1. To prepare for a full-day workshop that I have previously conducted numerous times (let’s say in the range of 5 – 8+), it takes me at least 2 – 3 hours (easily) to get ready. I need to

• make sure I have everything (and I tend to use checklists),
• refresh my memory on the sequence of events during the workshop,
• verify workshop details (will the room be unlocked, who is going to help me carry things in, etc.)
• change a quote or an activity because I know the group will be a little different than previous groups (older grade levels, for example).

2. To prepare for a one-day workshop on a topic that I have presented before, although not in this particular format, it will take between 8 – 20+ hours to prepare. That’s a huge range I know, but it is dependent on how much similarity there might be to previous workshops. For example, am I only able to pull a few or many activities and slides from earlier sessions? Sometimes, I might just be “updating” a previous seminar that I haven’t taught for awhile, but even that takes many hours because I shudder when I look at PowerPoints I created even 3 or 4 years ago.

3. To prepare for a brand new workshop, that is one that I have no previous handouts, PowerPoints, learning activities for participants, etc., that is something else again in terms of time. To prepare for a day-long workshop that I already know a great deal about in terms of content, research, issues, and so forth, but I have never put the information into a workshop format, then I allow AT LEAST 6 – 8 days of uninterrupted planning, thinking, designing, and refining time.

I am an early morning person, so when I am “full on” into planning in this sort of mode, I will start by 4 or 5 a.m. and might work until at least that time in the afternoon when I finally run out of steam. Then I’m back at it again the next morning. I’m living and breathing the content, the process, the flow, etc. I tell other people that I am booked and I work in an intense fashion. When I am in the zone (and I get there when I’m working like this), I will come up for air about every hour or so, check and answer my email, go to the restroom, get some water and maybe a snack (and this takes a total of about 10 minutes when I’m like this) and then I get right back into the zone for another hour to 90 minutes.

Let me add one more note, even with all the advance work and planning, there is always time dedicated just before a seminar, speech, or workshop, too. I often have giant projects that are going to be going on during the school year, for example, and I get the BIG planning done during the summer (so I can get packets run, etc.) but then just before the new sessions, I spend hours familiarizing myself with, tweaking and adding content. I might even be running around getting last minute materials for an activity that I want the participants to do. From my experience, it cannot all be done up front even though the majority of it can.

Others might have different styles, but this is how I work.

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(c) 2008 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm) Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do via seminars, workshops, writing, coaching, & consulting.

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