Randy Pausch - Time Management
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTugjssqOT0
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/Randy/
This seminar is about:
- How to set goals
- How to avoid wasting time
- How to deal with a boss and how to delegate
- Specific skills and tools to recommend
- Stress and procrastination
- Think about how much you are worth an hour, and make work decisions
based on this information. (You cost about double your income to your
company.)
Bad time management = stress
Average employee wastes
two hours per day:
- Messy desk
- Can’t find things
- Miss appointments
- Unprepared for meetings
- Tired/unable to concentrate
1. Goals, Priorities and Planning
For every task, ask yourself:- Why am I doing this? What is the goal?
- Why will I succeed?
- What happens if I chose not to do it?
- Doing things right vs. doing the right things
- It's much more important to do the right things adequately, than doing the wrong things beautifully. It doesn't matter how well the underside of the banister is polished.
- 100 things to do in my life
The 80/20 Rule- Critical few and the trivial many
- Having the courage of your convictions
- Good judgment comes from experience
- Experience comes from bad judgment
Planning- Failing to plan is planning to fail
- Plan Each Day, Each Week, Each Semester
- You can always change your plan, but only once you have one!
TO DO Lists- Break things down into small steps
- Like a child cleaning his/her room
- Do the ugliest thing first
- If you have to eat a frog, don't spend time looking at it first.
Covey’s four-quadrant TODO: Important/Not Important, Due Soon/Not Due Soon
The most important principle to time management: Do the Important thing before the Due Soon thing.Paperwork- Clutter is death; it leads to thrashing. Keep desk clear: focus on one thing at a time
- Touch each piece of paper once
- Touch each piece of email once; your inbox is notyour TODO list
- Keep your email box clean. Even if you need to move the file and simply add it to your to-do list. Your Inbox is
NOT your to-do list. Your to-do list is sorted by importance, your inbox is not.
- File all of your papers in a storage system. This will save an enormous amount of time over loosing and looking for papers.
- Keep a calender of everywhere you need to be.
- Speakerphone is the best material possession you can buy to counter stress.
Telephone- Keep calls short; stand during call
- Start by announcing goals for the call
- Don’t put your feet up
- Have something in view to do next
- Get done: “I have students waiting”
- How to hang up on telemarketers
- Group calls: 11:30am and 4:30pm
- Have a tissue box on your desk
-
Have Thank You cards on your desk
Office Logistics- Make your office comfortable for you, and optionallycomfortable for others
- No soft comfortable chairs! I have folding chairs, some people cut off front legs
Scheduling Yourself- You don’t find time for important things, you make it by not doing something else.
- Everything you do is an opportunity cost
- Learn to say “No”
Gentle No’s- “I’ll do it if nobody else steps forward”or “I’ll be your deep fall back,”but you have to keep searching.
Everyone has Good and Bad Times- Find your creative/thinking time. Defend it ruthlessly, spend it alone, maybe at home.
- Find your dead time. This is the time when you aren't at your best. Schedule meetings, phone calls, and mundane stuff during it.
Interruptions- 6-9 minutes, 4-5 minute recovery – five interruptions shoots an hour
- You must reduce frequency and length of interruptions (turn phone calls into email)
- E-mail “ding”on new mail is an
- interruption -> TURN IT OFF!!
- Save things up so you interrupt people left.
Cutting Things Short- “I’m in the middle of something now…”
- Start with “I only have 5 minutes”–you can always extend this
- Stand up, stroll to the door, complement, thank, shake hands
- Clock-watching; on wall behind them
Time Journals- It’s amazing what you learn!
- Monitor yourself in 15 minute increments for between 3 days and two weeks.
- Update every ½hour: not at end of day
Using Time Journal Data- What doesn’t need to be done?
- What can someone else do?
- What can I do more efficiently?
- How am I wasting other people’s time?
Procrastination- “
Procrastination is the thief of time” -Edward Young,
Night Thoughts, 1742
People rationalize and say, "maybe if I wait, I won't have to do it!", or...
- “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion” -Parkinson’s Law, Cyril Parkinson, 1957
Avoiding Procrastination- Doing things at the last minute is much more expensive than just before the last minute
- If someone isn't available that day, your whole plan is ruined, ect.
- Deadlines are really important: establish them yourself!
Comfort Zones- Identify why you aren’t enthusiastic
- Fear of embarrassment because I won't do it well
- Fear of failure
- Sometimes all you have to do is ask, when it involves asking somebody for something.
Delegation- No one is an island
- You can accomplish a lot more with help
Delegation is not dumping- Grant authority with responsibility.
- Do the worst job yourself
- Treat your people well
- Staff and secretaries are your lifeline; they should be treated well!
Alf Weaver Taught Me give people a…- Specific thing to do
- Specific date/time
- Specific penalty
- Or reward
- …for THEM
Challenge People- People rise to the challenge: Delegate “until they complain”
- Most people are yearning for responsibility and want to be challenged.
- Communication Must Be Clear: “Get it in writing” –Judge Wapner
- Give objectives, not procedures
- Tell the relative importance of each task
Sociology- Beware upward delegation! People sometimes try to hand it back up.
- Reinforce behavior you want repeated
- Ignorance is your friend –I do not know how to run the photocopier or the fax machine
Meetings- Average executive: > 40% of time
- Lock the door, unplug the phone
- Maximum of 1 hour
- Prepare: there must be an agenda
- 1 minute minutes: at end of meeting. An efficient way to keep track of decisions made in a meeting: who is responsible for what by when?
Technology- Janitor’s comment
- Only use technology that’s worth it
Randy’s Magic E-Mail Tips- Save all of it, for searching
- If you want something done, only one recipient.
- If you really want something done, CC someone powerful.
- Nagging is okay after 48 hours
Care and Feeding of Bosses- Write things down
- When’s our next meeting?
- What’s my goal to have done by then?
- Who to turn to for help?
- Remember: bosses want results!
General Advice: Vacations- Phone callers should get two options:
- 1.If urgent, contact John Smith at 555-1212
- 2.Otherwise please call back June 1
- It’s not a vacation if you’re reading email.
Important Advice- Kill your television –28 hours/week
- Turn money into time –especially important for people with kids
- Eat and sleep and exercise. Above all else! If you are sleep-deprived, everything else falls apart.
General Advice- Never break a promise, but re-negotiate them if need be.
- If you haven’t got time to do it right, you don’t have time to do it wrong.
- Recognize that most things are pass/fail. There's a reason for the expression "good enough".
- Feedback loops: ask in confidence.
Recommended readings:- 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
- One Minute Manager
Action Items- Get a day-timer or PDA
- Put your TODO list in priorityorder
- Do a time journal, or count hours of TV
- Make a note in your day-timer to revisit this talk in 30 days. Ask “What have I changed?”
My Quick Takeaways: - Plan Each Day, Each Week, Each Semester (You can always change your plan, but only once you have one!)
- Other things being equal, do the Important thing before the Due-Soon thing.
- Keep your desk clean.
- Keep a To-Do list, sortable by priority.
- Keep your email box clean. Even if you need to move the file and simply add it to your to-do list.
- File all of your papers in a storage system.
- Keep a calender of everywhere you need to be.
- Keep Thank You cards on your desk.
- Turn email "ding" off.
- Track your time in a time journal.
- Never delete your email.