Delivering Time Management for IT Professionals: A Trainer's Manual: Tools, methods, and strategies for delivering effective time management training

By Dr. Jan Yager

In a world where IT is absolutely integral to the way business works and how it interacts with its customers, effective time management within IT is perhaps more important than in any other department. Effective and on-time delivery is essential for any IT team, and ensuring your team is able to plan and deliver results independently as well as being able to cooperate and work cohesively together is the foundation of an exceptional and productive organizational culture.

Business consultant and sociologist Dr. Jan Yager understands exactly what effective time management in IT can bring to a business. In this book she provides you with templates, tips, tools and tricks that you can use to deliver successful time management training for your team. From Agile organization to personal strategies for managing projects, this training manual will provide you with everything you and your team need to cultivate a culture where time is highly valued.

Time Management for IT Professionals: A Trainer’s Manual is designed to make the task of delivering training material easier for you. Featuring exercises and worksheets and plenty of tips that will help you to develop exceptional time management skills this book is indispensable for anyone who recognizes the value of time in a business.

Discover strategies for improving personal productivity and help your team tackle time management headaches such as procrastination with exercises and tasks to help improve personal planning and project management skills. Tackle the distractions of the modern workplace and help your team overcome issues such as perfectionism to ensure they are not only more productive but also happier and successful employees.

Along with goal setting and prioritization for personal success, explore organizational strategies and Agile methodologies with your team. Move from personal goal setting to strategic cohesion as you help your team complete the time management puzzle to see the broad picture – where both personal productivity and organizational efficiency come together.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Release date: Mar 23, 2015
• ISBN: 9781783000937

Book preview

Table of Contents

Delivering Time Management for IT Professionals: A Trainer's Manual

Credits

About the Author

Acknowledgments

About the Reviewers

Preface

Goals for this manual

Wasted time and getting more done

Your role as a time management trainer

Pre-training daily time log for a work day

What this book covers

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Piracy

Introduction

Getting ready to present this workshop

Working on your training and facilitation skills

Presentation skills basics

Understanding how adults learn in a nutshell

Pre-training time management self-assessment

Pre-training time management self-assessment/self-quiz

Introducing yourself to the attendees

What is your role? Manager? Trainer? Owner?

Housekeeping/ground rules – brainstorming and sharing without judgment

Using an ice breaker

Using an ice breaker to have the group become more comfortable working together

Explain how the training will proceed

Bibliography

Resources

Summary

1. Why Time Management Is More Important Than Ever

Introductory exercise

A definition of time

A definition of time management

Why time management is more essential than ever before

How time management relates to productivity

Managing time in the IT world

Consequences of poor time management

Applying the pros and cons of effective time management to yourself

Benefits of excellent time management

Time management is a series of skills that can be taught

Training agenda

Activities

Activity 1

Activity 2

Activity 3

Bibliography

Resources

Summary

2. How Efficient Are You? Self-Awareness of Your Body Clock and Work Style

Time management self-assessment

Time management self-assessment/self-quiz

Daily time log

Setting up a weekend time log

Reviewing and analyzing the time logs

How is your performance being evaluated?

Energy highs and lows

What is your preferred work style?

Work style self-quiz

Activities

Activity 1

Activity 2

Activity 3

Bibliography

Resources

Summary

3. Setting Goals and Prioritizing

What you need to know about goal setting

Setting a measurable goal

Goals should also be S.M.A.R.T.

Setting short- and long-term goals, and why it will make you more effective

Chapter 3/Module 3/Worksheet #1

Chapter 3/Module 3/Worksheet #2

Goal setting and the Agile Manifesto

Prioritizing goals for greater clarity and productivity

Pareto's 80/20 rule

Re-evaluating and setting new goals

Using a to-do list to prioritize goals

Chapter 3/Module 3/Worksheet #3

Using the ACTION! system

ACTION! strategy worksheet

Activities

Activity 1

Activity 2

Activity 3

Bibliography

Resources

Summary

4. Getting Organized

Organizing your day: the value of routine

Do you need to get more organized?

Evaluating your answers

Activity for training session

Causes of disorder and how you can overcome it

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Attention Deficit Trait (ADT)

Organizing principles to apply to your things

Organizing your desk

Clearing the clutter

Does clutter have a positive side?

Organizing your office or workspace

Creating a filing system that is organized

Creating a routine/repetitive tasks organizer

Making the most of commuting time

Business travel tips

Activities

Activity 1

Activity 2

Activity 3

Bibliography

Resources

Summary

5. Identifying and Overcoming the Top 15 Time Wasters

Procrastination

Possible causes

Potential consequences

Ways to overcome it

Perfectionism

Possible causes

Potential consequences

Ways to overcome it

Poor planning

Possible causes

Potential consequences

Ways to overcome it

Poor pacing

Possible causes

Potential consequences

Ways to overcome it

Failure to delegate

Possible causes

Potential consequences

Ways to overcome it

Doing too much at once

Possible causes

Potential consequences

Ways to overcome it

Complaining

Possible causes

Potential consequences

Ways to overcome it

E-mail addiction

Possible causes

Potential consequences

Ways to overcome e-mail addiction

Fear of success

Possible causes

Potential consequences

Ways to overcome it

Internet surfing

Possible causes

Potential consequences

Ways to overcome it

Fear of failure

Possible causes

Potential consequences

Ways to overcome it

Depression

Possible causes

Potential consequences

Ways to overcome it.

Over-valuing or under-valuing your worth

Possible causes

Potential consequences

Ways to overcome it

Jealousy

Possible causes

Potential consequences

Ways to overcome it

Blaming others

Possible causes

Potential consequences

Ways to overcome it

Activities

Activity 1

Activity 2

Activity 3

Bibliography

Resources

Summary

6. Dealing with Distractions, Interruptions, and Handling Change

Taking control of your time and your day

Improving your concentration and focus – understanding your brain!

Dealing with distractions

Evaluating your answers

Most typical reasons for distractions at work

Coping with the most common causes of work distractions

Limoncelli's mutual interruption shield approach

Cirillo's The Pomodoro Technique®

Simplicity helps memory

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Multitasking – does it work?

Handling change

Activities

Activity 1

Activity 2

Activity 3

Bibliography

Resources

Summary

7. Enhancing Your Verbal and Written Communication Skills for Efficiency

How body language impacts on how your words are perceived

How improved verbal and written communication skills will enhance your productivity by setting goals

Writing effective e-mails

For the e-mails that you write

For the e-mails you receive

Improving your listening skills

Making the most of meetings

Meeting frequency

Worksheet 1

Worksheet 2

Using your phone more efficiently

Communication time saver

Activities

Activity 1

Activity 2

Activity 3

Bibliography

Summary

8. Setting and Meeting Deadlines

Why do so many people dread deadlines?

Changing attitudes toward deadlines

Self - Quiz – deadline attitudes

Evaluating your answers

Deadlines as a useful time management tool

Guidelines for how to set realistic deadlines

Project management basics

Working with a project manager – is this something you should be delegating? If so, to whom?

Strategies if you agreed to an unrealistically quick deadline

If you and your staff practice effective time management, you are more likely to set and meet deadlines

Activities

Activity 1

Activity 2

Activity 3

Bibliography

Resources

Associations

Summary

9. Improving Your Work and Personal Relationships

Why work relationships matter

Getting along better with others at work

Dealing with conflict

Making time for connections at work

Tips for improving your business relationships

Collaborating for innovation and efficiency

Successful delegation

Should you be delegating?

Why delegating is a time saver

Selecting the right person to delegate to

How much supervision is just the right amount?

Dealing with the poor time management skills of those you work for or report to

Networking tips

Fostering better personal relationships

Activities

Activity 1

Activity 2

Activity 3

Bibliography

Resources

Networking groups

Summary

10. Cultivating a Work-Life Balance

Defining work-life balance

Why having a work-life balance is so important

Recognizing if your life is out of balance

The reality or myth of work-life balance

Creating your ideal workday

An ideal workday and evening worksheet #1

An ideal leisure day/evening worksheet #2

The hazards of being a workaholic

Self-Quiz: are you a workaholic?

Evaluating your answers

The top six ways to develop work-life balance

Why taking vacation time is key for your work and for your greater efficiency and balance

Making the most of your evenings and weekends

Activities

Activity 1

Activity 2

Activity 3

Bibliography

Resources

Summary

11. Closing the Training

Keeping up with technology

Time and culture considerations

Gender

Age

Cross-cultural issues

Top 12 time management ideas for IT professionals

Creating a work and personal self-improvement plan

Worksheet

Conducting your Q&A session

The final review of the training

Distributing and collecting the training evaluation

Workshop evaluation

One month later - follow-up

Activities

Activity 1

Activity 2

Activity 3

Bibliography

Resources

Summary

A. Appendix

Sample training agendas and additional forums

Sample agendas One-day time management training for IT Professionals

Two half-day time management training for IT professionals

Time management obstacle homework assignment

10-week course schedule for time management training for IT professionals

Two-day comprehensive time management training (retreat) for IT professionals (agenda)

90-minute time management training for IT professionals (GPS)

Daily time logs

Day one—workday time log

Day two—workday time log

Day one—weekend (leisure time) time log

Day two—weekend (leisure time) time log

Daily phone logs

Phone logs

Calls received (smart phone, mobile, or cell phone)

Calls received after work (at home)

Calls received (office landline)

Calls placed (office landline)

Text messages

Texts received (smart phone)

Texts placed

ACTION! plan

Confidential workshop evaluation

Glossary

Delivering Time Management for IT Professionals: A Trainer's Manual

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Delivering Time Management for IT Professionals: A Trainer's Manual

Copyright © 2015 Impackt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Impackt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Impackt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Impackt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: March 2015

Production Reference: 1130315

Published by Impackt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78300-092-0

www.Impacktpub.com

Credits

Author

Dr. Jan Yager

Reviewers

Aung Ko Ko

Keshav Kumar

Acquisition Editor

Richard Gall

Content Development Editor

Amey Varangaonkar

Copy Editors

Vivek Arora

Ryan Kochery

Project Coordinator

Venitha Cutinho

Proofreaders

Simran Bhogal

Maria Gould

Ameesha Green

Graphics

Abhinash Sahu

Production Coordinator

Melwyn Dsa

Cover Work

Simon Cardew

About the Author

Dr. Jan Yager is a business consultant and sociologist who has been researching and writing about time management since the early 1980s. She is the award-winning author of 40 books including five on time management, translated into 12 languages: Put More Time on Your Side (2014); Work Less, Do More: The 14-Day Productivity Makeover (2nd edition, 2012); 365 Daily Affirmations for Time Management (2011); Creative Time Management for the New Millennium (1999); and Creative Time Management (1984).

Dr. Yager, President of Timemasters.com, has taught at the college level, which includes teaching at the New York Institute of Technology, Penn State, Temple University, The New School, St. John's University, the University of Connecticut, and most recently at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY).

Often interviewed by print and broadcast media, her appearances have included such major talk shows as the Today Show, Good Morning America, the BBC, ABC Nightline, CBS Sunday Morning, CBS This Morning, CNN, as well as morning and evening news shows in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.

Some of Dr. Yager's other titles, translated into 32 languages, include additional business and relationship books, such as: Productive Relationships: 57 Strategies for Building Strong Business Connections; Grow Global; Who's That Sitting at My Desk? Workship, Friendship, or Foe?; Business Protocol; When Friendship Hurts; Friendshifts; Effective Business and Nonfiction Writing; 365 Daily Affirmations for Happiness; Road Signs on Life's Journey; 125 Ways to Meet the Love of Your Life; The Fast Track Guide to Speaking in Public; and Making Your Office Work For You. Dr. Yager's books are available in print, e-book, and/or audiobook formats. Follow her tweets on Twitter at @drjanyager.

Dr. Yager, a coach, professional speaker, and trainer, delivers seminars, workshops, and presentations about time management and other business topics, including work relationships, business writing, and business protocol, throughout the U.S. and internationally before corporations, associations, the public, and the government.

To book Dr. Yager for time management training, speaking, or coaching, contact your favorite lecture bureau or contact her directly: <[e-mail]>.

For more on Dr. Yager, or to read her blogs or excerpts from some of her writings, go to: http://www.drjanyager.com

Acknowledgments

This training manual has benefited from all the research and interviews I've conducted about time management and related topics over the years as well as especially to those interviews with IT professionals just for this project. A majority of the interviewees contacted me by responding to the various queries I posted in the free newsletter known as HARO (Help a Reporter Out), located at www.helpareporter.com. Others I contacted directly and asked them whether they were open to an interview, following up on a press release I had received or after reading a journal article, newspaper story, or discovering a book related to the various topics addressed in this training manual. I apologize in advance if anyone who contacted me, filled out my time management survey, or that I interviewed, has been unwittingly left out of this list. Also know that your time and effort are duly noted and appreciated whether or not you were quoted in the final training manual. In alphabetical order: Eugene Aronsky; Teresa Bell, CEO; Alex Bratton, Lextech Global Services; Karen Carrera, APR, TrizCom; David Chevenement, BeesApps; Jim Christian; Juana Craig Clark PMP; Leigh Erin Connealy, M.D.; Robert Cuneo; Chris Daney; Shawn Dickerson, AtTask; Matthew Edgar, QW Consulting; Diane Eschenbach; Patty Everette, CEO; Paul Fleming, Jr., Eliassen Group; Gayle Lynn Falkenthal, APR, Falcon Valley Group; Lauren Frazier, Merritt Group; Christian Gainsbrugh, lead developer, LearningCart; Shneur J. Garb; Alex Genadinik, Founder and CTO of Problemio .com; Travis Good, M.D.; Simon Dude Granner; Roei Haberman; Kathy Harris, Harris Allied; Mark Herschberg, CTO, Madison Logic; David Hurst, Weiser Mazars; Judith Hurwitz, President & CEO Hurwitz and associates; Katie Kapler, Coursehorse, Andrea Kleinman, LaForce + Stevens; Aung Ko Ko, Human Relations Development Manager, Premium Distribution; Nick Kubik, Roasted Pixel LLC; Tricia Lall, Adobe Connect; Tony Lopresti, CEO pennington Intellinote; Lindsey Madison, Co-Founder & Chief Experience Officer, SocialCentiv, formerly known as HipLogiq; Niclas Marie; Dana Marlowe, Accessibility Partners; Liam Martin, Time Doctor, Marci McKim; Cody McLain; Tim Montgomery; Oleg Moskalensky; Linda Muskin, Clarus Communication; Eric Munoz, Mutech Computer services; Dr.Bradley Nelson; Michelle Tennant Nicholson; John Orofino; Piera Palazzolo, Senior VP, Dale Carnegie Training; Nepal Patel, CIO Synergy; Joe Petreycik; Jennifer Popovic, Public Relations Manager, Robert Half Technology; Tanya Protasova, CEO, Skwibl; Jon Quigley; John Reed, Senior Executive Director of Robert Half; Troy Rhodes; Stewart Rogers; Adam Root, SocialCentiv; Professor Wolframs Scultz, Professor of Neuroscience, University of Cambridge; Anjuan Simmons; Joseph Steinberg, Green Armor Solutions; Jason Swett, Founder/CEO SnipSalon Software; Linda Swindling; John Trendler; Donna Troy; Michael Angelo Vien; Czarina Walker, Founder & CEO, InfiniEDGE Software; Dixie Welch, Sentinel Holdings LLC COO; Hussein Yahfoufi.

In addition to everyone I surveyed or interviewed for this book, I also want to thank the staff at Impackt Publishing and Packt Publishing in Birmingham, United Kingdom, including, in alphabetical order: Venitha Cutinho, Project Coordinator; Nick Falkowski, Publishing Manager; Richard Gall, Commissioning Editor; Heather Gopsill, Academic & Rights Manager; Krunal Rajawadha, Author Acquisition Executives; Vivek Arora and Ryan Kochery, Copy Editors; and Amey Varangaonkar, Content Development Editor.

About the Reviewers

Aung Ko Ko is a doctor who turned to management. Growing up inspired by characters from video games and cartoons, he incorporates the most unconventional of training methods in sessions he designs and delivers. He was awarded the Top Paper Prize on Human Resource Management by The Association of Business Executives, United Kingdom (ABE, UK) in June 2012 and is currently working his way to a Master's in Human Resources Management.

Keshav Kumar is a banker working as an agriculture officer at the Bank of India. He completed a BSc (Agri) from the University of Agricultural Sciences Dharwad Karnataka (2006-10). After that, he pursued a post graduate diploma, management in agriculture, from the National Academy of Agricultural Research Management, Hyderabad, in 2012. He worked as Executive Product and Market Development in Savannah Seeds Pvt. Ltd from February 2012 to September 2014.

Preface

How many employees or freelancers are telling you that they're dealing with one or more of these situations?

Working every minute of every day but still not getting enough done.

Answering e-mails at night and on weekends when they'd rather be relaxing or interacting with their family and friends.

Sitting in front of a computer screen for 8, 10 hours a day without any breaks, even for lunch.

Agreeing to an unrealistic deadline for a major, complex project and then scrambling to make that deadline even if it means going with little or no sleep for days at a time. Or having to reluctantly admit to needing more time and missing the original deadline by days, weeks, months, or even years.

The time management workshop you will be offering to your employees or freelancers will help them with these and numerous other time management-related challenges.

I've been studying time management since the early 1980s, when I researched and wrote my first book on this topic, published by Prentice-Hall under the title Creative Time Management. I conducted my first time management workshop through Sacred Heart University in Fairfield County, Connecticut, in 1984, and I've continued my research, speaking, coaching, and writing about time management ever since. (My other books on time management include: Put More Time on Your Side: How to Manage Your Life in a Digital World; Work Less, Do More: The 14-Day Productivity Makeover; 365 Daily Affirmations for Time Management; and Creative Time Management for a New Millennium.)

But this new book on time management, Workshop in a Box Time Management for IT Developers, is unique in two very fundamental ways:

It's a training manual, written for you, the trainer, to use as you conduct a workshop on time management for your staff.

It is specifically geared to those in the IT—information technology—field.

The fact that this training manual on time management is geared to IT professionals is significant. That's what sets this book apart from other time management books, including my own previous ones.

In order to write this new book, I of course relied on all the previous in-person and phone interviews, surveys, and observations that I have done over the years. But since I am not an IT professional myself, although I was a fulltime assistant professor for two years at a technology college, the New York Institute of Technology, to learn more about the time management concerns of IT professionals, I did interviews with a diverse group of men and women that I found by getting the word out that I was researching this new book, including using a free research tool known as HARO (Helpareporter.com). I heard back from men and women throughout the U.S. and as far away as India, the UK, France, and Singapore, working in various areas of IT, from project managers, CEOs, and SEO experts to software or website developers, programmers, and cyber security specialists, who wanted to share by e-mail, phone, or in-person. In addition to those respondents, I reached out to my LinkedIn network, which includes dozens of IT professionals around the world, as well as contacting those in the IT field whose blogs or books I discovered in researching this new book.

Secondly, this book is specifically written for you, the trainer. It is your manual. You are the reader of this manual, not those in your training program, although you will be photocopying or e-mailing materials from the manual for your attendees to fill in or print out and complete. But this is your guide and it is written with that focus in mind.

Who are the IT workers that you will be training? Of course only you know the answer to that question. There will be as many answers, and different workshop configurations or attendees, as there are trainers who are reading and using this manual. But, in general, this manual has been put together with the idea that you, the trainer, might be offering this time management training to anyone who has something to do with the storage, retrieval, manipulation, or transmission of information or data including:

Computer programmers

System administrators (SA)

Help desk personnel

Operators

Network administrators

Software development (software designers)

Software applications developers

Website designers

SEO (Search engine optimization)

Database managers

Cyber security/Data protection

Sales people

IT company entrepreneurs or CEOs

IT educators

Project managers

Teachers of IT

E-commerce workers

Managers of IT professionals

Application (app) developers

Print-to-e-book converters

Goals for this manual

Here are my goals for you for this manual:

In this Preface, to provide you with an overview about what you will be teaching your attendees about time management by summarizing what each of the chapters of this training manual cover, with each chapter tied to another recommended training module.

In the Introduction that follows, to make available a summary about training as well as some specific materials, such as four popular ice breakers to choose from, that will enable you to jump start your time management workshop teaching.

In Chapters 1 through 11, to offer you information about time management and how to improve productivity that will enable you to teach the topic covered in each chapter to your employees/workshop attendees with the focus specifically on IT professionals.

To give you worksheets that you can use in your workshop.

To offer exercises that you can ask your workshop attendees to carry out to reinforce or extend what they are learning in the workshop.

To conclude each module with a bibliography that relates to that topic or chapter, associated resources, activities, and a summary that highlights the key ideas that module covered.

To offer self-assessments that your attendees can complete before and immediately after the training, and one month later, to track where they are before the training, the instantaneous benefits of their participation in your workshop, and to discover what they believe they have retained at least one month later.

Wasted time and getting more done

For each person attending your workshop, and even for you, there may be another application of what time management improvements will make this focus on improved productivity worthwhile. But as I point out in my book, Put More Time on Your Side, here are the fundamental goals of better time management:

Making productive use of each and every moment at work, whether that's working on a project or even taking a break, for a few moments or for lunch, which is still a worthwhile use of your time and not a frivolous distraction.

Figuring out what is the right thing to be doing in the first place so someone will set the correct goal and then meet or exceed that goal by making achieving that goal his/her priority.

The good news is that time management is a skill that can be taught. This training manual will provide you with all the necessary information, worksheets, and other tools that you need to train IT professionals who take your workshop to take better control of how they manage their time including how they go about everyday tasks as well as complex projects. A more productive worker usually means that projects get done in a more efficient way which usually means a more successful company. Since one of the definitions of better time management is a balanced life, those who manage their time well are also usually happier and less stressed.

Your role as a time management trainer

This training manual is based on a One-Day all day, 8:30 to 5 PM, training program. Each of the eleven chapters are included in the one-day training, detailed in the Appendix where you will find an agenda that starts at 8:30 a.m., with registration and networking, and ending at 5 PM with a Q&A (question and answer); review; handouts; and the completion of a training evaluation.

You will also find an alternative two-day, half-day agenda in the Appendix, for those who prefer to break up the training into two days, whether those two days are done consecutively or a week apart.

A third possible approach to covering the key information in this training manual is the 10-week course agenda, which you will also find the Appendix. This approach will have you covering one chapter in one 45-minute, one-hour, 1-1/2 hour, or 2 hour session per chapter a week. (Chapter 11, Closing the Training, is the conclusion, is also covered in the 10th week.) A 4th 90-minute shortened agenda is in the Appendix and a 5th 2-day all-day agenda.

Although the training manual is written with the basic assumption behind this training that you will be doing the one-day, two half-day, or weekly training in person, that assumption may not be true. Today, more than ever before, training is taking place over the phone, or over the Internet, through Skype or through free or fee-based online seminar programs or systems.

What's important to you as the trainer is of course how you will be doing your training, e.g. in person versus over the phone or over the Internet, as it impacts on your training style.

Each method of delivery – in person, over the phone, or online – has its own challenges and benefits. What's key to you as the trainer, however, is that you make sure your attendees get the key ideas from each chapter that you want to share in your training despite the place or style of delivery.

You will see that every chapter/every training topic has anecdotes and examples with IT professionals,