Time Management Training Games - Dragos v. Iliescu

Time Management Training Games Dragoş V. Iliescu www.training-activities.info

Copyright © 2012 by Dragoş V. Iliescu The materials that appear in this book may be reproduced for training activities, as long as the following statement appears on all reproductions: “Reproduced from Time Management Training Games, by Dragoş V. Iliescu.” This permission statement is limited to reproduction of materials for educational or training events. Systematic or large-scale reproduction or distribution may be carried out only with prior written permission from the author. Disclaimer The information in this book is based on the author’s knowledge, opinion and experience. The publisher and author will not be held liable for the use or misuse of the information contained herein.

Contents About This Book How to Use This Book A. WHAT IS TIME MANAGEMENT? 1. Draw Your Clock 2. Five Minutes’ Worth 3. It’ll Only Take a Minute 4. Time Management Self-Assessment B. ESTABLISHING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES 5. Telling Goals from Objectives 6. Turning Goals into Objectives 7. What You Want and What You Get C. SETTING PRIORITIES 8. The Shopping List 9. I Bet on Time 10. The Multitasking Myth 11. Pareto’s Room 12. Sequence of Events 13. I Need 14. The Estimating Game 15. Seems to Be in Order D. OVERCOMING TIME MANAGEMENT OBSTACLES 16. Clean Up This Mess! 17. I’m In a Meeting 18. Clustering Time 19. I Politely Refuse

20. Delegate It 21. Wasting Time 22. You’ve Got Mail 23. Email Time 24. The Shrinking Calendar 25. You Can Have My Procrastination

About This Book A lot has been written on time management, and recent economic developments have made it an increasingly important topic, as organizations strive to increase productivity and individuals try to keep up with all the tasks they have to perform at work and at home. Time management training has been around for decades, providing the knowledge and skills people need to handle the precious resource called “time”. However, time is a special kind of resource, as it can’t be bought, borrowed or bartered. New ideas and thoughts on the topic still emerge today, but the main idea has remained the same: time management isn’t really about managing time. It’s about managing your thoughts and behavior as they relate to the tasks you have to perform and to what you wish to achieve. This book is built around the key concepts of time management, and it provides trainers and managers with a set of experiential activities aimed at providing solutions for most time management issues. The book is divided into four sections, each dedicated to a different topic: understanding the time management concept, establishing goals and objectives, setting priorities and overcoming time management obstacles. Each section contains several activities addressing that respective topic and all sections are disposed in a logical sequence, so that the book can also be used as a basis for the design of a standalone training program. In the first chapter, a better understanding of the time management concept is targeted, and it contains four activities meant to help participants understand the concept of time and how they relate to it. The second chapter addresses goals and objectives. The activities enclosed in this chapter invite participants to review their own goals and objectives and to understand the difference between the two concepts. The third chapter offers a wide range of activities that help with increasing efficiency in setting priorities, while the fourth chapter provides various activities, games and exercises that help people in dealing with obstacles that affect the way they handle their time.

How to Use This Book For the sake of effectiveness, the description of each training game and activity enclosed in this book is designed to be brief and explicit. You will find out the purpose of the activity at the very beginning of its description, so you can choose which ones to use, according to the specific training needs you wish to address. You will then find suggestions concerning the recommended number of participants, an estimation on the time needed (which might vary according to the number of participants for some activities) and an account of materials you will need to make each activity work. This is followed by a detailed description of the actions you will need to take, broken down into specific steps for easy comprehension. The key to the success of each activity lies in the debriefing questions. You can find suggested questions for debriefing for each activity, which you can use, modify or improve as you see fit. At the end, any difficulties that you might encounter in successfully conducting the training activities are anticipated in the “tips on making this activity go well” section. Some of the activities are provided with handouts, which you can adapt as best suited to your needs. You can also download the ready-to-use handout set from www.trainingactivities.info.

A. WHAT IS TIME MANAGEMENT?

1. Draw Your Clock Purpose: To help participants realize how they relate to the concept of time. Participants: 4 – 20 Time Required: 15 – 20 minutes Materials Needed: Flipchart, pieces of paper and markers for each participant. Steps to Follow: a) Ask each participant to draw their ideal clock on a piece of paper. If they could change the way time is measured by their drawing, how would their ideal clock look like? b) After everyone is finished, ask each of them to explain their drawing. Hold up the drawing so the others can see it while the author of the drawing is describing it. c) After each participant has finished his or her description, note every idea relating to time devised by the participants on the flipchart. d) Read out the list you have written down on the flipchart. Find the common points and highlight them. Questions for Debriefing: · What differences can you find between how you see time and how you would like time to be? · Why do you think these differences exist? · What can you do to bring the way you perceive time closer to how you would like it to be? Tips on Making This Activity Go Well: · Some people might be reluctant to participate in this activity, on account of the fact that they can’t draw. You can prevent this by stating, while instructing them on what they have to do, that they don’t need to be master artists and that any outcome is just fine as long as it illustrates their opinion.

· If you are using this exercise as an opener for a time management training session, you can tell participants that the purpose of this training is to help bring out more similarities between how time really is and how they’d like it to be. This could be an early motivation for them to focus their attention on what you have to tell them.

2. Five Minutes’ Worth Purpose: To help participants understand the value of time well spent. Participants: 4 – 16 Time Required: 10 - 15 minutes Materials Needed: None. Steps to Follow: a) During the time management training session, surprise your audience by telling them that you are giving them a five minute interval in which they can do whatever they wish. Point out that this is not a scheduled break and that they will still get their coffee or lunch breaks as planned. Also tell them that, whatever they decide to do, they have to be back in their places when the five minutes are up. b) Leave the room. c) Return after five minutes. d) Ask each participant what he or she did with the five minutes. After they answer, ask them what they got out of it. Find out if they think of the five minute interval as time well spent. e) After everyone is finished presenting what they did and what they got out of it, ask everybody to vote who made the most of their five minutes. Questions for Debriefing: · If you were to do this exercise over again, would you do anything differently? · What would you do differently? · What would you have to do to make sure that you spend your time wisely? Tips on Making This Activity Go Well: · Set some physical boundaries if you feel your participants might wander off and not make it back in time after the five minutes are up. For example, you can say that they may not leave the premises or the floor of the building.

3. It’ll Only Take a Minute Purpose: To help participants understand the importance of managing their time. Participants: 4 – 16 Time Required: 5 – 10 minutes Materials Needed: Flipchart, pieces of paper and pens for each participant, stopwatch. Steps to Follow: a) Hand a white piece of paper out to each participant. Make sure they also have something to write with. b) Ask them to write down all the things they can think of that could happen over a minute. Set the timeframe for completing the list to one minute. c) After their minute is up, ask each of them to share their lists. Questions for debriefing: · How often do you break your time down into minutes, when working on tasks? · How often do you feel like you waste minutes away? · How can you determine the real value of a minute? Tips on making this activity go well: · It sometimes takes more than one minute to get people started on writing their list. You can prevent that by giving them a head start and telling them that they can think ahead about what to write and that they will only be timed from the moment they start writing.

4. Time Management Self-Assessment Purpose: To make participants aware of how well they manage their time. Participants: 4 – 20 Time Required: 15 - 20 minutes Materials Needed: Handout 5.1, pens. Steps to Follow: a) Inform participants that they can self-assess their time management skills by filling out a questionnaire. Tell them that the questionnaire has three sections, each covering a crucial area of time management: determining goals and objectives, setting priorities and overcoming time obstacles. After filling out the questionnaire, they should have a clear idea which of these topics is of more interest to them and where they need improvement. b) Hand each of them a copy of the test (handout 5.1). c) After they’ve filled out the questionnaire, ask them to calculate the average score for each of the sections. Tell them that they can share their results with the group by reading them out loud, if they wish. Questions for Debriefing: · What do these results tell you? · What are the differences between what you thought about your time management skills and those revealed by filling out this questionnaire? · What are you going to do about these results? Tips on Making This Activity Go Well: · In order to avoid people’s reticence towards giving their completely honest opinion when filling out the form, make sure you tell them this is not an evaluation, but a self-assessment and they don’t need to worry about getting a high score. Handout 4.1 Please evaluate the following statements regarding the way you spend your time, on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 means “completely false” and 10 means “completely true”: I. Goals and Objectives 1) I get the results I aim for out of the way I spend my time.

2) I frequently set objectives to determine what activities I should undertake. 3) I finish all my tasks during working hours, without having to work overtime. 4) When I start working on something, I take into account what I will accomplish. 5) I know what I want to achieve in life, both on a professional and on a personal level. II. Setting Priorities 1) I spend most of my time on tasks I find important. 2) I consult my manager before I set my priorities. 3) I am aware of the importance of each task I perform. 4) I write a daily to-do list. 5) I analyze the importance of each task I have to perform. III. Obstacles to Managing Time 1) I have no trouble reading and answering important email. 2) I finish important tasks on time, even if I don’t enjoy doing them. 3) I succeed in remaining focused on important tasks. 4) My desk is always clean and neat. 5) I attend efficient meetings.

B. ESTABLISHING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

5. Telling Goals from Objectives Purpose: To help participants understand the difference between goals and objectives. Participants: 4 – 16 Time Required: 15 - 20 minutes Materials Needed: Handout 6.1, pens, flipchart. Steps to Follow: a) Divide the group into teams of four. b) Pass a copy of handout 6.1 to each team. c) Tell them that they have to work together and decide which items on the list are formulated as goals and which are objectives. They have ten minutes to decide. d) While they work on their task, write the numbers from one to ten vertically on the left side of the flipchart page. e) When the ten minutes are up, ask a member of each team to read their list. f) Write the answer they gave next to the number on the flipchart corresponding to each statement, by marking it with a “G” for goal or an “O” for objective. Do this for the every team’s answers. g) Look at the flipchart to see where the answers are not all the same for all teams. Bring those statements up for discussion and ask each team what made them give that answer. Hear the arguments from all teams involved and let the group come to an agreement. Do this again for each statement where the teams gave different answers. Questions for Debriefing: · How do you tell your own goals from your objectives? · Do you have more goals or more objectives? · What helps you tell the difference between a goal and an objective? Tips on Making This Activity Go Well: · In the unlikely case that you’ll have all teams agreeing on all of the statements, choose three of them randomly and ask the group why they reached that conclusion. Handout 5.1

Goals are: · general directions · unclear · more emotional than rational Objectives are: · descriptive · clear and specific · more rational than emotional · Write down, for each of the following statements, whether they are formulated as goals or as objectives: 1. Being happy. 2. Losing 10 pounds. 3. Getting a sales report done. 4. Spending more time with the family. 5. Getting a promotion. 6. Painting the garage door white. 7. Buying a new car. 8. Writing a book. 9. Reducing the time spent at work from 8 to 6 hours a day by next December. 10. Going on a vacation to Hawaii by the end of the year.

6. Turning Goals into Objectives Purpose: To help participants understand the connection between goals and objectives. Participants: 4 – 20 Time Required: 15 - 20 minutes Materials Needed: Handout 7.1, pens, flipchart. Steps to Follow: a) Give each participant a copy of handout 7.1. Tell them that it is a list of goals. b) Ask them to write down at least three specific objectives that could make each of the goals on the list happen. You can provide the following example for better understanding: If your goal is to have a nice house, the objectives that would lead to that could be signing up for accounts on five recruiting websites, applying for a job that pays at least 80.000 $ a year and contacting a real estate agent in the area where you would like to live. c) Tell them they have 10 minutes to write down the objectives relating the goals. d) When the ten minutes are up, ask each of them to read the objectives they’ve written down out loud. Questions for Debriefing: · How do objectives relate to goals? · How have you set the objectives for your own goals? · How many objectives do you think you’ll need to set for each of your long-term goals? Tips on Making This Activity Go Well: · Make sure you walk around the room while the participants are writing down the objectives, so as to check if any of them are having difficulties performing the task. If you see people struggling, ask them how you can help, provide further examples or answer any questions they might have. Handout 6.1 Write down three objectives that relate to each of the goals below: 1. Living in a big house. 2. Being healthy. 3. Seeing the world.

4. Being a respected member of my community. 5. Driving a fast car.

7. What You Want and What You Get Purpose: To help participants realize the difference between how they’d like to spend their time and how they actually spend it. Participants: 4 – 20 Time Required: 15 - 20 minutes Materials Needed: Pieces of paper, pens. Steps to Follow: a) Hand out a white piece of paper to each participant. b) Tell them to draw a line on the long side of the page, dividing it in two equal parts. c) Ask them to write down five activities they would most like to spend their time on, in the order of their importance, on the left side of the page. d) After that, ask them to write down their most time-consuming activities, on the right side of the page. e) Ask them to check how many items in the column on the left are also present in the column on the right of the page. Questions for Debriefing: · What does this list tell you? · How can you have more of the things you like spending time on move over to the column on the right? · What would happen if you were to spend more of your time on activities you enjoy doing? Tips on Making This Activity Go Well: · To make the description of this exercise more clear, you can tell them to only write down recurrent activities, such as washing the dishes, instead of one-shot activities, such as going on vacation to Paris.

C. SETTING PRIORITIES

8. The Shopping List Purpose: To help participants understand the difference between wasting time and investing it. Participants: 4 – 20 Time Required: 15 - 20 minutes Materials Needed: Handout 9.1, pens. Steps to Follow: a) Hold a small lecture telling participants that they only get 24 hours in one day. Out of that, they spend 8 hours working and should spend around 8 hours sleeping. That means there are 8 more hours (or 480 minutes) left, which they can use as they please. b) Tell them that they will receive an unusual catalogue, where they can purchase various products. They don’t have to pay with money, though. They only have to use the product for a certain amount of time daily, from Monday to Friday, for six months. Since they only have 480 minutes to spare, tell them they can’t get all the stuff on the list, only enough to fill their 480 minutes. c) Pass a copy of handout 9.1 to each participant and tell them to choose the items on the list, so that the total sum of minutes adds up to 480 minutes or less. d) When they’re done, ask each of them to explain their choices. Questions for debriefing: · What made you chose those products? · What will you get out of the products you chose? · What do you think is the difference between wasting time and investing time into something? Tips on making this activity go well: · When you give them the handout, you can provide a few examples on what the “purchase” actually means. For example, if you want to get the cell phone, you have to talk to someone at least 30 minutes a day. If you want to get the diving equipment, then you have to go diving for two hours every day, and so forth. Handout 8.1 Laptop: 120 min

HD TV: 120 min Blender: 30 min Bicycle: 60 min Climbing Equipment: 120 min Diving Equipment: 120 min Workout Device: 60 min Coffee Filter: 30 min Rocking Chair: 30 min Cell Phone: 30 min Tablet: 60 min Media Player: 90 min Grill: 60 min E-book Reader: 120 min Oven: 60 min Workbench: 90 min Game Console: 120 min Vacuum Cleaner: 30 min

9. I Bet on Time Purpose: To get participants to understand the value of time put into high priority tasks. Participants: 4 – 16 Time Required: 45 minutes Materials Needed: Handouts 9.1, 9.2 and 9.3, 50 poker chip set, pens. Steps to Follow: a) Tell participants that, since time is money, they are going to make a time bet. b) Give them handout 9.1 and tell them to write down six tasks they have to perform at work, one in each section of the page. Allow them five minutes to think of the tasks. c) After completing this first part, ask them to estimate how long it would take them to fulfill each task and write it down in the quadrant. The duration of each task must be a multiple of 30 minutes. If they their tasks take longer than a working day, ask them to write down the number of hours (a working day will be counted as 8 hours). d) Tell them to give each of the tasks a priority indicator, ranging from, 1 to 4, according to their importance. Each priority indicator can be assigned to no more than two tasks. For example, you can have a priority 1 task, two priority 2 tasks, one priority 3 task and two priority 4 tasks; or you can have two tasks for three levels of priority and none for the fourth. e) After they’ve filled in handout 9.1, ask them how often their managers give them get all the time they estimate they need to complete their tasks. Their answers will most likely be “rarely” or “never”. f) Bring out the poker chips and tell them that the chips are worth minutes. Pass out handout 10.2, stating the value of the poker chips to each participant. g) Explain that you are going to give them chips they can use as time to fulfill their tasks. The trouble is that they’ll only get half of the time they estimated they need to complete the task. For example, for a 30 minute task, they will receive a 15 minute chip; for a 7 hour task, they will receive three chips worth one hour and one 30 minute chip. Tell them they have to think how they can place their chips in order to get the most out of the time they’ve been given. h) Ask them to place the appropriate chips in each section, according to the way they want to reallocate their time. i) When they’re done arranging the chips, give each of them a copy of handout 9.3. Ask them to follow the steps on the paper and talk them through each step. j) After all calculations are done, ask each participant to tell you the number they got after the

final subtraction. The person who got the lowest number is the winner, because he or she has placed all of the chips on high importance tasks. Questions for Debriefing: · Why do you think that some of the tasks were multiplied by 4? · What do you usually do when there isn’t enough time to get everything done? · What does this game tell you about prioritizing tasks? Tips on Making This Activity Go Well: · Make sure your poker chip set is big enough so that you can give all the participants the requested chips. A 50 piece set should do for a group up to 12 – 14 participants. · Due to the complexity of the calculations on handout 9.3, make sure you walk participants through them and answer any questions they might have, so that they don’t get the results wrong. Handout 9.1 1) Task: Time Needed: Priority Level: 2) Task: Time Needed: Priority Level: 3) Task: Time Needed: Priority Level: 4) Task: Time Needed: Priority Level: 5) Task: Time Needed: Priority Level: 6) Task: Time Needed:

Priority Level: Handout 9.2 Follow the instructions below: a) Sum up the number of minutes of all the chips. b) Multiply the sum by 4. c) Sum up the value of all the chips you have placed on priority 1 and priority 2 tasks. d) Multiply the sum you got at point c) by 4. e) Sum up the value of the chips you have placed on priority 3 and priority 4 tasks. f) Add the sums you got at points d) and e). g) Subtract the sum you got at point f) from the sum you got at point b). Handout 9.3 Chip values White: 15 minutes Red: 30 minutes Green: 1 hour Blue: 4 hours Black: 8 hours

10. The Multitasking Myth Purpose: To help participants understand the bad effects of performing several tasks simultaneously. Participants: 4 – 12 Time Required: 20 - 30 minutes Materials Needed: Two cell phones, a computer, handout 11.1, a stopwatch. Steps to Follow: a) Tell participants that many people consider the ability to perform more tasks at the same time as a key element of effective time management. You are going to test that assumption and for that, you will need a volunteer. b) Give the volunteer handout 11.1 and instruct him to write the text in handout 11.1 backwards. Time his performance. c) Once he is finished writing, tell him that he has to write the text again, only this time, he has to do it while watching a video. Put on any video of a speech you can find on the internet. Time his writing once more and stop the video when he is done writing. d) Finally, tell him that he will have to do the previous two tasks again, while also talking on the phone. Remind him that he has to focus his attention on all of his tasks, not just the first one. e) Have another participant exit the room and call the volunteer, conducting a conversation on a topic of his or her choice. f) Time the volunteer’s writing again and stop all other activities as well when he is done writing. g) Check the time it took the volunteer to complete the first task each time and write it on the flipchart. You can also check the accuracy of the text and write the number of mistakes next to the duration. Questions for Debriefing: · What does this exercise tell us about multitasking? · How could the tasks have been performed more effectively? · What does this game tell you about prioritizing tasks? Tips on Making This Activity Go Well:

· In case you have trouble getting people to volunteer for this exercise, use an “volunteer choosing technique”, such as “the person who will display the biggest smile just now will automatically become a volunteer” or “the youngest person in the room is the designated volunteer”. Handout 10.1 Effective time management is built on a set of principles, but it does not appear as a strict result of the inflexible use of these principles and of the connected practices. People are different and the correct understanding of oneself, of one’s own wishes, priorities and lifestyle is vital for getting the desired results.

11. Pareto’s Room Purpose: To help participants understand the 20 – 80 principle formulated by economist Vilfredo Pareto, which states that approximately 80% of all effects come from 20% of causes. Participants: 3 – 15 Time Required: 10 - 15 minutes Materials Needed: Pieces of paper, pens. Steps to Follow: a) Split participants into groups of three. b) Ask each group to make a list of all the items in the training room (such as tables, chairs or flipchart) that they feel make up for most of the training session’s effectiveness. c) Make a rough estimation of the number of items in the room and make a percentage of the number mentioned by each group. Questions for Debriefing: · How many of your clothes do you wear most often? · What does this game tell you about causes and effects? · How can you use this principle in the future? Tips on Making This Activity Go Well: · Before you start this activity, make a mental inventory of the things you have used during the training, so as to point out any differences in the participants’ perception and your own.

12. Sequence of Events Purpose: To help participants understand the importance of putting first things first. Participants: 3 – 15 Time Required: 15 - 20 minutes Materials Needed: Handout 13.1, pens, flipchart. Steps to Follow: a) Divide participants into groups of three. b) Give each group a copy of handout 12.1. c) Tell them that the handout describes the five steps of putting an office chair together and they have 10 minutes to find the right order. d) After they finish, ask each team to present the steps in what they think to be the right order. Write the correct order on the flipchart: 5, 2, 4, 1, 3. Questions for Debriefing: · What would have happened if a step went wrong? · What does that tell us about putting first things first? · What can happen when people don’t put first things first? Tips on Making This Activity Go Well: · If people start saying that they lack the technical knowledge to perform such an operation, tell them it’s ok and to just use their common sense. Handout 12.1 1) Place seat cushion assembly on top of gas cylinder. Make sure that it is firmly seated on cylinder before attempting to sit on chair. Adjust to desired height using lever. 2) Place seat cushion upside down on floor and align seat plate with threaded holes. Begin by attaching with rear seat plate screws. 3) Attach backrest support to backrest cushion using the backrest connector 4) Align footrest with 4 front holes and attach using screws. Tighten all 6 screws securely. Slide lower end of backrest support into the seat plate and secure with backrest adjustment knob.

5) Insert 5 casters into base of chair. Insert gas cylinder into center of base and slide cylinder backrest screws. Tighten securely.

13. I Need Purpose: To help participants develop prioritization skills. Participants: 4 - 16 Time Required: 15 - 20 minutes Materials Needed: A piece of paper, a pen. Steps to Follow: a) Get someone to volunteer for participating in this exercise. Ask him to step up to the front of the room and have him sit down at the trainer’s desk. Hand him a blank piece of paper and a pen. b) Tell the other participants that they can each request something from the volunteer. The requests will be make-belief and the volunteer won’t actually act on them, but they have to make such requests that the volunteer would chose handling theirs over those of the others. c) The volunteer has to write down all requests as the participants state them. After everybody has stated their request, he has to decide the order in which he would act on them. He can also choose not to agree to certain requests. Give him 5 minutes to decide. d) Have him read out what requests he would see to, in chronological order. Ask him to justify his decisions. Questions for Debriefing: · What determined this list of priorities? · Who were the requests important for? · What would you have to do move up on somebody else’s list of priorities? Tips on Making This Activity Go Well: · Some people might take the fact that their request was not selected to heart. Make sure you prevent any hard feelings they might develop by using a humorous remark, such as “I’m pretty sure that if you pay him enough, he would instantly change his priorities”.

14. The Estimating Game Purpose: To help participants make accurate time estimates. Participants: 4 - 16 Time Required: 10 - 15 minutes Materials Needed: Handout 14.1, pens. Steps to Follow: a) Give a copy handout 14.1 to each participant. Inform them that you’re handing out a list of unusual activities. b) Tell them to estimate how long it would take them to complete each of the activities on the list. Give them five minutes to complete the task. c) Have participants read their estimations out loud. Questions for Debriefing: · What do you need to make accurate time estimates? · How do you usually make time estimates? · What are estimates good for when setting priorities? Tips on Making This Activity Go Well: · This exercise is best used as a funny energizer when you feel the energy level of the group going down. Handout 14.1 How long would it take you to perform each of the tasks below? 1) Measuring the length of your kitchen with a matchstick. 2) Making a carrot and cheese cake. 3) Writing an essay on the origin of language. 4) Ironing a kilt. 5) Building a playhouse out of cardboard boxes. 6) Assembling a laptop. 7) Cleaning a chimney.

8) Milking a cow 9) Washing a cat 10) Building a castle in the sand.

15. Seems to Be in Order Purpose: To help participants understand the importance of putting first things first. Participants: 6 - 15 Time Required: 15 - 20 minutes Materials Needed: Three playing card decks, timer, flipchart. Steps to Follow: a) Divide the group into three teams. b) Give each team a well-shuffled deck of playing cards. c) Tell them that the purpose of the game is to arrange the deck of cards in ascending order according to suit, in the following order: spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs. The team that manages to do this first wins. d) Tell them they get two minutes before they can touch the deck for determining their strategy. e) When the two minutes are up, tell them they can start arranging the deck. f) Declare the first team that finishes the winner of the game. g) Ask the winning team to break down the actions that led to their success. Write them down on the flipchart. Questions for Debriefing: · What impact did the sequence of events have on the outcome of this game? · How can you save time when working on complex activities? · What does this game tell us about setting priorities? Tips on Making This Activity Go Well: · Emphasize the importance of using the two minutes of planning wisely, and encourage teams to write down their action plan. This will help them when the winning team has to think about the steps that led to their success.

D. OVERCOMING TIME MANAGEMENT OBSTACLES

16. Clean Up This Mess! Purpose: To help participants understand the importance of keeping a neat workplace. Participants: 4 - 20 Time Required: 30 minutes Materials Needed: A computer, a set of files and folders. Steps to Follow: a) This game is going to require a little beforehand preparation. Create around 50 files (.pdf, .docx, .ppt, .xlsx and .jpg). There doesn’t have to be any data in the documents. You can name them after 50 files in your own computer. Be sure to include reports, presentations, procedures and other types of documents that can usually be found on a business computer. The files have to be related to one of these fields: sales, training, human resources, marketing, IT, accounting. Make a folder for each field and place related files in the specific folder. Name one of the files “2011 Balance Sheet” and another “February Recruitment Report” and place them in the respective folders (accounting and human resources). b) Make a new user on your computer and place the folders on the desktop, in alphabetical order. You can name it “Neat User”. Then create another user, which you could name “Sloppy User”, and this time scatter the files all over the desktop, in no particular order. Make sure they are as scrambled as possible. c) Ask who in the group consider themselves neat and tidy (raise of hands). Conclude that those who have not raised their hands must think of themselves as sloppy. d) Divide the group into two teams: the neat and the sloppy. Tell them there will be a contest between the two teams. Whichever team has the better average time in finding a certain file on a computer, wins. e) Call each member of the neat team and have them log on to the “Neat User”. Tell them they have to find the “2011 Balance Sheet” file. They aren’t allowed to use the “search file” function. f) Time each member of the neat team and calculate their average time. g) Call each member of the sloppy team and have them log on with the “sloppy user”. They have to find the “February Recruitment Report”. Same rules apply as for the neat team. h) Time each member of the sloppy team and calculate their average time. See what team has the best average time (it will undoubtedly be the neat team). Questions for Debriefing: · What does this exercise tell us about the importance of neatness at the workplace?

· What advantage did the neat team have that helped them win? · How much time do you spend looking for misplaced files or objects in real life? Tips on Making This Activity Go Well: · In some groups, you might not get any people (or at least not enough to form a team) that would describe themselves either as neat or sloppy. If this happens, turn the question from “who thinks of themselves as neat and tidy” to “who is tidy at least part of the time?” This should get you enough recruits. · Don’t worry if the number of members in each team isn’t balanced. You will calculate the average, not the sum. Tell that to participants as well.

17. I’m In a Meeting Purpose: To make participants aware of the importance of planning and controlling meetings. Participants: 4 - 16 Time Required: 15 - 20 minutes Materials Needed: Flipchart. Steps to Follow: a) Tell the group that you would like to call a meeting and that you find it very fortunate they are already gathered in the room. If you’re standing, have a seat and tell them the meeting has begun. b) Tell them you would like to hear their thoughts on improving the training session. Listen carefully to their suggestions. c) At some point, suggest that there should be no more breaks for the rest of the training. Ask them how they feel about it. d) When everyone is done presenting their suggestions and thoughts, randomly choose one of the participants to tell you the conclusions. Write what he says on the flipchart. Check how each of the conclusions is connected to the initial purpose of the meeting. Questions for Debriefing: · How did this meeting go? · How well was the purpose of the meeting served? · What could we have done to make it more effective? Tips on Making This Activity Go Well: · At the end of the meeting, you can ask the group if they have anything else to add aside from what the person you named has already said. Use this if you feel that there have been discussions unrelated to the topic of the meeting that the person you designated has failed to mention.

18. Clustering Time Purpose: To make participants aware of the importance of clustering similar tasks in their schedule. Participants: 4 - 16 Time Required: 15 - 20 minutes Materials Needed: Handout 18.1, pens. Steps to Follow: a) Give a copy of handout 18.1 to each participant. b) Ask them to fill it out as instructed. They will be clustering their activities by writing them down in one of the three intervals specified on the handout. c) Ask each of them to read out the way they have placed their tasks and ask them to justify their decision. Questions for Debriefing: · How can grouping similar tasks help you improve your productivity? · How often do you use time clustering when you perform your tasks? · How do you determine which tasks you should cluster? Tips on Making This Activity Go Well: · You can hold a brief lecture on clustering tasks before they start working on their exercise, explaining that if we set our brain for a certain kind of task, such as washing the dishes, there will be time wasted when switching to another type of task, which requires creativity. This will help participants understand the importance of performing similar tasks in the same timeframe. Handout 18.1 Place each of the activities below in one of the following intervals: Interval 1: 09:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. Interval 2: 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Interval 3: 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. 1) Paying the gas bill

2) Ironing shirts 3) Washing shorts 4) Buying sugar 5) Paying phone bill 6) Washing shirts 7) Cooking 8) Walking the dog 9) Buying peas 10) Buying meat 11) Cleaning desk 12) Sweeping room 13) Showering

19. I Politely Refuse Purpose: To help participants understand the effects of polite refusals. Participants: 4 - 16 Time Required: 15 - 20 minutes Materials Needed: Pieces of paper, pens. Steps to Follow: a) Tell the group to imagine that they are swamped at work, and a colleague comes and asks for help with a report that would take two hours to write. Unfortunately, they are working on something b) Ask them to write down what they would answer that colleague. c) Give them five minutes to work on their task. When the 5 minutes are up, ask each of them to read out their answers. Questions for Debriefing: · What did you have in mind when thinking the answer up? · How do you think your answer will affect your relationship with your colleague? · How do you go about refusing your colleagues at your job? Tips on Making This Activity Go Well: · You can tell the participants to think of the effects their answers might have, before they write it down. This will help them think the answer through and not write down an automated refusal.

20. Delegate It Purpose: To help participants understand the importance of delegating tasks. Participants: 6 – 15 Time Required: 30 minutes Materials Needed: Pieces of paper, pens. Steps to Follow: a) Split participants into groups of three. b) Tell them to write down a list of their ongoing tasks at work. All three participants will compile the tasks into a single list. c) Explain that they will receive help from a team of four people that has been assigned to take over their tasks. They have to decide who they will delegate each task to, according to their skills and personality traits. d) Give them a copy of handout 20.1. The handout has a brief description of each member of the team. It states their name, age, level of skill in the particular field in which they have to perform and a list of personal traits. Give them 15 minutes to decide how to delegate the tasks. e) Ask each team to read out how they decided to delegate the tasks. Questions for Debriefing: · Are the tasks evenly matched between the members of the assigned team? · What criteria did you use for delegating? · What challenges din you encounter when deciding who to delegate the tasks to? Tips on Making This Activity Go Well: · You can add a short description of each member of the team, from the subjective point of view of a manager. For example, you can say that “James is the smart one, but he’s not a team player at all and he’s rather lazy” or “Mary always does as she is told, usually gets the job done but don’t expect her to ever take the initiative.” This will help participants get a clearer picture of each of the four characters that make up the team. Handout 20.1 1) James

Age: 32 Skill level: 9/10 Personality traits: Creative: 10/10 Analytical mind: 9/10 Adaptive: 4/10 Organized: 4/10 Hard working: 3/10 Self-disciplined: 4/10 Productive: 5/10 Intelligent: 9/10 Detail oriented: 4/10 Emotionally competent: 8/10 2) Mary Age: 22 Skill level: 5/10 Personality traits: Creative: 3/10 Analytical mind: 5/10 Adaptive: 9/10 Organized: 9/10 Hard working: 10/10 6. Self-disciplined: 8/10 7. Productive: 9/10 Intelligent: 7/10 Detail oriented: 8/10 Emotionally competent: 6/10 3) Sandra Age: 27

Skill level: 10/10 Personality traits: Creative: 8/10 Analytical mind: 9/10 Adaptive: 8/10 Organized: 10/10 Hard working: 9/10 Self-disciplined: 10/10 Productive: 9/10 Intelligent: 9/10 Detail oriented: 8/10 Emotionally competent: 9/10 d) John Age: 21 Skill level: 6/10 Personality traits: Creative: 7/10 Analytical mind: 6/10 Adaptive: 7/10 Organized: 7/10 Hard working: 8/10 Self-disciplined: 7/10 Productive: 7/10 Intelligent: 7/10 Detail oriented: 5/10 Emotionally competent: 5/10

21. Wasting Time Purpose: To make participants aware of the time they spend on time wasters. Participants: 4 - 16 Time Required: 15 - 20 minutes Materials Needed: Handout 21.1, pens. Steps to Follow: a) Give a copy of handout 21.1 to each participant. b) Tell them that time is a terrible thing to waste, yet we do it more often than we think. Ask them to estimate the number of minutes they spend daily on each of the time wasters on the list. c) Ask them to add up the minutes and read out the sum. Questions for Debriefing: · How does the amount of time you waste seem to you? · How can you reduce the time you waste on these activities? · What other time wasters can you think of, aside from those on the list? Tips on Making This Activity Go Well: · Some people might feel uncomfortable saying how much time they waste if their manager is in the room. If you this is the case, tell them that what they write is confidential and that they do not have to share that information. Handout 21.1 Estimate how much time you spend daily on each of the following activities: 1) Social networking 2) Instant messaging 3) Reading irrelevant email 4) Chatting with co-workers 5) Staring at the walls 6) Browsing the web for irrelevant information

7) Brunching 8) Smoking 9) Day dreaming 10) Having coffee Total:

22. You’ve Got Mail Purpose: To help participants understand time effective ways for reading email and answering to email. Participants: 4 - 16 Time Required: 15 - 20 minutes Materials Needed: Handout 22.1, pens. Steps to Follow: a) Give each participant a copy of handout 22.1. b) Tell them that they should imagine the handout is their inbox, after they’ve returned from lunch. They only have enough time to read half of them. Ask them to decide what emails they will read and in what order, based on the sender, subject and time the emails were sent. c) After they’ve finished, ask each of them to state the order in which they would read their email. Ask them why they chose this order. Questions for Debriefing · How can you be sure that the information in an email is relevant, before you read it? · How can you make sure you don’t miss any important information when you read your email? · What emails should you always skip reading? Tips on Making This Activity Go Well: · You can hold a brief lecture about the average amount of emails people receive daily before this exercise. You can find various statistics on the internet. This will help participants understand why they have to be selective about which emails they should read. Handout 22.1 1) From: Boss; Subject: Urgently need report; Sent at: 12:45 p.m 2) From: Important Customer 1; Subject: Inquiry; Sent at: 12:43 p.m. 3) From: Clara from Accounting; Subject: Paycheck information; Sent at: 12:22 p.m. 4) From: Jenna from HR; Subject: Changes in company policy; Sent at: 12:20 p.m. 5) From: Unknown Person; Subject: Get more results quicker; Sent at: 11:59 a.m.

6) From: Boss; Subject: ; Sent at: 11:50 a.m. 7) From: Small Customer 1; Subject: Complaint; Sent at: 11:42 a.m. 8) From: Small Customer 2; Subject: Problems needing fixing; Sent at: 11:40 a.m 9) From: Unknown Person; Subject: Invitation to event; Sent at; 11:35 a.m. 10) From: John from IT; Subject: CRM working properly; Sent at; 11:32 a.m. 11) From: Big Customer 2; Subject: Urgent request; Sent at: 11:32 a.m. 12) From: Provider; Subject: Overdue Invoice; Sent at: 11:30 a.m. 13) From: Jenna from HR; Subject: Your requested documents; Sent at: 11:20 a.m. 14) From: Close Friend; Subject: funny_cats.ppt; Sent at: 11:19 a.m.

23. Email Time Purpose: To make participants aware of the time they spend on reading and writing emails. Participants: 4 - 16 Time Required: 10 minutes Materials Needed: Handout 23.1, pens. Steps to Follow: a) Give each participant a copy of handout 23.1. b) Tell them to fill out the blanks with information about their own email behavior. c) When they finish, ask each of them to read out the result. Questions for Debriefing · What would happen if you were to read all of the email you receive? · How can you shorten the time you spend on your email without missing important information? · What is the most time you ever spent on reading your email? Tips on Making This Activity Go Well:

· If the participants say they can’t make an accurate estimation of the number of emails they receive, have them access their email account from a computer and count their recently received emails. Handout 23.1 Please answer the questions below: 1) How many email accounts do you have? 2) What is the average number of emails you receive on an account, each day? 3) How long does it usually take you to read an email? 4) How long would it take you to read all of the emails you receive in one day? Multiply the answer from question 2 by the answer to question 3.

24. The Shrinking Calendar Purpose: To prove to participants that setting tight deadlines can help increase productivity. Participants: 4 – 20 Time Required: 30 minutes Materials Needed: Two copies of next month’s calendar, pens. Steps to Follow: a) Provide a copy of next month’s calendar to each participant. The simplest way to do it is to print out a blank view of the specific month from your organizer software. b) Ask them to think about their major tasks for the month ahead and to fill each day of the calendar with what they plan to be working on. c) After they finish writing their tasks down in their calendar, tell them that you have bad news: An important new task has come up and they will have to spend the last half of their month working on it. They only have the first 15 days of the month to tend to all of the tasks they initially wrote down. Give them a new copy of the calendar, with the dates crossed out from the 16th on. d) Tell them to be realistic about reorganizing their tasks in the new calendar, and to just leave out any tasks that they think they have no time to perform. e) Once they finish filling in the second calendar, ask them how many of the tasks they estimated they will finish in the new timeframe. Most participants will tell you that they wrote down more than half of the tasks. Questions for Debriefing: · How many of your tasks did you succeed to squeeze in only half the time you were given? · What does this exercise tell us about setting deadlines for our tasks? · What are the benefits of setting tight deadlines? Tips on Making This Activity Go Well: · In the unlikely case the number of tasks written down in the second calendar comes up under 50%, ask participants to think about the estimated time for completion of each task. This should prove that they plan to spend more time working, even if they perform fewer tasks.

25. You Can Have My Procrastination Purpose: To help participants understand the causes of procrastination and find solutions to overcome it. Participants: 4 - 16 Time Required: 30 minutes Materials Needed: None. Steps to Follow: a) Divide participants in pairs. Tell each of them to think of an important task they keep putting off for some reason. b) Ask them to share their thoughts on the topic with their team-mate. They should listen carefully and provide a suggestion on how other person can overcome procrastination. c) When the discussion is over, ask each pair how it went and whether the solution they were provided might work. Questions for Debriefing · What was it like to hear an outsider’s perspective? · What can you use from you team-mate’s opinion? · What techniques can you use to keep from procrastinating? Tips on Making This Activity Go Well: · When the pairs are discussing procrastination, make sure to walk around the room and hear what they are talking, so as to provide encouragement or feedback when needed.

About the Author Dragoş V. Iliescu is a trainer from Romania, whose professional background includes team management, training and human resources management positions. He has trained more than a thousand people over the years, on such topics as “Time Management”, “Effective Communication Skills”, “Customer Service”, “Sales” or “Conflict Management”. He places great emphasis on experiential learning and has designed hundreds of training activities, which he uses in his workshops. He can be contacted at [email protected].