Time Management Training Programs

Article by Vince Peters

In the busy world of today, it is more and more important that individuals learn how to properly manage their times in order to maintain a healthy balance between work, personal lives, and family. It is beginning to feel as though there are just not enough hours in any day for all of the required jobs to get done, let alone the time to unwind for the sake of personal health. Fortunately, there are a lot of books and resources that have been developed in order to assist a person in handling their time accordingly. Here are some classes and resources I found while doing some research on the Internet, and what they offer in terms of time management hints.

The Seven Habit of Highly Effective People, a book by Stephen Covey. In this book, Covey offers some time management strategies as well as categorizing the different strategies available today. In another book, he also proposes a new category of fourth generation time management, which a difference in the matter of urgency and the importance of planning. The first generation is classified as go with the flow, and individuals practicing this method keep lists which are used as reminders, and any unaccomplished items are added to the list of the next day. The second generation plans and prepares for their needs, using appointment books, calendars, electronic devices. IT is about goal setting and preparation. The third generation spends time in prioritizing and preparing for different areas of time management.

Software: There are several software programs developed to keep track of time management that can be vital assistants to the small business owner and the large business employee alike. Track-It Light Time Tracking Software is available through Dovico. It is not expensive, and allows a variety of time entry, the ability to keep track of multiple projects, and does not take up a lot of your computer’s resources because of its light format. Responsive Time Logger Time Tracking Software has an interface which allows a user to jump from project to project and also allows you to manage your time from a Palm device.

Courses: There are hundreds of courses available to help train people to manage their time better, and they are available both online and through educational institutes as well as through government programs as might be found at an employment agency or retraining office. Many businesses will also offer their employees training sessions on utilizing time efficiently. These courses are a great opportunity to lessen the stress in your life and harmonize your experiences by helping you to more effectively balance the different areas of your life.

There are several different ways in which the individual can learn to better manage his or her time. For some, reading a book might be enough to set them on a stress free path where deadlines are always met and personal lives are perfectly balanced. It may be better for most individuals, however, to take advantage of as many different resources as possible.

About the Author

Vince Peters maintains a website full of time management tips.

Martial Arts Training – Is Your Procrastination Preventing You From Attaining Martial Arts Mastery?

It’s said that, only one student in 100 who begins martial arts training will earn his or her black belt. Only 1 in one hundred! And yet, there are many more who dream about, think about, and consider taking martial arts – but never do.

This article explores the self-limiting trait of procrastination – of putting things off, or making excuses as to why you can’t get started on the Path to Mastery right now. It also offers a little-known, and rarely used, secret of the truly successful – people who are just as prone to procrastination as you are.

After learning this secret, you will have a very powerful tool for success – not only in your martial arts training, but in everything you decide to do.

There has been much written about overcoming procrastination, and how to overcome it. The problem with many of these methods and ideas is that – they’re directed at people who put things off for one reason or another.

Procrastinators could be people who are:

Lazy
Afraid
Looking for a “best” time, or…
…any number of other reasons

The point is that, regardless of their intentions, dreams, or aspirations…

…they just put off taking action and therefor never seem to get anywhere.

And, those wanting to take up martial arts training are no different. They just don’t take action.

Does this sound familiar?

It does to me. Because I hear it from potential students every day. People who feel the pain and limiting effects of their procrastination, but want me to give them the motivation to take action. But…

…that’s not my job.

I work with action-takers, as does any good mentor, coach, or teacher.

However, as an educator, I know that you may not have the knowledge or tools for overcoming this debilitating trait. So, I’d like to offer a suggestion for moving yourself to be able to take action now in getting the martial arts training you need.

And, here it is. This secret has been used by centuries by some of the most successful people on the planet.

Ready?

The next time you feel like putting something off until tomorrow, next week, next year…whenever…

DON’T!

The secret, which is actually in the Ninja’s Mikkyo “secret knowledge,” is to use your tendency to procrastinate as a tool. The idea is to use procrastination against itself!

What I mean is simply this…

Since you have the tendency to procrastinate, then…

Procrastinate procrastinating!

In other words…

Put off, putting things off!

I could give you a whole bunch of ideas that are parroted in countless self-help books. But I won’t. That’s not my style.

The fact is, if you want to have the skills, abilities, strength, confidence, and power of a true warrior, then you have to get off your ass and take action.

No excuses. No reasons to justify why you “can’t.” No holding yourself up as a victim of circumstances.

So, the next time you “don’t feel like doing it right now”

The next time “you’ll get to it”

The next time you here yourself justifying your reasons for not being or having more…

Stop what you’re doing and take action. Because, whether by accident or design…

You are either EXACTLY what you want to be, or…

EXACTLY what you have ALLOWED yourself to become!

Are you serious about mastering the art of ninjutsu – about having the power, confidence, and control to handle any attacker – any situation?

Read my newest ninja training book, “Becoming The Master.” Get your free copy at: http://www.warrior-concepts-online.com/becoming-the-master-subsc.html

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Time Management : Does Training Work And Where Do We Start?

The term time management is somewhat of an anomaly because we can’t actually manage time!

Telling delegates this at the beginning of a time management course can produce some frowning faces. We quickly move on to suggest that what we can do though is to manage ourselves in relation to time, we can control how we use time and we can control how we spend it.

Time Management courses are attended by many different types of people and, in a sense, that’s another of the fun factors.

Learning about what other people do and how they manage their time is not only interesting, but also gives insight that is beneficial to all attendees.

Our company has welcomed all levels of organizational membership from clerical workers up to regional and top CEOs.

A critical issue in time management training is what can be taken away. We tell our delegates that we provide them with a toolbox of skills to enable them to become more productive, less stressed and happier at work.

However, research actually shows that many time management courses just don’t hit the mark. Why?

Often they are not designed within the principles of human learning. There may be little thought given to preparing for the course, analyzing how time is spent before attending and to how learning from the course can be effectively transferred back to the workplace.

Make sure that you consider all of these issues before signing up for a course. Once you have signed up, if your facilitator does as we do and asks you to carry out some pre-course work, make sure that you do.

I recently ran an in-house course where not one of the attendees did the pre-course time log. Not only does this say something about the company and those attending, but it means that they lost at least 20% of the value of the course.

If we do not know where our time goes, how can we learn to control it??!!

Today’s high paced offices are full of time-wasters. The phone is always ringing, bosses are always demanding meetings and there’s always the drop-in visitor who asks for five minutes of your time only to leave you feeling overwhelmed an hour later.

We all face different time-wasters and at times, we are our own culprits! Human traits such as ego and pride see us accepting too much work, always picking up the ‘phone and being unable to say “no”.

On the other hand, a sense of pride in our abilities also leads us, at times, to accept too many challenges.

Economic and job pressures result in us spending more and more time at work but often not achieving any more than we would in a “regular” 8 hour day.

What’s happening? These factors are leading us to procrastinate. There’s so much to do that we feel overwhelmed. We make deals with ourselves such as have a coffee first then start, or do the easier task first. The problem is, that critical but oh so big project gets put back time and time again! This just adds to the stress and pressure.

In many industries, workers spend a lot of their time “fighting-fires”. This is where everything is classified as urgent and important. Ideally, such people need to find a mechanism to transform and spend more time working on projects which are still important, but not urgent. Ultimately, that’s where effective management of time comes in.

Planning and self-examination helps you know what you are capable of, when your most productive energy cycles are and what issues tend to bog you down.

Learning to overcome procrastination is critical, as is learning to trust your direct-reports and allowing yourself to delegate more work – remembering to delegate responsibility as well as the work itself!

Once you have mastered that, you need to go on to set smart* goals and learn how to plan your work and projects and build contingencies into these plans.

As you begin to experience more control over your time, your mind will start to free-up and you’ll think more clearly and embrace more passion for your work. To do this effectively, you’ll also need to clear up your workspace, keep things neat and tidy and ensure adequate light (preferably natural) and optimal temperatures in the office.

Then once you’ve spent time working on your own time management, you’ll need to look to doing the same in others. Not just making sure they go on the same course as you, but also respecting their styles and preferences and not interrupting them during their most productive time periods.

So if we can learn to manage time effectively in the office, can we do the same if we have to travel a lot for work? Of course! The trick is learning to always have something with you that you can be working on.

So, for example after you’ve checked-in for your flight, you may have an hour or two to spare. Use this time for work that won’t require high levels of concentration such as replying to emails or drawing up lose business plans.

When you are visiting a client and he makes you wait in the conference room for 5 minutes, you can be working on some new sales ideas or reading the latest industry news.

So, it’s all about always having something that will ultimately need to be done ready to do in whatever situation you are in and in that case, when you are made to wait, you don’t have to feel unhappy about it, rather in full control.

In summary, research shows us that time management (or managing ourselves in relation to time) does work as long as we are committed to this and start out well from step one.

Thinking that a one or two day course in time management will produce lasting results is erroneous. However, examining the current workplace, how time is spent and what changes can be made and being willing and able to make those changes as well as being committed to lasting time management success is what will produce consistent and long-term results.

Those who report mastery of their time not only report being happier and more productive in less time, but they also report increased financial success.

Like anything that produces a good return, an initial respectable investment is the key.

*SMART goals are those which are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bounded

Further reading: Does time management training work? An evaluation. Peter Green and Denise Skinner. International Journal of Training & Development, Volume 9, Issue 2, pages 124-139.

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Achieve More From Your Day Through Time Management Training

We can do nothing to increase time and we must always remember that time is one of the few things in modern life that is not recyclable. However time management training  and getting good at time management skills can provide you with the feeling of achieving a certain amount of work at the end of each day, as opposed to going home from work and feeling although you have worked long hours you have achieved nothing during the day.

Good time management skills is about many things, prioritising,managing interruptions, avoiding procrastination etc. But time management really starts with having a plan of action which clearly states the tasks you are hoping to complete on any given day—other wise known as a to do list.

I am not a fan per se of to do lists however I do believe you need an action list outlining the actions you are going to take to achieve your tasks on a daily basis. Time management training will always speak of the importance of planning your work and working your plan

I have set out below some key points for getting into the habit of writing a list and managing the list.

Before writing a list as part of your time management skills, you should always check your diary for that day, as if you use effective diary control to make appointments with yourself for the tasks you need to carry out, there will always be daily entries in the diary.

Remember the 80/20 principle 80% of things on your time management list will produce 20% of the results and 20% of the list will produce 80% of the results. A key element of time management training is to always remember this rule and work on the key areas that produce the important results.

Get yourself in to the habit of writing a time management list every day, try to write the list at the same time daily so as it forms a habit. Some will do the time management list first thing in the morning whilst others will use time management skills to prepare the list the night before, just before you leave work—leaving it on your desk for as soon as you arrive the following morning.

Time management training courses will tell you that the important thing is to get into the habit of writing a list each day on one piece of paper (not a thousand yellow stickies all over your pc)The list should take no more than 10 minutes maximum to compile. Time management is not about having loads of things on your list, it is about having the most important things on your list. Time management skill training will teach you it is not the amount of items on the list but the importance of the items.

You must allow time for emergency changes in your daily schedule. No matter how effective you are at training yourself in the skills of time management, there will always be the possibility of unscheduled important tasks popping up or interruptions etc.

Be realistic with your time management lists and try your best to allocate each task a start time and finish time. Group similar tasks together for momentum and remember to carry forward items from one day to the other (only if they are important and must be actioned.)

Even think of rewarding yourself after each task has been done and crossed off the time management list. Remember the key saying in effective time management skills training:

Is what I am dong now helping me to achieve my objective?

Time Management Training is Now More Important Than Ever

If we think the last few years have been difficult in terms of time management and using our time management skills to try and create more time and reduce stress levels— we haven’t seen nothing yet!

Time management training will be a vital component of everyones personal development over the next number of years. For the past few years (in the good times) we have all had bosses, family members, subordinates, colleagues and friends competing for our time.

But just think back, for those of you old enough to remember the last recession, when words like downsizing or rightsizing were at the forefront of every newspaper. The lucky ones kept their jobs and the not so lucky lost their jobs.

Well the reality was that those that kept their jobs may not have been so lucky for as well as keeping their own jobs they also had to inherit the jobs of colleagues who were made redundant. More work, longer hours, more responsibility but yet no additional time.

Those who had been on time management courses and learned the time management skills of prioritising, delegating, dealing with interruptions and so on, were obviously better positioned to manage new tasks, but those without the adequate time management training were those who found it more difficult, and often felt under pressure.

Now let’s look at the picture today, already we believe there are not enough hours in the day to effectively manage our time so as we can achieve what we need to and want to. What is going to happen over the next few years when you are one of the lucky ones who has kept their job, but has to cover for those who have lost their jobs—will you really be the lucky one, having to work longer hours take on more tasks and probably see less and less of the family that are important to you?

Well the reality is we need to be given the skills to manage time effectively over the next number of years we need to be trained in time management skills and effective organisational skills, we need to learn how to delegate effectively, how to prioritise our tasks, how to know the difference between important and urgent. If not we will not be the lucky ones for keeping our jobs but the unlucky ones.

Now more than ever we need to have effective time management training and attend effective time management training courses to learn the necessary skills to survive the next few years, just in case we are the lucky ones.

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