Sticky Learning Lunches #41: Think You Don't Need to Attend This Webinar?

This 7-part model will help you to find out what is wrong with your time management.

You will learn:

- Each of the 7 parts of the time management system.

- How each part is essential to creating an effective time management system.

- The holes that are exposed in your time management system by not having any one of the 7 pieces.

- Practical tips to incorporate any one of the 7 parts of the time management system.

- The strengths and weaknesses of your time management system.

You Can Read the Full Transcript Below:

Nathan Simmonds:

Welcome to today's Sticky Learning Lunch. Good afternoon, Colin. Good to see you, Fabian. Thank you, Howard. Tim, vj, good to see you again. Thanks for being here. Bas around. Thank you for being here. We're just gonna give you a couple of minutes while more people are arriving. Just conscious of time. So I know a couple of people are still coming into the room. Let's just give that a moment just to settle.

Nathan Simmonds:

Looking forward to today's session. Excited to be here. Let's get everyone set up for success as always. Let's make sure I can see what's going on. Good afternoon, Anne. Good to see you. Let's dive in and as the other people start as, as they are still arriving, let's let them get into the room. But let's make sure we are setting ourselves up for success in this space right now. As always, there's a phone call, not always, but there was a phone call from my mum. I'll have to speak to her later. Um, let's make sure. Mobile phone.

Nathan Simmonds:

So let's get this on flight mode. Zero out the distraction, a hundred percent attention. I'll speak to my mum later. Also, making sure you've got a drink available. Staying hydrated, keeping the brain fluid and moving so that we can ma maximize the, uh, the development and the learning that's happening here. Hello Gina. Hello, Gareth. Good to see you both again. Thank you very much for being here. Fresh page, fresh thinking. Let's make sure we're setting up that notepad in the right way so you get the right information.

Improve your time management skills with these 7 hurdles

 

Nathan Simmonds:

At the top of the page, you're gonna write keepers and these are the things you wanna remember. Remind yourself and reignite as you go back and reread those notes to, to, to create new ideas, new thoughts from the learnings that you get from today. And it helps to embed that learning and make it really stick and, and support that behavioral change that helps you to deliver a better result next time.

Nathan Simmonds:

All set, he says, got the right color. Pens in hand, I think. Welcome to today's Sticky Learning lunch with me, Nathan Simmons, senior leadership coach and trainer for MBM making Business Matter, the home of Sticky Learning. And we are the leadership skills and soft skills provider to the grocery and manufacturing industry. I do with these lunchtime sessions is to give you 20 to 30 minutes of core content that's gonna help you be the best version of you in the work that you do, whether that's at home or if it's you returning back to the office after this current situation.

Nathan Simmonds:

It. Let's get into this part. Where are we now? Uh, 1, 2, 3, 4, part five. Part five is hurdle number five of time management. So let's give you a super fast rundown of what's going on. I can see some regular faces here. So we are at hurdle number five. Question for you all for to to, to light up the questions box with what have you got so far that's at the top of your list that you want to prioritize or action or make sure you embed that's gonna help you improve your time management?

Nathan Simmonds:

What's one thing that you've taken away from these recent sessions that's helping to improve your time management right now? Let's see those in the questions box and see what's changing in the world for you all as a result of these sticky learning lunches. Good afternoon, Abby. Clearer capturing and emptying time. Absolutely clearer capture and empty, nice collating less and emptying. Good.

Nathan Simmonds:

We're gonna talk a little bit more about some of this collation piece today. Interesting because I started looking at some of my own behaviors a little bit deeper as I was preparing this content. What's one thing you are doing differently as a result of these recent sticky learnings as those are coming in, let's have a quick recap on what we've covered so far. Number one, capturing number two, emptying.

Nathan Simmonds:

So your capturing is making is, is the points in time where information comes in, whether it's in your car, at your email. And we're gonna talk about an analogy here of the, the waiter in the restaurant. What that capture point is at the table. Emptying is making sure that we are emptying these, these capture points regularly.

Nathan Simmonds:

And deleting is making sure that we're taking things out and crossing 'em off and removing them at the right time so they're not cluttering up, but also removing things before they come into us. Um, so do we need to be on that email chain because actually we're wasting huge amounts of time just deleting emails we didn't need to receive in the first place. Listing, making sure that we're taking things out of these spaces and putting them into the right lists.

Nathan Simmonds:

And do we have enough lists and do we trust the lists that we've got storing? So are we storing the right information and keeping hold of it? Scheduling? Are we putting it into the agenda to make sure it's happened or going to happen? And then how do we make sure we action it? So that's our flow chart for where we need to be. Again, super fast, we covered this in a couple of minutes every session, just so you can start to see it, feel it and remember it. What we've done, what we've covered off, we covered capturing, emptying, listing, deleting, and now we're now onto storing,

Nathan Simmonds:

As I have said. And I will say again, and this is where it's really important, there are no prizes for attempting to remember everything that is going on in your day. Okay? The only thing that we get in relation to trying to remember everything that's happening at every single point in time is a hard time when we forget the things. You know, no one's given us a packet of Harry Bow or packet of sweetss or a bottle of wine for remembering everything that we get given in the day or you know, for the actions or emails that we get.

Nathan Simmonds:

So we have to have that system in place and a system that we trust so that we can maximize our efforts and our outputs without fear of retribution or reprimand because of what we didn't get at the right place from the already from these first places, from these first points in this flow. So it's key that you are emptying your head. Uh, the most successful people are the ones with the emptiest heads. Why? Because they've got the space to think they've got the mental bandwidth.

Nathan Simmonds:

And you may have heard me use this phrase previously and it is about having that mental bandwidth, you know, and it's the same as your, as your broadband as it comes into the house. You know, you can see the little arrows on your phone going up and down or on your laptop now. How much are you downloading? How much are you uploading? And that speed is in the relation to how much bandwidth you have.

Nathan Simmonds:

And we as human beings believe that we have a very certain, we have a finite amount of bandwidth and we have to test it regularly and stretch our capabilities, which enables us to do more. But when we have too many things, because we don't trust, especially our own system and where certain elements are being held that bandwidth, now it starts to get really tested and we don't feel comfortable with what's coming in or what's going out and we start to feel like things are getting dropped.

Nathan Simmonds:

And that's when our, you know, our stress pot starts to fill up and then we start to have more challenges like mentally more than physically. It always starts with a thought though I can't do this or I forgot that I should have been doing this. And we get caught in this kind of, um, washing machine cycle of being, you know, going through kind of that, that that change curve of frustration, agitation, and and upset. But all the time we're sitting in that washing machine, we're not actually taking the next action that's moving us out of that.

Nathan Simmonds:

So when we understand, you know, that bandwidth, let's support how much we are capable of, let's make sure that we're getting things out of here, deleting that. So it's freeing up some extra space over here that enables us to think a little bit faster and a little bit more fluid, um, and a little bit more focused on what it is we can do and what it is we are doing. I hope this makes sense. Let's free up some of that mental bandwidth. He says. So number one, as always, well not always, but is empty your head

Nathan Simmonds:

And that's referring back to some of these previous elements. Before we even get into this storing phase, I make sure that's being clear. Emptying the capture points, deleting the stuff that you don't need to be working with and keep that thinking fluid. Okay? Um, there was a thought came in and it went really quickly or come back to it when it comes back to me.

Nathan Simmonds:

So the first thing is, empty your head. Keep your space as clear as possible. Declutter the thinking, reminding yesterday, what are you, you know, what are you saying yes to keeping some of that space here. Now what are you saying? How many times are you saying yes wisely to things so you can increase your capacity on your bandwidth to focus on certain things and give it your fuller attention.

Nathan Simmonds:

Number two, he says, where are you emptying to? What do we mean by this?