Sunraysia InstituteImproving personal

productivity

Presented by: Russell Cummings Strategic Business Development

The Productivity ChallengeFind an Extra 8 Hours in Every Week

“If you can’t do your job in a 10-hour day during the week, you’re either overworked or incompetent.”

Mike Abel Chief Exec – M&C Saatchi Australia

BRW – April 23, 2009

Our Infographic Map to improving your

productivity

Time Management Pyramid

Beliefs – Why?

Why are you poor at time management?

1. Attitude – focus, work ethic, motivation

2. Health - diet and exercise

3. Sleep – need 8 hours per

Sleep Cycle App

What should you be doing with your time?

Waste & Inefficiency

Waste What?

What are you doing with your time?

Time Management Audit

My Time Audit

MUST Do’s: • Reduce wasted time on emails, web and social media • Reduce amount of time with Team without reducing quality • Increase time for strategy, marketing, sales and training • Reduce hours worked

Travel not included 5 hrs per week

Productivity 45% chargeable

Personal days (excl weekends)

3 days

Setting Priorities

Use model over different

timeframes – annual, quarterly,

monthly, weely

Exercise: Your Quadrants

Exercise:

1. Brainstorm 3 activities that you currently do in each quadrant

2. What Q2 activities should you be doing but never get time for?

Getting the Structure Right

How will you manage the day-to-day?

Setup a “4 Things” Framework

What are the 4 key areas of activity that you must focus on in your business to be successful?

My daily roster:

• Client work – 4 hours • Marketing & Sales – 2 hours • Strategy & Development – 1 hour • Team Management – 1 hour

Exercise: Be Strategic

Exercise:What are the Top 4 things you MUST focus on in order to achieve success?

Stop Doing Matrix

Exercise: Stop Doing Matrix

Exercise:Work through the Matrix and add tasks to each section

• Work in 25 minute bursts – 5 min break • Every 4 cycles take a 15 min break • This will: increase focus, concentration,

reduce interruptions and maximise your output.

• Use an app like www.focusboosterapp.com or Pomodoro Time

Pomodoro Technique

Tips to leverage your time

Email

Check max. 3 times per day

Check once every day or so

Set up Rules

Turn off notifications

Don’t check it first thing in the

morning

Chain > 2 Use phone

Meetings

• Senior and middle managers said only 56% of meetings were productive.

• They added that a phone call or a memo could have replaced over 25% of the meetings they attend.

Source: Wharton Centre for Applied Research – published in Wall Street Journal

Time in meetings per week

Key Team Meetings

• Team Huddle – weekly, 5 to 15 minutes • Transactional Catch up – daily or weekly, 5 to 10 minutes • Circuit Breaker – monthly, 15 to 20 minutes • Performance Review – quarterly, 30 minutes

Meeting Structure

Effective Meetings & Internal CommunicationEffective meetings are driven

by :

• Purpose • Process • Payoff

Energy Patterns

Interruptions

Impromptu Meetings

Disorganised office

Phone calls

Surfing the web

• Online Employee with a specific skill set • Engage them by Contract, Part-Time, Full-Time • Contractors for projects: freelancer.com,

elance.com, fiverr.com • Employees: usually from Philippines, India or

Eastern Europe • See our website for a blog article on “How to

recruit a VA”

A Virtual Assistant

• Use technology at your fingertips and create audio and video messages and instructions for your Team

• Benefits: quick, effective and easy to do. Better quality of communication – especially for complex issues.

• Integrate with tools like Trello, Evernote, etc.

Use Video and Audio instead of Email

Productivity tools that work

Core Technology

• Must operate on multiple devices and synchronise • “fit for purpose” – must do its job really well • Interoperability – best if it works with other tools • Must improve communication with my Team • Must lift my productivity by helping me with Waste

& Structure

Basic Principles

My Top ToolsTeam

Communication “Chat”

Information Storage

Data Storage

• Powerful task management tool that enables collaboration and planning

• Simple layout – easy drag and drop navigation • Can add files from OneDrive, Dropbox, etc • Base version is free – Premium is modest

• Other options: • kanbanflow.com • Basecamphq.com

Trello.com

• A very powerful tool for information storage and retrieval – free or cheap option

• A collection of online “Notebooks” that you can add information to in a variety of formats: text, audio, images, websites, documents, files.

• Synchronises across any device: desktop (Mac & PC), IOS, Android, Windows Mobile

• Makes it really easy to capture & share information • Audio messages – fast and better communication • Chat function for better Team Comms • Microsoft OneNote is another option

Evernote.com

Online File Storage - Onedrive

• Cloud based storage is easy to access and has come of age. • Store files on your desktop – access them on any device – share

easily – auto-back up

• Other popular options: • Dropbox.com • Box.net

Microsoft Office 365

• Software rental – updated and cost effective • $10 per month - 5 Users – Home Package • Acccess to latest Office Software: Word, Excel, PowerPoint,

Outlook, OneNote and Publisher • 1TB of free storage on OneDrive (per User) • 60 minutes of free skype to phone calls • With MS Exchange - Shared Calendars, Contacts, emails, etc • Available for Mac, PC, tablets and smartphones

Video Conferencing

• Cheap effective communication using video conferencing • Visual element improves engagement and increase productivity – reduce

travel • All Devices: desktop, tablet, smartphone Lots of options: • Video Conference Calls – skype, Vsee • Online Meetings – GotoMeeting • Webinars and Seminars - GotoWebinar

Tripit.com

• If you travel by air – this is the app for you • Scans your email for confirmations and builds an itinerary

using airline, hotel, hire car, etc bookings. • Tracks flights and updates on delays • Finds maps of hotels, etc. • Loads it automatically into your electronic diary • Premium version is $50 pa – also free • On all devices – desktop, tablet and smartphone

Livescribe Pen

• An electronic pen that records your writing (and audio) and stores it electronically - syncs to Evernote

• Handwritten electronic notes are searchable in Evernote

• Uses custom stationery – variety of formats

30-minute reports

Trello image

Other Tools - Horticulture• There are really good programs around for helping you

manage the various activities and collect great data in your business.

• Some are stand-alone programs and others are integrated as part of your grader systems.

• AgWorld - www.agworld.com.au • Grownote – www.grownote.co.nz

Time Management

Exercise:

1. What are 3 actions that you can take away from this session to save yourself 8 hours in the next week?

2. Share this with your neighbor 3. Homework: Develop a 1PP for

how you are going to improve your time management

Summary

Time Management Pyramid

We will send you a link to copies of today’s PPT plus any resource materials in the next few days.

You can visit www.horticulture-nextgeneration.com.au and complete our free online Business Diagnostic, webinars,

blogs and videos.

We are about to launch a range of on-line training and business leadership development programs.

More Resources

How do we work with businesses?

We develop a tailored solution to meet your specific needs:

All services are at agreed fixed price

Take the 30-minute Challenge

• Book a free 30 minute call and we will discuss your Top Issues and create a plan to address them.

• Go to www.takethe30minute challenge.com

Russell Cummings Business Consultant M: +61 414 929 585

W: www.sbdbusiness.com.au E: russell@sbdbusiness.com.au

Thank You