Notes and checklists, calendars and appointment books, project timetables and reminder systems – should managing time require so much… time? And once the training session is over, how many of these tools do we actually employ to effect in our working lives?

Workshop takes place this Wednesday, two places remaining.

Statistics tell a grim tale: most Time Management training is ineffective and therefore literally (and ironically) a waste of time.

So this workshop will take a radically different track.  The course will commence with deep and personal questions about how each of us views and values our time.

This perspective is often neglected in traditional time management courses in favour of scheduling and arranging techniques.  This is in keeping with the latest research, which shows that the ultimate time management device for busy managers is… themselves.

We will then focus on two proven techniques that yield maximum results for time-poor managers and business people.

The first is the revolutionary ‘80/20 Principle’ as radically interpreted by Richard Koch, self-styled ‘time revolutionary’ and serial entrepreneur.  The second is the ‘Quadrant 2’ system developed by Stephen Covey, author of the famous Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.  Between them, these ideas will radically alter how you view and use time – from a quantity to a quality perspective, from spending time to investing time.

This is a wide-ranging and stimulating course, designed to provide managers and professional people from all sectors with real-world tools for everyday use.

It will endow newcomers with an excellent overview of the best in Time Management techniques.  And it also offers fresh stimulation and focus for those with previous training in the subject.  No prior knowledge is assumed.

Venue: Queens University Belfast  -  Cost £210  -  Speaker: Dawn Baird

To book your place, please contact QUB CPD Short Course Programme on 028 9097 5260 or cpd@qub.ac.uk.

Image credit: foxypar4.

Notes and checklists, calendars and appointment books, project timetables and reminder systems – should managing time require so much… time? And once the training session is over, how many of these tools do we actually employ to effect in our working lives?

Statistics tell a grim tale: most Time Management training is ineffective and therefore literally (and ironically) a waste of time.

So this workshop will take a radically different track.  The course will commence with deep and personal questions about how each of us views and values our time.

This perspective is often neglected in traditional time management courses in favour of scheduling and arranging techniques.  This is in keeping with the latest research, which shows that the ultimate time management device for busy managers is… themselves.

We will then focus on two proven techniques that yield maximum results for time-poor managers and business people.

The first is the revolutionary ‘80/20 Principle’ as radically interpreted by Richard Koch, self-styled ‘time revolutionary’ and serial entrepreneur.  The second is the ‘Quadrant 2’ system developed by Stephen Covey, author of the famous Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.  Between them, these ideas will radically alter how you view and use time – from a quantity to a quality perspective, from spending time to investing time.

This is a wide-ranging and stimulating course, designed to provide managers and professional people from all sectors with real-world tools for everyday use.

It will endow newcomers with an excellent overview of the best in Time Management techniques.  And it also offers fresh stimulation and focus for those with previous training in the subject.  No prior knowledge is assumed.

Venue: Queens University Belfast  -  Cost £210  -  Speaker: Dawn Baird

To book your place, please contact QUB CPD Short Course Programme on 028 9097 5260 or cpd@qub.ac.uk.

Image credit: foxypar4.

On Wednesday 18 November 2009 I’m delivering a 1-day workshop as part of the Queen’s University Continuing Professional Development (CPD)  Short Coruse Programme…for the second time.  It’s name?  Radical Time Management!

Here’s the rundown.

“Notes and checklists, calendars and appointment books, project timetables and reminder systems – should managing time require so much… time? And once the training session is over, how many of these tools do we actually employ to effect in our working lives?  Statistics tell a grim tale: most Time Management training is ineffective and therefore literally (and ironically) a waste of time. So this workshop will take a radically different track. We will focus on two proven techniques that yield maximum results for time-poor managers and business people. The first is the revolutionary ‘80/20 Principle’; the second is the ‘Quadrant 2′ system developed by Stephen Covey. Between them, these ideas will radically alter how you view and use time – from a quantity to a quality perspective, from spending time to investing time.”

This was a popular course first time round with great feedback.  I felt compelled to design it after reading about and personally experimenting with a host of time management techniques myself which I found overly complex or (more usually) overly simplistic.  For instance, I remember reading a whole book by some time management guru whose basic big idea was the cunning use  of suspension files and file dividers!  As Dawn would say, pur-leese!

I’ve built this course around what I personally have found the most useful, and therefore what I’m keen to share with others.  This is a cut-the-crap, back-to-basics sort of course that sets time management in the larger framework of where you’re going with your life and how best to get there.

If you’ve time, see you there.  If you haven’t, definitely see you there!

To book a place, contact Marc Forte at the School of Education (Short Courses Programmes) on 028 9097 5260 or email cpd@qub.ac.uk.

Image credit: Orange42.

So the other day I got the chance to see the film that won those eight Oscars – Slumdog Millionaire.  Here’s how the Internet Movie Database describes the plot.

“A Mumbai teen who grew up in the slums, becomes a contestant on the Indian version of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” He is arrested under suspicion of cheating, and while being interrogated, events from his life history are shown which explain why he knows the answers.”

One of the things I liked about it was the way it started, which got me thinking from the outset.  The story begins with a multiple-choice question typed on the screen. “Jamal Malik is one question away from winning 20 million rupees,” it reads. “How did he do it? A) He cheated. B) He’s lucky. C) He’s a genius. D) It is written.”

Here is a fair selection of the different ways people imagine success can come in life.  You can take a short-cut.  You can win a lottery (or equivalent).  You can be smarter or better than everyone else (or at least the vast majority of people).  Or you can follow your destiny.

I’m a fan of short-cuts.  I don’t mean doing things that are unethical or illegal.  I mean what is sometimes called ‘lazy intelligence’.  Getting the same reward as others for less work, or more reward for the same work.  There is a way of planning this form of ‘cheating’, commonly called the Pareto principle, the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few and the principle of factor sparsity.  I’m a fan.  To find out more, read the books of Richard Koch.

Then there’s luck.  Believe in it or not, but it does play a part in success if you learn to use it right.  A better name for this phenomenon is serendipity, the accidental discovery of something good while looking for something else.  This has led to many of the great scientific discoveries in the fields of chemistry, pharmacology and astronomy.  Or, for the more psychologically minded, there is synchronicity, when two seemingly unrelated events come together in a meaningful way.  (Example.  I had just learned about synchronicity and was thinking about it.  Two days later I went into a second hand book shop.  I saw a book on synchronicity on the floor, having never seen one before.  True story.)

Intelligence is still a topic for hot debate.  However the research plays out in academia, I think I’m safe in saying that intelligence is a lot borader than it used to be.  The usual ‘Emotional Intelligence’ formula is success = IQ + EQ (emotional quotient).  For others, its left brain + right brain.  Choose Goleman or Howard Gardner, Pink or Ned Hermann; it doesn’t matter too much.  These are different ways of saying the same thing.  You can develop your intelligence in every way that matters.

And as for “It is written”, I’m still thinking about it.  I like the whole destiny thing, Dawn doesn’t.  I’ve been reading Joseph Campbell‘s stuff again recently.  Here’s a good quote that perhaps sheds some light on it.

“BILL MOYERS: Do you ever have the sense of… being helped by hidden hands?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: All the time. It is miraculous. I even have a superstition that has grown on me as a result of invisible hands coming all the time – namely, that if you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.”

“During the day we acquire information, but at night we sort that information.”

So, while you are sleeping, your brain is active. As a lover of sleep as well as a lover of learning, I like the sound of that!

It reminds me in a way of a story behind the famous 80/20 principle. I’ve written about it before. Here goes.

Once upon a time there was a German military chief called General von Manstein. Here are his (reputed) words of wisdom.

“There are only four types of officer. First, there are the lazy, stupid ones. Leave them alone, they do no harm… Second, there are the hard-working, intelligent ones. They make excellent staff officers, ensuring that every detail is properly considered. Third, there are the hard-working, stupid ones. These people are a menace and must be fired at once. They create irrelevant work for everybody. Finally, there are the intelligent, lazy ones. They are suited for the highest office.”

What’s the moral of this story? Spend more time in planning, delegation and saying ‘no’ than in doing. Focus on the few things that will yield maximum results rather than scattering your energies at everything that seems to need attention. This is the way to act whether you are an entrepreneur, a manager, or the Prime Minister.

So, Gordon, get some sleep and learn the power of lazy intelligence. It certainly did your predecessor no harm…