Time Management Training
Introduction
In these days of increasing global competition, rising health
care costs, and labor shortages, employers are constantly
striving to increase productivity. One of the best ways to
increase productivity is to make sure that employees are
effectively managing their time at work. Training all new and
retraining current employees in the principles and techniques of
effective time management is essential.
This sample presentation is intended for presentation to all
employees. It is designed to be presented by an individual who
has knowledge of time management principles and techniques.
This is a sample presentation that must be customized to
include and match the employer’s own policies and practices.
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Objectives
At the close of this session, you will be able to:
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•
•
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Recognize the importance of managing time effectively
Understand ways in which we all waste time
Follow tips for effective time management
Avoid two major challenges to effective time management –
unproductive and unnecessary meetings and e-mail overload.
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The Importance of Managing Time Effectively
“By labor we can find food and water, but all of our labor will
not find for us another hour.”
•
•
•
In other words, time is finite – there’s only so much of it.
By effectively managing our time, we can avoid a stressed and less
productive workplace and avoid cramming work and family and other
personal needs into finite hours.
Just as we spend so much effort managing money, we need to spend
equivalent effort managing time.
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What are some of the ways we waste time ?
We waste time due to factors beyond our control but also
due to factors within our control.
•
What are some of the factors beyond our control that result in our
wasting time?
• (To make this interactive, you may want to ask this question and put
responses on flip chart of white board.)
•
What are some of the factors within our control that result in our
wasting time?
• (To make this interactive, you may want to ask this question and put
responses on flip chart of white board.)
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Ways in which we waste time: Factors beyond our control
•
Interruptions – phone calls, questions from coworkers and
customers
•
Computer and other equipment problems
•
Holding and attending unnecessary and unproductive meetings
•
Staffing shortages – covering for absent coworkers
•
Unplanned work and changed priorities
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Ways in which we waste time: Factors within our control
•
Lack of good planning and organization, failing to set and
maintain priorities, losing focus on task at hand – jumping from
project to project without completing any
•
Holding and attending unnecessary and unproductive
meetings
•
Spending too much time on phone calls, e-mails and the
internet
•
Procrastinating until a project becomes urgent
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Inability to say “No” when appropriate – taking on too much
•
Failure to delegate when possible
•
Socializing too much
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Questions? Comments?
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Tips for Effective Time Management
To manage your time effectively:
•
•
Plan and organize your day and week
Manage and control interruptions.
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Tips (cont’d) - Planning and Organizing
•
Planning is the most important activity in managing your time
effectively.
•
As the old quote goes,
“Failing to plan is planning to fail”
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Tips (cont’d) - Planning and Organizing
•
Plan each day in as much detail as possible. Do this ideally at
the end of the preceding day or the first thing at the beginning of
your day. ( Plan your week on a “big picture” basis making
notes in your day-timer or desk calendar.)
•
Make a daily to-do list of your objectives in order of priority. Use
whatever system you prefer to record this list – handwritten,
computerized, day-timer, blackberry. Cross out items as they
are completed. Move items that cannot be done that day to
another day in the week.
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Tips (cont’d) - Planning and Organizing
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Batch routine tasks together – separate from your high priority
tasks
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Break any large task or project into smaller pieces
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Work on priority or routine items during that time of day which
matches your work habit preferences.
 For example, if you are a morning person and like to tackle tough
assignments when you first start working, batch your priority and
harder tasks in the morning hours. Do more routine tasks in the
afternoon.
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Tips (cont’d) - Planning and Organizing
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Handle each piece of paper or document only once if at all
possible. Refer it on, file it, or discard it.
>
(Another idea is to have a temporary hold until discarded file – keep
a file, perhaps under your desk where you place documents you
are not quite ready to discard. Last ones on top so it is
chronological. If you have not needed the document in 3 months,
discard it when you periodically review the stack.)
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Tips (cont’d) - Planning and Organizing
•
Delegate to others if appropriate and possible.
•
Set aside uninterrupted blocks of time for difficult and lengthy
project. Close your door, forward your calls to your phone
mailbox, refrain from checking e-mails.
•
Throughout the day review your objectives for that day and
update or reprioritize.
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Tips (cont’d) - Planning and Organizing
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Give yourself a break or several breaks during the day. Get up
and stretch, leave your desk for lunch. Getting away even for a
few minutes from your work will help you return alert and
refreshed.
•
And Last but Not Least -- Maintain your work/life balance. Put
family and other social activities on your daily and weekly lists.
Avoid the habit of ignoring these constantly for work!
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Questions? Comments?
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Challenges to Effective Time Management
Two workplace challenges to effective time management
that are within our control:
•
•
Unnecessary and unproductive meetings
E-mails
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Challenges (cont’d) - Meetings
Ways to avoid unnecessary and unproductive meetings.
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Determine if the meeting is really necessary
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Challenges (cont’d) - Meetings
Reasons NOT to have a meeting:
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•
•
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You can more effectively accomplish your purpose by telephone, memo,
report, e-mail, or a one-on-one discussion
It is premature to meet – the subject is too uncertain or too insignificant
to justify a meeting
The group needs a cooling off period – currently too much anger or
hostility among members.
Also, consider having one day each week when no meetings are held
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Challenges (cont’d) - Meetings
Reasons to have a meeting:
•
•
To allow attendees to collaborate – review, evaluate, discuss, problemsolve, decide – with each other
To present significant information
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Challenges (cont’d) - Meetings
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Start on time
•
Always make and follow an agenda. With each agenda
item, include:
 the topic stated in question form
 the person responsible for leading the discussion
 the information relative to the issue
 the time allotted for that issue
 the action/reason/purpose of the exchange
*Tip: Include with the agenda a not-on-agenda list of topics that are off
limits for this meeting. Indicate when these items might be expected to
be on a future agenda.
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Challenges (cont’d) - Meetings
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Avoid attending your subordinates' meetings unless specifically
invited to discuss a topic and limit your time attending to the
discussion of that topic
•
Limit presentations to 10 minutes. If a presentation is longer
than 10 minutes, schedule the presentation separately as such
and not as part of a meeting.
•
Avoid having a meeting lasting over 90 minutes.
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Questions? Comments?
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Challenges (cont’d) - E-mail
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Unless you are awaiting an urgent message, check e-mails only
at specified times during the day. When you have planned to
devote a block of time to work on project, do not interrupt it by
checking e-mails.
•
Set up folders to save appropriate e-mails – possibly one folder
for messages to review later and delete or respond to and
another folder for reference/retention.
•
Touch each e-mail just once – same as for paper documents.
Decide whether to delete, save to respond to later, save for
reference or retention, or to respond to immediately.
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Challenges (cont’d) - E-mail
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Agree within your own department or company-wide on
subject-line protocols
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Some suggestions:





No reply needed – NRN
Thank you – TY
Need response by date and time – NRB (date) (time)
End of message (EOM)
Use subject line for entire message, example Meet 10 am on 03/01 Okay?
(EOM)
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Challenges (cont’d) - E-mail
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Keep e-mails short – no more than 1-10 sentences.
Communicate main point in first or second sentence.
•
After two rounds of trying to solve a problem via e-mail, use
phone or talk in person.
•
If you can’t respond immediately, let the other party know when
you can if you can’t respond to avoid repeat messages
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Challenges (cont’d) - E-mail
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Remove yourself from as many distribution lists as possible
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Use filters or rules to eliminate or assign junk e-mails to a
special folder
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Use “No response required” to end messages and discourage
unnecessary replies.
•
If someone is sending you messages or jokes that you do not
need and want, ask them politely to stop.
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Challenges (cont’d) - E-mail
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Develop boilerplate or stock responses for frequently used
messages and save them in your draft folder using the subject
line for easy recognition and retrieval.
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Questions? Comments?
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Summary
•
Time is finite – there is only so much of it. That is why it is so
important for us to manage our time effectively at work.
•
By effectively managing our time, we can avoid a stressed and
less productive workplace and avoid cramming work and family
and other personal needs into finite hours.
©SHRM 2008
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Summary (cont’d)
•
There are ways in which we all waste time. Some are beyond
our control. But many are within our control and these are the
ones we need to work on.
•
To manage your time effectively plan and organize your day and
week.
•
Manage and control interruptions paying special attention to
meetings and e-mail.
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Questions? Comments?
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Course Evaluation
Please be sure to complete and leave the evaluation sheet you
received with your handouts.
Thank you for your attention and interest!
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