Colin Watson

Managing Time: Who’s Responsible for Your Work-Life Balance

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A very expensive New York hotel is now offering a new service – a work-down call. When you check in, you can arrange for the front desk to phone you at a certain hour to remind you to power down all your electronic devices. Isn’t this like having your mother tell you it’s time to get ready for bed?

Some companies are even instituting bans on replying to emails after hours. And Volkswagen in Germany shuts off emails sent to employees’ Blackberries half an hour after shifts end.

Many employees sing the work-life balance song. But do they need to have their activities controlled by others so they can have it? May be they just need skills to manage their lives and time better.

Workshops on Managing Your Time

Time Management : Make it a Habit
This workshop analyses the participants three-day time log. The Wiley Time Mastery Profile

Article on Managing Your Time

Time Management — Getting Back Control of Your Life

 

Jane Watson

The Key to Productive Meetings: The Cardinals Know It

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The cardinals in Rome have much to talk about as they participate in closed-door, pre-conclave meetings. In fact, some of them have so much to discuss that they have had to set up a 5-minute time limit. When the green light flashes, the speaker must halt.

It’s the best way to run a productive meeting. Time allowances for speakers prevent one person from monopolizing a meeting and encourages the speaker to organize his or her thoughts in a logical manner.

Why don’t more meeting chairs do this? Oftentimes, it’s because they don’t feel comfortable dictating to their members – some of whom may be higher ranking than themselves. But in the long term, the chair looks more capable, meetings finish on time, and more work gets done.

How do you set up the time limits? In the agenda. A good agenda doesn’t just list the topic for discussion. This would make the agenda just the chair’s grocery list. Effective agendas include the name of the person who will lead the discussion and the purpose for the discussion – update, decision required, or action needed. It also assigns a time limit for each topic. Obviously, if the topic becomes heated or more time is needed, the chair can make some adjustments during the meeting.

When in a meeting, do what the Romans do.

By Jane Watson

Colin Watson

Free Tip Sheet on Minute Taking at Meetings

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Free Tip Sheet from the Web-Based workshop:

Minute Taking Online Course

Web Based course

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Minute Taking Tip Sheet

Free, Minute Taking Tip Sheet

Colin Watson

Taking Minutes at Meetings now on YouTube

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Minute Taking Online web-based Course

Web-Based training – Taking Minutes at Meetings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

YouTube link or click on the image above

This web-Based Training is Offered through the “Udemy” training portal.

Udemy-Minute TakingThe online course costs just $149… but for a limited time, use the coupon code “otn” and get the course for only $129!

Click HERE to get this special offer now!

 

Colin Watson

Web Based Training – Taking Minutes at Meetings

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Ontario Training now offers a web based courses through Udemy on Taking Minutes at Meetings:

Web based training by Jane Watson

Jane Watson has been involved in the meeting process — both as a minute taker and as a chair — for many years.

In fact, she has written one of the first books exclusively on minute taking — The Minute Takers Handbook — now in its 4th reprint. Since then she has taught minute taking to all sorts of groups. And Jane has learned even more techniques to help you.

Whether you are taking minutes for boards, committees, weekly meetings, volunteer groups or your condo association, this workshop will  make you more confident and enable you to produce professional minutes.

Participants will learn how to write effective minutes quickly, how privacy legislation impacts minutes, and how to improve their listening skills. The course includes templates, exercises and quizzes.
Once you sign-up for the course you will have unlimited access, including any updates I make to it in the future!

Minute Taking at Meetings

Whether you are taking minutes for boards, committees, weekly meetings, volunteer groups or your condo association, this three-hour workshop will make you more confident and enable you to produce professional minutes.

If you prefer the conventional classroom lead instruction, OntarioTraining.net offers both a half-day and a full-day of training on Minute Taking.

Minute Taking and Privacy Legislation – FIPPA & MFIPPA

Minute Taking & Listening Skills

Minute Taking: Take Minutes, Not Hours (half-day workshop)