Bank your time:

1. Bank your time: Tips for improving individual performance

2. Who achieves the most? • The one looking as an important person? • The one always in hurry? • The one just sitting there?

3. Agenda • Reasons for improving individual performance • Two concepts behind superior performance: • The Pareto Principle, also known as the 20/80 Rule • Parkinson’s Law • Improving individual performance – step-by-step: • define your targets • apply the 20/80 Rule do identify the most important • eliminate time wasters and optimise thieves of time • ensure access to the information and tools needed • set challenging time estimate (Parkinson’s law) • Application suggestions

4. Agenda • Reasons for improving individual performance • Two concepts behind superior performance: • The Pareto Principle, also known as the 20/80 Rule • Parkinson’s Law • Improving individual performance – step-by-step: • define your targets • apply the 20/80 Rule do identify the most important • eliminate time wasters and optimise thieves of time • ensure access to the information and tools needed • set challenging time estimate (Parkinson’s law) • Application suggestions

5. Reasons for improving individual performance Is there any point? • If you would do the same with 10 hours in a week for which the others spend 40 hours, it were expected that you work 40 hours and are 4 times more productive than the others. Objectives of improving individual performance: • Strengthen your position in negotiations (about concrete tasks, about salary, about working conditions etc.) • To work wherever you want and whenever it’s suitable for you • Increase free time for doing something you really want Is there any point?

6. Agenda • Reasons for improving individual performance • Two concepts behind superior performance: • The Pareto Principle, also known as the 20/80 Rule • Parkinson’s Law • Improving individual performance – step-by-step: • define your targets • apply the 20/80 Rule do identify the most important • eliminate time wasters and optimise thieves of time • ensure access to the information and tools needed • set challenging time estimate (Parkinson’s law) • Application suggestions

7. Concepts behind superior performance:The Pareto Principle (the 20/80 Rule) • The Pareto Principle (also known as the 80/20 Rule, the law of the vital few and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) • What is this 20%, that causes 80% of my problems? • What is this 20%, that gives 80% of my desired results?

8. Concepts behind superior performance:Parkinson’s Law • Parkinson's Law: "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.“ • The perceived importance and complexity of a task increase inversely with the time remained for its completion. • Consequently: in order to focus to the most important, shorten the working time.

9. Agenda • Reasons for improving individual performance • Two concepts behind superior performance: • The Pareto Principle, also known as the 20/80 Rule • Parkinson’s Law • Improving individual performance – step-by-step: • define your targets • apply the 20/80 Rule do identify the most important • eliminate time wasters and optimise thieves of time • ensure access to the information and tools needed • set challenging time estimate (Parkinson’s law) • Application suggestions

10. Improving individual performance:a) define your targets • Facts: • doing unimportant things well does not make them important • if doing something takes a lot of time, this does not make doing it important • it’s not possible to wash teeth, speak with telephone and replay to an e-mail simultaneously • So, ask yourself: “If this would be the only thing that I complete today, would I be satisfied with the day?” Target Are you doing several things at the same time in order to feel yourself more productive? If the targets are set appropriately, there is no need for multitasking.

11. Improving individual performance:b) apply the 20/80 Rule do identify the most important • In order to decrease working time, one should do less and focus to the most important. • Everything that is not directly directed to achieving the defined target is unimportant with this respect. The 20/80 Rule • Ask yourself: “Am I productive or just active?” (or, when put otherwise: “Am I thinking out activities in order to avoid doing important things?”) • What are these three main activities that help you feel, that you are doing well? Be honest for yourself: usually these activities are used to postpone the important ones.

12. Improving individual performance:c) eliminate time wasters and optimise thieves of time • Time wasters are things that can be ignored without any notable consequence: • meetings and discussions without clear purpose → escape • “small talks” in phone → be concrete • e-mails just because of writing something → use auto reply Time waste • Thieves of time are operations or inquires that need to be filled, but which interrupt the more important activity • Do these activities in larger parts (e.g. read e-mails only once a day) Thief of time

13. Improving individual performance:d) ensure access to the information and tools needed • The purpose of an employee should be: • to get complete access to the needed information • to get the right contacts • to get the most appropriate tools for completing the task • to get as much decision-making power as possible • The purpose of an employer should be: • to give to an employee as much information as possible • to delegate as much decision-making power as possible Sharing information

14. Improving individual performance:e) set challenging time estimate (Parkinson’s law) • Remove safety buffer from your time estimates. Often this safety is the larger part of the estimate, doubling or tripling the amount of time the work would require if done in a vacuum. When looked at as a whole, time estimates are not really a single number, but rather they are statistical entities, reflecting the probability of task completion in a certain amount of time. An aggressive estimate, reflecting only the amount of work required might have a 50% level of confidence, while a longer realistic estimate, one against which the resource is comfortable committing to, might be closer to an 85-95% range of confidence. The needed time is an estimate.

15. Agenda • Reasons for improving individual performance • Two concepts behind superior performance: • The Pareto Principle, also known as the 20/80 Rule • Parkinson’s Law • Improving individual performance – step-by-step: • define your targets • apply the 20/80 Rule do identify the most important • eliminate time wasters and optimise thieves of time • ensure access to the information and tools needed • set challenging time estimate (Parkinson’s law) • Application suggestions

16. Application suggestions • Practice the art of discontinuing doing things that do not add value • Complete two lists: • one short list with the things that need to be done, and • one list with the things that need not be done. For deciding what needs be done, imagine that you are threatened with pistol and required to abandon from the activities that take 80% of your time. • Practice saying “no”; during the coming two days use it as your standard answer • Use an Outlook reminder that asks three times a day: “Are you inventing for yourself activities in order to avoid doing things that are really important?”

17. Thank you!