Blog Mylene Frankfort: Workshop Time & Stress Management

Last week I participated during 'de Wervingsdagen' in a workshop called Time & Stress Management. This is what I learned during and from the workshop:

At the start we set our personal goals with the group. On the list were goals like finishing early, sticking to the plan, organizing your time, setting clear goals and relaxing when you can. First we had to fill out a test about our awareness of time spending to check how effective we were. A nice take home message for me included ‘make use of your prime time’ – so relax during times when you know you can’t work efficiently. Also, don’t underestimate the impact of walking by someone’s office/working place to pose your question. In the beginning, the small talk takes extra time, but when people get to know you, they are more willing to help.

Other tests were about things that waste your time and your postponing behavior. Obviously, the main point is to stick to your (realistic) plan. Try to do small tasks at the beginning of the day because you can tick off many boxes on the ‘to-do list’ in a short time. Do not spend the whole morning answering e-mails, but make an agreement with yourself and just start on that big project or exam preparation. Try to get an overview in 10 minutes time and decide whether you are going to continue this task today or not.

The last test was a simple check to determine whether you go for perfection. The coach told the perfectionists that you could allow yourself to make 3 mistakes a day. When you are aware of the fact that your own norm is higher during group work, discuss the quality and quantity of the final product beforehand. And, what are you afraid of? After all, nobody is perfect ;)

The last exercise was about prioritizing tasks. The daily tasks could be divided in 4 quadrants.

The main goal is to put your tasks in quadrant 2; this way you can schedule your time well!

The conclusion of the workshop was about realistic time planning: plan small tasks too, make use of your prime time and also save time for unexpected things to happen. To be honest, I didn’t stick to my plan for writing this blog. But in my opinion, you first need a plan before you can actually postpone your tasks!