Time Management

Organization: Managing Multiple Priorities!

Our young teens are deeply involved with multiple activities and groups on their campus. As an Activities Director it is important, yet difficult, to realize they cannot do everything that is asked of them. Students must learn the skills of time management: organizing events they are in charge of, making it to club meetings, and showing up to practice takes time and effort. Fitting in homework, eating properly, and spending time with family is also essential. Developing a professional leader must allow for lessons in managing multiple prioritizes.

Time Awareness: Show respect and genuine care when working with someone. Time is valuable (even a scarce resource). Your time is no more important than the person next to you. Time should be respected.

Unit 2 - Time Management Curriculum
Part I
Directions:
1. Take out a piece of paper and writing utensil. Complete the following task: write down a full week (7 days) and brainstorm the entire day of events, courses, sports, meetings, time for meals, tasks, homework, etc. Look at the paper when you are completed with this brainstorming activity.

On the back of the page, write a paragraph about how you as an individual work to complete the daily items you have on your list. How do you manage your time? Good? Bad? Needs improvement?

2. Read the article Time Management for the Time-Challenged, Forbes Magazine
Complete the reading log based on the content of the article.

Time Management For The Time-Challenged
by: Kristi Hedges

At the risk of sounding immodest, I’m going to admit that I’m good at managing my time. Co-workers, clients and friends often comment on how much I can produce and the range of work I can cover. I think of myself as one of those people who just gets stuff done. (There’s a dark side to this, in that I can be task-mastery and frustrated by distractions, but that’s a post for another day.)
So it’s been a rude awakening for me this year when I’ve found myself dropping some balls — or barely catching, as when a to-do pops in your mind like a last minute save. It seems I finally reached overload status between a demanding and varied work schedule, recurring travel, and a busy family — and my well-honed systems started breaking down. For the first time in my life, I started thinking I needed a systematic approach to time management.

I’ve coached my clients around time management for years, so luckily I had a well of advice to draw from and put into practice. In our overstuffed days, it’s a typical professional lament to just have a few more hours in a day. We don’t want much really, just to produce more, and better. Never mind that we’re asked to do more than our predecessors were ever asked to do, and by the way, to do it around the clock.

For all of you out there who want to get better at time management, I wish I had a magic bullet for you. All I can offer are my best tips. They’ve worked for me, and perhaps they will for you as well.

1. Start with a daily plan.
Peter Bregman, author of the bestselling time management book 18 Minutes, advises to make a plan as the first thing to do when you begin your day. In this Forbes article, he discusses the power of setting priorities up front — before even checking email. How often do we get to our computer, power up email, and get lost in minutia? I’ve had clients so governed by email, that they go through their inbox at midnight to get a jump start before the morning. Email rules way too many of our waking hours.
By taking a strategic step back, you can set priorities for your day and determine what will make your precious time most rewarding. Part of this list-making is also attitude. Rather than feeling stressed by a list, try to feel empowered. Bregman puts it this way, decide what will make this day highly successful. What can you realistically accomplish that will further your goals and allow you to leave at the end of the day feeling like you’ve been productive and successful?”

2. Be ruthless.
We’re bombarded with requests, and saying no can be difficult. Especially when you want to do everything! For me, this is a by-product of doing work that I love. But the reality is that you can only do a limited amount of things well. As a friend says, the work is infinite but our time is finite.

As author Karen Burns advises in this list of time management advice, what’s important is not always urgent. And vice versa. She suggests being ruthless about what you take on, and then prioritizing from there. By finishing the most important tasks first, you’ll find yourself feeling less stressed and better able to focus on all the other items on your list.

3. Put it all in the calendar.
I can still remember the first time I put a fitness class on my Outlook calendar. It felt like I was cheating work in some way. Fast forward, and now everything goes on one calendar — from work, to workouts, to my kids’ activities. I’m one person, so I need one schedule. This is a strategy I swear by.

Bregman believes that what gets scheduled gets done. He says that making a list isn’t enough. You need to put those items on your calendar.

He cites studies where certain percentages of groups gave precise times and locations for accomplishing goals, while others did not. The results are striking: those who defined a where and a when had a far higher success rate than those who did not. For Bregman, it’s simple: “If you want to get something done, decide when and where you’re going to do it. Otherwise, take it off your list.”

4. Go off the grid and embrace waiting time.
Email and office interruptions are enemies of time management. You set out to accomplish a goal and a sudden barrage of messages makes you veer off that path, leaving you with even more things to do.

When you have important, thinking work to do, get away from your desk. Close your door, and sit at a table. If you can’t do that, go to a conference room, or a coffee shop, or even step outdoors. The point is to physically separate yourself from the distractions. Being away from your desk for an hour or so won’t cause you to miss much, and the efficiency you gain can be significant.

This is also why I’ve learned to embrace waiting time. I used to hate being stuck in a doctor’s office, or waiting for a lunch meeting, or for a conference call to start. Now I’m mindful of any work that requires thoughtful time, such as editing blogs, reviewing a proposal, or designing a program. When I’m away from the office, I stick work in my bag so I can use any downtime effectively. As a plus, the location change can spur creativity,

5. Take breaks.
I’ve written about this before, and it sounds contradictory – after all, you’ve got that big list of things to do. But studies show that taking short breaks can help many people clear their minds and get motivated. Your quick break could be anything from going out for lunch, to doing five minutes of calming exercises, to surfing the Internet. Steady work punctuated by a little bit of downtime may be the key to managing your energy and concentration, and thus productivity.

6. Let go of perfection.
I’ll admit that this one is hard for me. But the reality is that with so many demands on our time, we’re occasionally going to slip up, even with the best systems. We’ll have to say no to work we’d love to do, but can’t manage. One of the kindest things we can do is to forgive ourselves, then move on and try to learn from it.

When we have a system in place, we’ll catch 90% of what we need to do, and even more of the big stuff. After that, time management goes into the bucket of trying our best. I’ve found that when we do slip up, others are often more forgiving than we are to ourselves. After all, we’re all on the same roller coaster.

Do you have effective time management techniques to share? Comment here or @kristihedges.
Kristi Hedges is a leadership coach, speaker and author of Power of Presence: Unlock Your Potential to Influence and Engage Others. Find her at kristihedges.com and @kristihedges.
http://onforb.es/13l4zd6

3. Life is full of busy moments, stressful times, and time sensitive deadlines. In our world we are exposed to negativity through social media, the news, and judgmental behaviors. How we handle those moments can shape our character and leave a lasting effect on others. The question is: do we leave a negative or positive effect? When we are faced with multiple projects and demands from peers, teachers, or colleagues, it can effect our attitudes and mood swings. Within this chapter of developing a professional leader we must learn how to manage our time so that we can find the positives within the day. If we find the positives we can then effect our happiness and then effect others in a positive manner.
a. Watch the short Ted Talk regarding "The Happy Secret
to Better Work."

b. Answer the questions that are associated with the topic being discussed. This set of questions are more specific and detailed based on the topic being discussed by the speaker. It is very important to listen to the speech and perhaps go home and re-watch it again to grasp the concepts within this topic.

Time Management Q&A
Directions: Answer the following questions based on your opinion and the evidence in the TED Talks video by Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work. If you would like to view the video from home again to get a fresher or listen more closely, here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLJsdqxnZb0
Please answer:
1.      When the speaker discusses the concept of average, what are your initial thoughts on the idea? Is average good in our society? Do we only aspire to be average? Does our cultural and educational beliefs limit the possibilities of our youth?
2.      What is the speaker’s perspective on the concept of the news and worldly perspective? Is our external world the creator of our happiness?
3.      Describe the key concept the speaker was addresses to the school in New English with their “spirit/awareness/wellness” week. What is your thought on this concept in application to what we accomplish at RHS?
4.      What does your brain do when you find success, according to the speaker? Can a person actually get to a point of happiness due to this perspective within society? Explain.
5.      Based on the chart from the speech, describe the happiness advantage.
6.      What happens when we find “positive in the present?”
7.      What are the ways to train your brain to be more positive?

4. What are your Priorities?

5. Article: How to Start your Day & Set Yourself up for Success?
How many times you had days where you had a bad start in the morning and your whole day was just a train wreck?

I’m sure we all have days like this when a thing after another thing goes wrong.

Now, compare that to a day when you had a perfect start to your day and how everything goes smooth that day. Days like these let us make huge progress on our goals and live a purposeful life.

What if you can have a day like this everyday?

It’s possible with a little bit of effort. Now, we know that life is unpredictable and sometimes even a good start doesn’t guarantee a successful day. But, this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work on perfecting the beginning of our day.

Why We Need a Good Start to Our Days Anyways?

If you have ever came across a construction site, you probably have noticed time and energy that goes into putting together foundation for a building before layering walls and roof on top of it.

Most buildings require strong foundations because life and safety of any building mostly depends on its foundation with contributions from other factors.

Giving a strong start to your day is just like laying down a strong concrete based foundation before a house can be built upon it. If foundation goes wrong, life of a building will be in jeopardy. Similarly, a successful day is built upon a strong foundation - a solid start to a day.

Every spiritual teacher, philosopher or any other successful person in the history of mankind preached the need of having a good start to a day as it dictates rest of the day.

So, what does having a good start mean and how you can setup yourself for a successful day?

It means putting yourself into a position from where you can launch towards your goals with full energy and focus. It means you are in control of what’s happening around you especially during first few hours of your day. It means you are getting prepared both mentally and physically for what’s coming ahead during the day.

I am going to share strategies with you that can help you to build a strong foundation for your day. Some of these, I discovered through trial and error. Other, I have borrowed from successful people who lived throughout the human history.

Successful Day Start at Night

There’s a lot of debate on how much sleep we actually need. Some people recommend taking bare minimum and promote insomniac culture. Others recommend taking full eight hours of sleep.
I’m not a sleep doctor but one thing I learned that if you want to perform at your highest level, you need to sleep. Duration of sleep varies from person to person. You can easily figure that out for yourself through little bit of self experimentation.

Key Takeaway
You can’t expect to have a successful day when you are sleep deprived. Protect your asset by giving it the rest it requires. Only required. Not less not more.

Fix Yourself Before You Start Fixing Other Things

If you don’t have 10 minutes, you don’t have a life.
--Tony Robbins

Waking up a little bit early in the morning and having the opportunity to work on yourself before you start working on something or for someone else will prepare you to deal with opportunities and challenges throughout the day. This could be in a form of a prayer, meditation, reading, exercise etc.

It’s up to you to decide if you want to wake up early or not, but make sure you have few minutes dedicated only to yourself before you put yourself out there in the world for others.
Key Takeaway
Give yourself the time you deserve first thing in the morning. If not more, at least give yourself 10 minutes.
Make Your Bed
If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed
-- Admiral William H. McRaven - US Navy Seal

This might sound completely bizarre to you but this tiny task is super powerful. This task is a part of everyday routine of US navy seals and if not done right, makes them candidate for a punishment.

It’s small enough to accomplish under five minutes and big enough to give you a sense of accomplishment to start your day. You complete one thing and then another and then another.

Additionally, at the end of the day you can look forward to a bed that’s already made.

Key Takeaway
Take a minute to make your bed in the morning and start your day with an accomplishment.
Automate Your Routine and Make Less Decisions

Routines allow us to perform repeating tasks without thinking too much about them. You don’t want to wake up and then decide what should you do next. This should come automatically to you so you can preserve your willpower for more cognitive demanding tasks happening later in the day. To start, just create very simple routine and keep refining it until it gets to your desired level.
Three common examples to get you started:

Want to dress better for work without spending much time? Have all your clothes ironed and lined up for all work days.
Want to read more in the mornings? Have your reading topic defined a night before so you can just pick up a book and start reading.
Want to exercise before a workday begins? Have your workout clothes and workout plan ready a night before.

Key Takeaway
Try to bring as much automation as possible to your early morning tasks and preserve your willpower.

Break Fast at Home

It doesn’t matter if you wake up early or not. What matters most is where you eat your breakfast. Don’t be one of those people who come to work, drop of their stuff and go to get a coffee and end up spending 20 minutes.

Stop wasting your precious time at coffee shop line ups and use that time to make progress on your biggest tasks. It can take you anywhere between 10-20 to get breakfast and settle down. Why not use that 20 minutes to get work done and also stay healthy at the same time? 20 minutes of productivity in the morning can be equivalent 40 minutes in the afternoon.

Become an Architect of Your Day

How often do you take out few minutes in the morning to plan your day?

Most of us don’t. As David Allen, author of Getting Things Done says, we just try to put out fires as they arise.

As a result, we end up wasting too much of our precious time everyday due to bad planning. Now, you don’t need a 1000 lines long detailed plan. All you need is 5-10 minutes to think hard about what you need to accomplish on any given day. We can only do so much so why not focus on the right things instead of trying to do many things and end up achieving nothing.

Having no plan is like driving in an unknown city without google maps these days. Every new day is like an unknown city as it presents new opportunities and challenges.

Pro tip - If you work on your passion project/hobby by waking up early then do that first and do the planning for rest of the day when you get to your workspace.

Key Takeaway
Identify three or four big things you need to accomplish during the day. Anything that gets done in addition will be considered a bonus.

Start With MIT or Passion Project

MIT doesn't mean I am going to suggest you to start with Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It's acronym for a most important task

If you have a non work related passion project and you wake up early enough, then you should start your day with working on it. Making progress on your passion project will motivate and energize you to achieve more for rest of the day.

If you don’t have a side project, that’s fine too. Do you have a big and important task that you need to get done anytime soon? Or do you have an important and urgent task that you need to get done but you procrastinate to start it?

If yes, tackle it first thing in the morning when your willpower is at all-time high. By leveraging your willpower and mental energy, even 30-45 minutes on tasks like these every morning can help you make a huge progress.

If you don’t know what are the urgent and important tasks for you, then take out 10-15 minutes to decide that. It’s like setting up a roadmap for success. Don’t wait for another email in your inbox to decide what you are going to do next. Be in charge of your goals and destiny.

Pro Tip - Finding it difficult to find motivation to wake up early? Find a passion project/side hustle and work on it every morning before work day begins.
Key Takeaway
Begin your work day with either a passion project or MIT.

Control your Commute to work
If you have a some kind of commute to work, you can make effective use of this time by investing that in yourself. It could be either by consuming or producing.
Consuming means consuming valuable information via listening to personal development podcasts, audiobooks or spiritual sermons.
Producing means you produce something valuable such as personal relationships. Best way to do this is to call a friend or a family member who you don’t see very often because they live in different city/country and might be on different time zone too.
Key Takeaway
Listen to something valuable or call up a friend/family member during your commute to work.
What's Next?
I hope at this point you have decided to improve how you start your day. To make it easier for you, I have outlined step by step plan which you can use to do that.

Go to bed at a time where you can get at least 6-7 hours of sleep (8 is preferred)
Start waking up little bit earlier (10-15 minutes) than your standard wake up time.
Make your bed either upon waking up or after freshening up.
Use time you created by waking up early to work on yourself via meditation, reading or exercise.
Make some breakfast while listening to a good music. 6 Either eat breakfast at home or pack it to take it with you to work.
Use your time in commute to consume valuable information ( through podcasts or audiobooks) or to produce relationships (by calling a friend or a family member)
Once at your workspace, spend 10-15 minutes planning top 3-4 things you need to accomplish today
Pick your most important and urgent task as a first task to work on.
Don’t limit yourself to a mediocre day. A slight change to how you start your day can have large impact on the rest of your day and can turn it into a successful day.

Most people don’t take out few minutes to set up solid foundation for a successful day and accept mediocre days as a reality.
Will you?

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/DecidingToBeBetter/comments/6ofi9k/how_to_start_your_day_and_set_up_yourself_for/

6. In an effort to work on your time management skills, you will be asked to complete various tasks throughout the year. One of those tasks will be the teacher interview assignment. You are given a month to complete the work, but as history has shown us, waiting to the last minute is not a good idea. There are multiple parities involved, schedules to be balanced, and reflections to be completed. Balancing your time with this assignment is crucial and great practice to developing your skills.

a. Complete the Teacher Interview Assignment (pay attention to due dates that Morty gives you; write them down in your PSA/Planner) handout and follow the directions carefully.

7. I will leave you with one more thought. In learning the concepts of being a professional leader and developing your skills to be a positive person, what kind of person do you want to be in life?

Email Jill Mortensen, Activities Director, if you would like copies emailed to you. jmortensen@sjcoe.net