2) Open question: what will you tell Jason to eliminate his concerns? Facilitator should make a summary.

Objective: Apply strategies to delegate people effectively.

Step 3 How to delegate (15 min)

1) Group activity: If you were Jason, how would you delegate Lucy and Tom. List the principles and strategies as a group, and share with the class.

2) Play video 8: How to delegate

Activity 12: Closure (10 min)

Step 1 Review objectives (5 min)

Step 2 One thing that you will do differently (5 min)

Write down one thing you will do differently after the class and submit to the facilitator.

Question: Did we cover all the objectives? What do you want to know more? What information is missing? Etc.

Objective: Review objectives and activities.