This presentation will provide a comprehensive introduction to different time management strategies and productivity hacks—including many proven approaches and techniques to make both your busy business and your private life way easier and more fun. Topics covered: time management best practices, e-mail and calendar management, to-do lists, Eisenhower Matrix, Getting Things Done, Pomodoro Technique, 80/20, time wasters, goal setting, The Miracle Morning, and more This presentation has been largely inspired by Randy Pausch's talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTugjssqOT0

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HOW TO
MANAGE
YOUR TIME
① Take control ② Maximize impact ③ Minimize distraction ④ Optimize your work ⑤ Optimize globally ⑥ Enjoy your life
Time Management 101

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Remember that
time is money.
— Ben Franklin

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Lack of time management Stress Burnout
HappinessMoneyHealth

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Take
control
① Take control

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Set goals
• Why am I doing this? What is the goal?
• How do I achieve this (most easily)?
• What happens if I chose not to do it?

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In preparing for
battle,[…]
plans are useless,
but planning is
indispensable.
— Dwight D. Eisenhower

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Make plans
• „Failing to plan is planning to fail“
• Plan each day, week, quarter and year
• Establish (fake) deadlines

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Use to-do lists
• Break things down into small steps
• Do the ugliest thing first
• Then work by priority

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Don’t over-engineer

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David Allen’s GTD
• Workflow control process to
clear your head: capture,
clarify, organize, reflect,
and engage
• Regain focus and vision,
starting from the bottom:
current actions, projects,
areas of responsibility,
yearly goals, life

13. Urgent
ImportantLessimportant
Less urgent
Do first Schedule
Delegate Don‘t do
The EISENHOWER matrix:
Is this task urgent and important?

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Maximize
impact
① Take control ② Maximize impact

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Work expands so
as to fill the time
available for its
completion.
—Cyril N. Parkinson

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Know your 80/20
• Critical few and the trivial many
• Good judgment comes from experience
• Experience comes from bad judgment

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Start with yourself
• Get to know yourself: Know your good
and bad times, keep time journals
• You don‘t find but make time
for important things to do
• Learn to say “No”: Everything you do
is an opportunity cost

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Get into the flow
• Optimal state of intrinsic motivation
through balancing challenge and skill
• Energized focus, full involvement, and
enjoyment in the process of the activity

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Remove roadblocks
• Identify what is missing, why you aren’t
enthusiastic or why you are afraid
• Sometimes all you have to do is ask!
• Never break a promise, but re-negotiate
• Stressed or depressed? Go for a run!

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Minimize
distraction
① Take control ② Maximize impact ③ Minimize distraction

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Procrastination
is the thief of time.
— Edward Young

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Prevent time waste
• Tired or unable to concentrate
• Messy desk and inability to find things
• Instead doing stuff that does not matter
(procrastination, w2ilfing)
• Late to appointments (miss beginning)
and being unprepared in meetings

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Reduce interruptions
• More than 5 interruptions (5 min each)
shoot an hour (incl. 5 min recovery)
• Reduce frequency and length of
interruptions
• Schedule time to work on your own
• Multi-tasking is for CPUs, not brains

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• Timer to break down work into intervals
(25 minutes of work, 5 minutes break)
• Timeboxing and frequent (active)
breaks to improve mental agility

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Keep a journal
• Monitor yourself in 15 minute
increments for more than 3 days
(best a week or two)
• 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?

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Optimize
your work
① Take control ② Maximize impact ③ Minimize distraction ④ Optimize your work

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Office
• Make your office comfortable for you,
and optionally comfortable for others
• Get a decent chair, seperate keyboard
and mouse (posture), another display
(productivity) and a headset (walk)
• Keep your desk clear (remove clutter)
and your to-do list and calendar close

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Paperwork
• Touch each piece of paper once
• Focus on one thing at a time

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E-mail
• Your inbox should not be your to-do list
• Only one (responsible) recipient,
optionally CC someone powerful
• Follow up after 48 hours
• Archive all, search over folders and tags

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Phone calls
• Stand to keep it short (never put feet
up)
• Start by announcing goals for the call
• Have something in view to do next,
then announce it („I have X waiting...“)

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Meetings
• Only attend when there is agenda,
and not when you are optional
• Lock the door, disallow PC and phones,
(best) have people stand
• 1 minute minutes (Who? What? When?)

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Optimize
globally
① Take control ② Maximize impact ③ Minimize distraction ④ Optimize your work ⑤ Optimize globally

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Leverage delegation
• Communicate (in writing), not dump:
Be polite and precise,
provide context and priority
• Give objectives, not procedures
• People rise to the challenge:
Delegate “until they complain”
and grant authority

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Apply sociology
• Gracefully end a successful meeting:
Stand up and stroll to the door,
complement/thank, shake hands
• Beware upward delegation:
Ignorance is your friend
• Reinforce behaviour you want repeated:
Say thank you and mean it

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Enjoy
your life
① Take control ② Maximize impact ③ Minimize distraction ④ Optimize your work ⑤ Optimize globally ⑥ Enjoy your life

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Take breaks
• Out of office message with return date
and (different specific) back-up
contacts
• Reading e-mail is not a vacation,
productivity requires rest

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Design your life
• Kill your TV
• Eat, sleep and exercise
• Turn money into time

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Miracle Morning
• Morning routine to form a habit of daily
personal development
• Life „SAVERS“:
Silence, affirmations, visualization,
exercise, reading, scribing

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If you can dream it,
you can do it.
— Walt Disney

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Vision Board
• Visually clarify and maintain focus on
life goals
• Can support daily affirmations („I enjoy
health“) and planning („I am about to
live my dream“)

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Stay on track
• Measure and evaluate your goals and
productivity
• Short term: Weekly or monthly
journal review
• Long term: Quarterly or yearly review
of vision board or bucket list

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Wrap-up
① Take control ② Maximize impact ③ Minimize distraction ④ Optimize your work ⑤ Optimize globally ⑥ Enjoy your life

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What you’ve learned
• Set goals, do planning and work with
priority-based to-do lists
• Leverage proven frameworks and tools
like Eisenhower, Pomodoro, calendar
• Think before doing, eliminate
interruptions and other time wastes
• Wisely use and do calls/meetings
• Long-term balance your work and life

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Now let‘s get going &
do the right things!
(But grab a beer first.)
Andreas Kwiatkowski
@kwiat