March Webmasters Meeting Details:

Date:                                     Friday, March 15th

Time:                                    2:00 PM – 3:00 PM (30 minutes of extra time if needed)

Location:                             Graduate Student Center (211-A W. Cameron Ave.)

Presenter(s):                     Alison Campbell, Office 365 Program Manager with ITS

Presentation Topic:

Productivity and Time Management Tips

Productivity and Time Management are topics that anyone with too much on their plate or no idea where to start can benefit from. We’ll talk about why you should care about managing time and being more productive with it, how to start when you don’t know where to start, and general tips to be a more productive and efficient human at work and elsewhere. Productivity and time management is all about  getting things done with efficiency, so you have more time and energy for the other parts of life.

  • Tools: Office 365 (Outlook, To-Do, Planner, OneNote)

Meeting Recap and Notes:

March 2019 Webmasters Meeting – Productivity and Time Management

Meeting Information

  • Date: 03/15/2019
  • Time: 2:00
  • Duration: 1 hour
  • Location: Graduate Student Center
  • Attendees: ~20
    • 4-5 First Timers

Presenter(s)

Notes – Presentation

  • Why
    • Values
      • Save Time
      • Reduce Stress
      • Increase Efficiency
      • Focus on important things
  • Steps
    • Specific Steps
      • Assess
      • Remove
      • Reassess
      • Organize
      • System
      • Observe System
      • Keep Improving
    • Example: Cluttered utility drawer
      • Assess
        • Identify what is in there, so you know what you are working with
      • Remove
        • Remove all items to know what is there
      • Reassess
        • What should be in there?
        • What should not?
      • Organizing
        • Organize space
      • System
        • Create a system for the organization
      • Observe the system
        • Verify the system works properly
        • Look for challenges with the system
      • Keep Improving
        • Make the process iterative
        • Continually improve the structure and organization
  • Productivity and time management
    • Notes
      • It’s subjective
      • What are your goals?
      • Focus on what is important
      • Be consistent
      • Create a habit
  • Productivity Tips
    • Notes
      • Inbox management
      • Everything in one place
      • Unsubscribe
      • Delete apps
      • Unfollow
    • We spend ~55 minutes a day looking for things (in general)
      • Designating places for things
    • Remove unnecessary things from your life
      • Wastes your time
    • Techniques
      • Mind sweep
      • Brain dump
      • “Later usually means never”
      • Undesirable #1
      • Smallest, easiest step
      • Decision fatigue
  • My ideas
    • Mark out time for lunch every day
    • Plan out on the previous day
  • David Allen
    • Expert on organization
    • TED Talks

Notes – Discussion

  • How would you say these principles apply to departmental processes and activities?
    • Yes
  • With trying to have conversations through various applications, how do you keep track of it all?
    • Remove some of the complexity
    • Set some organizational rules for how to have a conversation can be helpful
      • As a group, decide how you will communicate and have some process to ensure those rules are followed
    • Move content to the proper place
  • How do you organize your email and reduce the clutter? Where to put things for later reference?
    • Email rules, folders
    • Flagging/tagging of email messages
  • When working remotely, how do you keep on task?
    • Consistency with work behaviors
    • Put in breaks to give yourself a break and keep you on track
  • Any tips for not getting distracted by social media when it is part of your job?
    • Segment the interaction
    • Have times to checking and working on it
    • Be intentional about what you will be notified about
  • When you batch your time, how do you choose to structure it?
    • She has a good idea of how much time things take
    • Get a sense of common work so you know roughly how long things take
    • Plan ahead and establish what you will do to help