Michael Janz from Priority Management is presenting on the challenges of being effective in getting your work done. Started with time management. Have been focusing on contextualizing their principles within Lotus Notes and other tools of the day. Some notes:

1. Some research findings – (a) the average worker is interrupted every 3 minutes, and (b) Australians wasted 45 days working time on unproductive work.
– … HBR – need both focus and energy. Gives four quadrants – procrastination, disengagement, distraction, and purposefulness. The study was building on the book – A Bias for Action – and found that only 10% of managers were in the purposefulness quadrant.

2. Seven principles:
– … (a) be clear on what you want. Remember the urgent vs. important (investment) matrix.
– … (b) we have too many different capturing devices. Where did we put something? Need one core tool, and Lotus Notes is a great tool for doing four things – (a) help to manage your time, (b) help to manage information, and two more. When you are at your best, do your high value work – creative, investment, etc.
– … (c) effectiveness is doing the right job right – delete, delegate, do, defer (see David Allen’s work around this, in Getting Things Done).
– … (d) focus on the important – be proactive. Problem – if we go to the inbox first, we start into proactive mode. If you want to focus on what’s important, don’t go to your inbox first – start in your two-day calendar view. Have your priorities listed in your calendar and task list.
– … … when rolling out a new system, Data3 in Brisbane, one of the local IT integrators, offers a productivity review. One finding – that people check their email inbox 10x more frequently than they think.
– … (e) ensure meetings work – they have an agenda, the timing work, etc.
– … … write agenda items as questions.
– … … get the agenda out in advance of the meeting – so people can come prepared.
– … (f) control the technology – open the calendar first (assuming you have scheduling important/investment activities), turn-off unnecessary distractions, manage your inbox.
– … … challenge – go to your inbox only 3-4 times a day, and make it your goal to clear it each time. You’d be amazed at how much you get done – and stay up-to-date.
– … (g) planning is the key. End of day review – what have I achieved and not, review upcoming commitments, block time for priority tasks, etc.

3. Recommendation – Michael and other attendees, take a look at what Eric Mack is doing with eProductivity for Lotus Notes. See eproductivity.com.