Plan Or Be Planned: Advanced Priority Management for Professionals course

Plan Or Be Planned: Advanced Priority Management for Professionals course

or

Designing Your Life: “Not Another Time Management Seminar!”

Register now online or call (613) 728-6777.

Register for October 27, 2014 – Ottawa

David at Nortel (Ottawa).

“Clear messages and examples. Will start to utilize some tactics immediately.”

– Bill Courchaine, Director of Corporate Sales, Ottawa Senators

“Allowed us to view our own possibilities… hard to beat!”

– Steven Meyer, Willmar, Minnesota

“Extraordinary: turnaround point in my life!”

– Seminar Participant, Montreal, Quebec

“Got me thinking about what I want in life.”

– Colin Mealim, Nortel

Course Description

Always running to catch up? Praying for green lights? In basket overflowing? Feeling out of control? Staying late? Too much to do? Not enough time for family, for friends, for yourself? Interruptions throwing you off track? Having less fun? Feeling too overwhelmed to be creative or focus on your larger goals? Choose to take control of the madness. We’ve all heard about time and priority management courses … find the time for something different.

“It made me stop and think.”

– Radmila Kovacevik, Nortel

“Very knowledgeable.”

– Kendra McDougal, Colonial Beach, Virginia

Managing time and balancing priorities is a top concern for professionals because we often work with short-term deadlines that demand innovation under stress. It’s challenging to stay creative when your focus is fractured and the clock is ticking. Harder still is to make progress on larger, less-urgent goals at the same time. We don’t lack time: we lack front-en
d clarity. We don’t need to manage time: we need to manage information and assign priorities. Only when we know where it is we want to go, can we figure out how to get there as fast as possible. Take the first step toward designing your life: take this course and learn how David gets so much done!

“Tangible tips… really like the humour, pace, and honesty.”

– Jackie Kubica, Toronto, Ontario

“New and refreshing approach.”

– Michelle Merrifield, London, Ontario

Language: English (French available upon request)

Duration: keynote: your choice of 25 minutes to 90 minutes, course: your choice of half-day to one day

Read a testimonial letter from Adrian Bashford, Nortel [65KB]

The Problem

Most professionals today are using more time than necessary to get things done due to a general lack of balanced priorities. Often, people find it difficult to say no, so they don’t. Unrealistic and improper goals are consistently set and people struggle to meet them, often neglecting more important things. It’s difficult to remember that when we say no to one thing, we are actually saying yes to something more important. Our bad habits are often reinforced by the thrill of the deadline, procrastination and other tricky behavioral ruts (in fact, procrastination is usually an indicator of a creative mind!)

“Helpful things I can use.”

– Ben Doyle, Nortel

“Great! Logical, sensible.”

– Doug Samuel, Hearnsee, Ottawa

“His approach is great!”

– Mark Bonnet, Nortel

Bansky on time management, with thanks to ABVH

What Makes This Course Unique

This isn’t just one more priority management course. We will take the pain out of priority management effectively teaching you how to manage your priorities, turn intent into action, and get more accomplished in less time.

Our instructional designer, David Berman, is an internationally known speaker, who has operated several successful organizations based on GTD principles, has developed priority management software in use in over 50 countries, and is considered an expert in time and resource management for individuals and groups. He has developed paper and software tools to assist in sharing his unique approach to managing priorities and getting the most important things done. David’s proven techniques build on David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) philosophy as well as Stephen Covey’s Weekly Planning Model from First Things First, while extending into the realm of taking advantage of computer-assisted techniques.

“Great seminar, great presenter, very interesting topics. Informative! Many thanks!”

– Anonymous, Ottawa

“Very unique ideas.”

– Douglas Lindsay Chapman, Nortel

What You’ll Learn

• Lifetime
  o Why we work long hours
  o Time as a resource
  o Designing an ideal life
  o Your professional destination: where opportunity, capacity, and joy meet
• Mission
  o Plan or be planned
  o Who is driving you?
  o Direction is as important as time
  o Rapid personal mission development
  o Importance vs. urgency
  o Your life outcomes list
  o Your personal board of directors
• Weekly and Daily Techniques and Tools
  o Electronic to-do list tools
  o Fifth-generation prioritization
  o Weekly planning
  o Planning perfectly doable days
  o Designing tasks
  o Delaying gratification
  o Visualizing success
  o Top tips for saving minutes
  o How to arrive early, without losing time
  o How to delegate effectively and stress-free
  o How to say “No!”
  o Time-saving technology
  o Taming e-mail interruptions
• Getting Organized
  o Getting organized with a trusted system
  o Organizing a mobile workspace
  o Group time planning
• The Seven Deadline Sins
  o Procrastination
  o Indecisiveness
  o High efficiency addiction
  o Reactive mode
  o Getting past tense
  o Success
  o Perfection

“Very enjoyable.”

– Julia Johnson, Seattle, Washington

Benefits to You

Participants will increase their value and reduce their stress level. Investing the time for planning will make better days possible for you and for everyone who depends on you. We will increase the likelihood of useful results, reduce the risk of the unexpected throwing the team off track, and speed toward success output increases.

Benefits to Your Organization

• Clear professional and personal goals and objectives make for better work and clearer focus, resulting in a more successful organization
• Reduction to risk of employee burn-out through a system which values balance and ensures peak effectiveness and creativity
• Reduction in dangers of uncommitted agreements, which often result in unmet commitments, under-delivery, reduced morale and various opportunity costs
• Better products, by ensuring organization members each have a clear direction and agreement on what success looks like
• Reduced waste
• Reduced supervision
• Higher morale
• Increased customer satisfaction
• Higher proportion of staff time spent on strategic, creative thinking
• Higher skilled staff retention
• Knowledge retention

Course Goals

At the end of our full-day course, participants will be able to:

• Develop a personal mission statement and life goals list
• Find personal balance that is in alignment with the priorities of those around you
• Plan a self-directed, sustainable, evergreened life or career plan, organizing by year, week, day, and minute
• Identify and activate what matters the most
• Reap the benefits of effective organization and delegation
• Allocate priority based upon importance rather than urgency
• Say “No!” when there are more important things deserving a “Yes!”
• Arrive on time to meetings that are truly effective
• Choose which tools (paper and/or electronic) best fit each personal style

Who Should Attend

This course is useful for anyone trying to manage competing priorities, focus on importance, and get more done with less effort and less stress on themselves and others.

Prerequisites: All you need is a little time… (and we guarantee you’ll get your time back!)

What Participants Get

When David Berman Communications hosts this course*, each participant receives:

• a complimentary, comprehensive 80-page learning companion (also available separately for $97, with optional 1-on-1 distance coaching)
• complimentary meals, snacks and beverages throughout
• a thirty-minute personal coaching tele-session within a month of the course
• the option to attend this course again in the future, as a refresher at no additional cost
• a money-back guarantee: if, after coaching and refresher, you don’t think you’ve got your money’s worth, we’ll refund your entire registration fee

(*If attending a course hosted by another organization, please confirm with them which of these apply.)

About the Expert Speaker

David Berman is the principal of David Berman Communications in Ottawa, Canada. He has over 20 years of experience in design and strategic communications. In addition to operating as one of the leading design strategists in Canada’s capital, in recent years he has also recommitted his career toward sharing his knowledge and unique talent as a manager through professional development courses for creative organizations. David is the Ethics chair of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada, and was named a Fellow by the Society in 1999. He is also a vice-president of Icograda, the world body for graphic design. David is a National Professional Member of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS) and of Global Speakers Federation. David has been featured in the Financial Post, Marketing, and Applied Arts magazines.

Register for October 27, 2014 – Ottawa

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Reviewed December 22, 2011