Beyond the To-Do List
Productivity & Time Management in a Distracted World
Let’s face it. We all value our time. And whether it’s personal or professional time, we want to make the most of it. But despite our best intentions, and most elaborate to-do lists, sometimes we find ourselves overwhelmed by busyness—with more to do and less done. How can we move from “to-do” to “done” and better use our time for maximum return? In this workshop, you’ll gain key insights into planning that you probably never learned in school. By adopting high-leverage principles, policies, and practices for managing your time, you’ll find yourself working smarter, not harder in no time at all!
After this workshop, participants will better:
- Know the principles behind effective time management and productivity
- Understand the four phases of planning
- Be able to identify tools for planning, organization and time management
Topics addressed in our workshops, presentations and executive coaching sessions include:
Focusing, Sustaining, and Shifting Attention to Tasks
The management system of one’s mind is comprised of six key executive functions of the brain. Explore what each function is responsible for, and how they cooperate to make up our ability to focus. Learn how control our attention and point it to the right tasks at the right time.
Organizing, Prioritizing, and Activating for Tasks
Too many of us, when faced with large or complex tasks, find it challenging to break down the project into smaller more-manageable chunks. And when we don’t see a path forward, it can inhibit us from even getting started. Learn how to plan for the big picture, determine actionable steps, and start finishing your projects.
Regulating Alertness, Sustaining Effort, and Processing Speed
While it’s commonly presumed that low productivity is due to a deficit of attention, it often is the case that we have plenty of attention to go around. But we sometimes direct our hyperfocus to the wrong things or at the wrong times. Key to attending to the task at hand is being ‘engaged’ with your work, ‘in the zone’ or ‘a state of flow.’ That’s why it’s critical to understand our interest-based nervous systems and the triggers of our impulsive tendencies. Learn about the physical, emotional and environmental factors that help us to become engaged in, and stick with, our work.
Managing Frustration and Modulating Emotion
A surprising downside to achievement, excellence, and performance is often the emotional roller coaster that is part of the path to success. Our emotions distinctly affect our ability to be our most productive selves in our work and relationships. Often the struggle with emotions is purely a personal one, but one that (if overlooked) can lead to avoidance or burnout. Learn about the ups and downs that are associated with state of mind and productivity. Explore tactics for taking control of the thoughts and emotions that inhibit your best performance.
Monitoring and Self-Regulating Action
Multi-tasking. We’ve all done it…or at least, we’ve tried to do it. This universal experience of trying to switch between concurrent tasks often leads to distraction, fragmented work outcomes, and unfinished projects. But what if you knew how to better monitor and self-regulate your actions so that you could focus on what matters and get more done? Learn methods for keeping yourself on track with what you set out to do, as well as how to reign yourself back in when you find yourself far from the path you originally set out on.
Utilizing Working Memory and Accessing Recall
Short-term memory, in terms of both storage and retrieval, is often at the heart of our ability to be productive. Much like a computer’s RAM, our short-term memory is an on-demand system but also one with capacity limits. If information doesn’t stick here, it will never make it to long-term memory. And that means unfinished business and ignored project tasks. Learn how to take advantage of natural ways that your brain learns, and leverage a variety of tools to help free up space in your mind for the things that you actually need to know and remember.
