The key to managing your time at work is how to deal with competing priorities

Time Management for Executives is all about getting more done in less time.

 

If your working world feels like it’s spinning out of control with extra meetings thrown in at short notice, with the added dynamic of being constantly connected with electronic devices, the pressure to deal with more and more material, in both paper and electronic form, you’re not alone.

 

The spinning plates of priorities you’re juggling may feel like they’re about to crash, but there is a way to get them in order and slow down the spin so it’s manageable.

When you need good solid content with no fluff, David Price is the coach you need. His style is direct, interactive and engaging, ensuring workshop attendees stay awake and leave with practical takeaway techniques to implement the same day.

 

As a leadership and presentation skills coach, meeting procedure sage, author, conference speaker and communications skills educator, David is able to explain complex ideas in simple and practical terms from an executive perspective.

 

David’s style of coaching shows you how to improve the speed of your work without compromising the quality.

David’s Executive Time Management course doesn’t fluff around. It gets straight to the hub of the problem.

The workshop focuses specifically and directly on the challenges your people face. It explores issues such as:

  • Mastering the setting of priorities for yourself and others
  • Establishing ways and means by which people send you information
  • Managing the flow of work across your desk – setting protocols in place so your staff give you the information in the format that works best for you
  • Handling the ever-increasing emails – what to do and how to take control
  • Personal organisation systems – what works for and what works against the modern executive
  • How to harness the power of the concept of effectiveness
  • Using “lists” at the executive level
  • Finding and keeping a balance between work and personal life;
  • Understanding in practical, ready-to-apply terms the concept of working smarter, not harder
  • How to make the most effective use of a PA or EA or staff assistance
  • Finding ways to streamline your workflow and make sure it’s working for you
  • How to get reports from your staff in a way that helps you, not hinders
  • Time saving techniques for reading the mountains of material
  • Stress – how to recognise the signs and how to deal with them
  • Decision making techniques to help you make good decisions quickly
  • How to clear your head of extra material or information
  • Overcoming the cluttered desk/cluttered work area syndrome
  • Organising your tasks folders quickly and efficiently (Trello, Monday.com etc) and how to harness their power
  • Working out what really is important and then using that information
  • Creating routines and sticking to them
  • Showing a good example so your staff become more productive as well
  • Generating ideas – ways to do this quickly, then delegate the action
  • Delegation! When to, how to, what to and why to

This program is practical, up-to-date and tailored to be directly relevant to your managers and executives.

Dealing with the meeting elephant in the room. Too many, too long, and sometimes unnecessary meetings

 

As a well-known meeting tragic and meetings expert (David loves a good meeting) there’s not much he doesn’t know about more effective and efficient meetings.

 

Don’t let habitual meetings trap you in a meeting time warp.

 

Here are David’s top meeting mantras, designed to reduce the time you spend in or on meetings….

  • Meetings should be held for two reasons only – to make a decision or to share information
  • Don’t meet unless there’s no alternative
  • Information sharing can be done electronically, you do not need to meet
  • If you must meet, only have the people who need to be there
  • Some regular meetings become a habit that’s hard to change
  • If you receive a meeting notice but there’s no agenda, be open to challenging the need to hold or attend these types of meetings
  • Have an agenda with the specific desired outcome for each item written next to that agenda item (unless it’s a one-item meeting or check-in meeting)
  • Eliminate ‘general business’ or ‘other business’
  • If it’s not on the agenda, don’t spend time discussing it
  • Think like a project manager
  • Look forward, not backwards
  • Focus on what needs to be done, NOT what has already been done
  • Set start and finish times for the meeting and stick to them
  • No exceptions
  • Don’t go “round the room” unless it’s a checking-in meeting
  • Halve your meeting frequency and halve the meeting duration
  • Set a timer and aim for 17, 29 or 37-minute meetings
  • Odd numbers work
  • Do not go over items already discussed (if someone arrives late)
  • Have a stand-up meeting as they’re always shorter
  • Start the meeting by reminding the group of the standard ground rules for your organisation (don’t say them as everyone should know them)
  • Then ask “what questions need to be answered at this meeting?” This provides focus
  • If it goes off-track, get it back on track quickly
  • Be decisive… make decisions… set actions… set deadlines

There’s a science behind the meeting cycle which is designed to get you in control of your meetings instead of them hijacking your time.

 

As an impartial chair for difficult meetings, David knows how to say what needs to be said so it reduces conflict and moves the meeting forward in an efficient time, whilst allowing open and fair discussion. These skills can be learnt in his ‘Chairing Meetings’ course.

 

For in-house workshops, call or email David Julian Price, the communications techniques expert.