Just click on any of the titles in the list below and you'll be taken to a description of the workshop. 

Note: Some of the workshops can also be offered as teleseminars and/or webinars. 

• I Just Want to Be Whelmed': Maintaining a Vibrant and Productive Work Life
  
  
• Achieving, Attaining, Accomplishing: Strategies for Striving, Surviving, and Thriving through Tenure (and Beyond!)
  
  
• Create a Not-to-Do List: Leverage Your Time, Energy, and Resources
  
  
• “I’m Tenured... Now What?"  Adjusting the Thermostat on Your Academic Life
  
  
• Organized for Success!
  
  
• Become the Emperor or Empress of Your Email (and Other Electronic Tools)
  
  
• Obstacle Illusions--Are You Delusional? Strategically Plan (and Play) Your Professional and Personal Life
  
  
• Overcome Reading Overload
  
  
• Pez, Popcorn, and Princesses: Professional Presence (and other 'Ps') for Making a Difference
  
  
• Keeping Chaos at Bay.. For Yourself and Your Colleagues!
  
  
• Take a Taxicab to Your Destination:  Increasing Achievement, Collegiality, and Productivity (best for elementary school staffs)
  
  
• "So. What's Your Story?"
  
  

• Help! I'm Over the Top! Tools, Tips, and Techniques to Gain Control of an Academic Life
  
  
• Poised for Life... Poised for Success: Maintaining Balance and Equilibrium as a Woman in Academia
  
  
• “Peacefully, Predictably, and Purposefully Crafting a Productive 360° Life”
  
  
• Use PowerPoint® Like a Professional (Instead of Embarrassing Yourself)
  
  
• Hunks, Chunks, and Bites (Or How to Eat an Elephant):  Managing Your Small & Large Projects
  
  
• Deputize...then Delegate
  
  
• Bungling the Burglars Who Steal Your Time, Attention, Energy, and (Really) Your Life: For Those Who Want to Take a Stand Against this Crime!
  
  
• Feeding the Tiger: Do You Have a Choice?
  
  
• Making a Break for It
  
  
• Shameless Self-Promotion - of Yourself, Your School, Your Staff, and Your Students
  
  
• "There's a Hole in my Bucket, Dear Liza, Dear Liza"
  
  

Do you feel like you might come apart at the seams? Are you wondering what may happen if you do? Is there anything in there?

Being a professor means that there is always something to do. It can be overwhelming, to say the least! And, at the same time, you chose the academic life because you like the challenge and don't want to be underwhelmed by others and their performance. So, is it possible just to be "whelmed?" Actually, yes it is.

In this engaging, practical, and energizing workshop, led by Meggin McIntosh (AKA "The Ph.D of Productivity"™) we will talk about how to determine what your "whelm" looks and feels like as well as how to move ever closer to the state of "whelm" instead of the alternatives. You will learn tools, techniques, and strategies to apply - in conjunction with your new awareness.

Here is what you can count on if you participate: Your vibrancy, energy, and productivity will expand within your professional (and yes, even your personal) life. Don't miss this workshop!

Are you overworked, overcommitted, and overdoing it? Do you feel overwhelmed, overextended, and overstimulated? Is your life overscheduled, overloaded, and overbooked? And maybe even your computer is overcrowded, in need of an overhaul, or over the hill? Is your inbox (both digital and paper) overflowing, overgrown, and oversupplied?

Some academics might even say they feel like they are "going over the edge" at times. If this is true for you... or any of the questions could be answered with a "Yes,"” then make your plans now to be with us on __________________.

In this special workshop, Meggin McIntosh, also known as "The Ph.D of Productivity"™ will give you tools, tips, and techniques that you can apply immediately to regain (or gain for the first time) a sense of control over your life as an academic. Topics will include: email, schedules, work space, interruptions, and many more. Some participants will be interviewed briefly prior to the workshop, so be ready to share your angst with Meggin when she calls you!

Invest in yourself, your life as an academic, and really, your personal life, by making the time to attend "Help! I'm Over the Top!"

You thought that graduate school was crazy busy... and that when you got your position as a professor, it would still be busy, but more reasonable, somehow. However, you now realize that you were delusional.

One professor emailed this to me after reading the statement above in the announcement for the workshop at his university:

"Your flier is correct, Meggin. Tenure track has been more stressful than graduate school and the 10 years I sent in the fast-paced corporate world combined." 

Do NOT miss the workshop "Achieving, Attaining, Accomplishing: Strategies for Striving, Surviving, and Thriving Through Tenure (and Beyond!). The workshop, which is limited to pre-tenure faculty members will deliver on its title.

Our presenter will be Meggin McIntosh, who is known as "The Ph.D of Productivity"™. As a participant, you will learn ways to determine what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, and how to make that happen. You will have strategies for structuring those aspects of your life that can be (and there are more of them than you think). Be ready to learn, think, and then put into practice what you've learned.

Much of the rest of your life, both professionally and personally, rests on whether you learn how to achieve, attain, and accomplish in the academy (let alone how to thrive while you're doing so).

Multiple and shifting priorities prevent faculty from designing a consistent work schedule and pursuing a coherent agenda over time. The inability to prioritize and set clear goals leads faculty to feel as though they are not doing anything well. Constantly re-adjusting and re-evaluating their efforts prevents faculty from accomplishing anything with a feeling of satisfaction (Amelink & Hyer, 2005).

Any chance this statement sounds familiar? Is there anything you can do to gain balance and equilibrium in this ever-shifting scenario?

Actually, yes. In this compelling, honest, and practical workshop, Dr. Meggin McIntosh will lead participants to consider where we have control and give us tools for taking control. The goal of the workshop is for you to leave with concrete, specific ways to create the life you want (and deserve) while being a successful, vibrant part of the academy.

The day promises to be fun, worthwhile, and memorable! Make time to participate. The investment will pay off in your professional career, your personal life, and your peace of mind.

Consider these truisms:

1. You have 24 hours every single day--no more, no less.
2. You have more to do than you can possibly get done in those 24 hours.
3. You are probably letting some important tasks, responsibilities, and commitments 'slide' while you attend to less important (but maybe more urgent) ones.
4. And here's the big one... You can't be the best if you're doing everything.

If you want to 'raise the bar on how good you are,' then you have to leverage your time, energy, and resources. And that means that, in addition to creating a to-do list, you have to create a not-to-do list.

In this workshop, Dr. Meggin McIntosh--AKA "The Ph.D of Productivity"™ --will give you direction on how to create a "not-to-do" list and how to attend to it in the same way that you know you should attend to your to-do list.

You can expect to be poked and prodded and provoked while participating in this class. You can then expect to be more productive if you put into practice what you learn.

Do yourself a favor...learn how to create a not-to-do list so you can leverage your time, energy, and resources.

You are a professional and you want your PowerPoint® (or other presentation software) to support - not detract - from others' sense of your professionalism. The use of PowerPoint® is expected of anyone who is teaching, presenting, or facilitating workshops, classes, seminars, presentations, and the like.

This is both good and bad. (Or a better way to say it is, "This is both REALLY good and REALLY bad").

It's great when the presenter REALLY knows how to use PowerPoint to augment and support his/her message and content. It's REALLY horrid when a presenter does any of the following:

1. Has too much text on a slide (and then proceeds to read each slide).
2. Chooses a font that is impossible to read (or chooses colors that would make any font difficult to read).
3. Selects clip art for the sake of including clip art, i.e., the clip art has nothing to do with the point being made.
4. Displays clip art that moves (animated clip art) and leaves it on the screen so that it is terribly distracting.
5. Uses bullet points that jump from place to place on each slide.
6. Puts something on a slide and then says, "I know you can't read this." Hello?!
7. Creates slides that are "busy."
8. Thinks that every single point of the presentation needs to have its own slide - and then proceeds to put together a 158-slide PowerPoint® (and tells people ahead of time).
9. Uses tired templates that everyone has seen (and probably used).
10. Looks at the screen instead of at the laptop or other monitor (which is strategically placed in front of the presenter).
11. I'm sure you can think of other examples, as well, because I know I can.

These are all mistakes I have made and learned from. I want to share *some* of what I have learned with you in this special seminar.

Here's what I know: If you can tend to - and fix - one or more of these beginner mistakes for your next PowerPoint® presentation, you are already ahead of at least 90% of the people who use PowerPoint®. Don't miss out on this opportunity to learn how to convey (rather than distract from) your professionalism in a way that increases your impact on learners.

Successful people organize themselves to be so--it is not happenstance. To be successful, you need:

1. to have what you need, when you need it;
2. to put away what you don't need (yet) until you do need it, thereby limiting distraction and self-interruption.

In this workshop, you will learn simple secrets to organize for success, including the following:

1. Designing your workspace for optimum productivity;
2. Separating the priorities from the "not quite as important,"
3. Keeping the priorities where you need them, when you need them,
4. and more!

Workshop participants receive the following (and much more):

• a complete set of SwiftFiles
• other tools to put the strategies your learn into practice
• a packet of handouts to support your learning

Develop more peace of mind as you are more organized for success.

You have projects... lots of them. Consider this definition of a project: "A non-routine series of tasks directed toward a goal." (Snead & Wycoff, 1997).

Or, maybe you'd rather think about David Allen's definition: "A project is anything that takes two or more steps to complete." Whew! That puts it into perspective, doesn't it?

I'll say it again: You have lots of projects. I'll also wager this: You could use some help in managing those projects. This webinar will offer you some structures and strategies for conceptualizing and completing your projects.

"Hunks, Chunks, and Bites: Managing Your Small and Large Projects" is for professionals who have projects that they want to complete and are a bit frustrated by not getting them completed - and who may not be sure why they aren't getting them completed (or even started!)

Note: This workshop is not for someone who is trying to build a building or plan a national convention for 50,000 attendees. It's for people who need (and want) to

• write a dissertation, thesis, or book
• design a website hire an assistant
• help a child apply for college
• market a booklet
• get more members for an association
• de-clutter their home, office, and/or garage
• and the like...
  
  

Sound like some of your projects (that aren't quite done)?  Then take part in "Hunks, Chunks, and Bites" so you can design and manage these projects right to completion.

Email (and its electronic counterparts) threaten to overwhelm the empire, but you have the power to exert your influence and leadership to assert your dominion. In this engaging and highly practical seminar, Dr. Meggin McIntosh, "The Ph.D of Productivity"™ will give you specific tips, tools, and techniques for using electronic tools optimally. For example, regarding email, voice mail, electronic files, and the like, you'll learn to

• Capture the power (e.g., use email & voice mail to communicate in a timely, efficient way as well as to help others respond to you promptly and with the information you need).
• Curtail the appearance (e.g., reducing the amount of email that even shows up in your in-box)
• Conclude the fate (e.g., determine what stays and what goes).
• Control the impact (e.g., although electronic tools allow for 24/7/365 access, you want to set boundaries for that and you'll learn several ways to do so).
• Compel the destiny (e.g., ways to store and access all the 'bits & bytes' of information you have).
  
  

This workshop is NOT for you if all the following are true:

1. You empty your email in-box everyday.
2. You are relaxed and calm about keeping up with the incoming information (email, voice mail, internet files, documents, etc.)
3. You find any piece of electronic information you've stored in less than 10 seconds.
4. Your system for your electronic/digital information is paralleled in your system for handling paper & other physical items.

Don't miss "Be the Emperor or Empress of Your Email (and Other Electronic Tools)."

Are you feeling like you have more to do than it seems possible to do in any 24-hour period...Then read on....

"When you authorize others to take over some of your activities, you free yourself to focus your time and efforts on those tasks where you can make your best contribution." Julie Morgenstern, time management and effectiveness expert

You have the option--and responsibility--to deputize others to handle tasks, projects, and appearances in your stead.   As Robert Half states, "Delegating work works, provided the one delegating works, too." Delegating is about extending your impact not shirking your work.   

All of us have the option to deputize others to handle tasks, projects, and appearances in our stead. What some of us don't have is a clear sense of who, what, when, where, why, and how to delegate.  This seminar gives you answers to those questions as you develop a deputy roster, duty list, and deployment log.

Maximize your productivity and support others in their growth and development by learning how to "deputize...then delegate."

"Life is full of obstacle illusions." (Grant Frazier)

These "obstacle illusions" block your view of the possibilities. As you peer into your future, let's clear your view so you can see further and know how to get there, too. 

If you want the future to be an improvement upon, different from, or more than previous years have been for you (i.e., your work, your family, and/or your life), then you need to mindfully and deliberately make plans for that to happen.

Philip Adams said: "When people say to me: 'How do you do so many things?' I often answer them, without meaning to be cruel: 'How do you do so little?' It seems to me that people have vast potential. Most people can do extraordinary things if they have the confidence or take the risks. Yet most people don't. They sit in front of the telly and treat life as if it goes on forever."

Take advantage of this opportunity to learn about whether 'Obstacle Illusions' are obstructing your view of what is possible.

"I can't say enough positive things about the 'Obstacle Illusions' teleseminar presented by Meggin McIntosh. I have taken nearly every teleseminar Meggin has ever done and this was one of the best, ever. If you want to get organized, motivated and have your goals for the new year in place, you need to be a part of this teleseminar. This course will teach you how to write a goal, determine and rate your obstacles, and devise strategies that will help you achieve your goals."
--Billy Simms, Corpus Christi, Texas

You protect yourself against people who would steal your car, your television, your suitcases, your bicycle, your identity. Of course! Who wouldn't protect these important items?

But what about being vigilant about what steals your time, your attention, and your energy? Shouldn't you be thinking about that, too?

The answer is "Yes! Absolutely!"

When you allow (or even encourage) the theft of your time, attention, and energy, you are, in fact, letting your life be stolen.

This workshop takes both a playful look at this idea - but a very serious one as well. You will learn concrete, specific ways to "take a stand" against time thieves, attention stealers, information outlaws, and other assorted productivity crooks and criminals. It will be fun, worthwhile, and memorable!

Buried in books? Knee deep in newspapers? Mired in magazines? Run ragged by reports? Does this describe you? And if not you, does this describe your colleagues, family, and/or friends?

Some facts to consider:

The average American adult reads between 200 & 250 words per minute.
An average adult book has 350 words per page and 250 pages, equaling 87,500 words. So, an average adult reader will take between 6 and 7 hours to read such a book (if he/she even finishes it).

If you aren't doubling your knowledge every 1½ - 2 years, you are falling behind. How does that statement make you feel?  One of the ways of keeping abreast of changes, improvements, and discoveries in your field is through reading.  If you are like most people, you read much more slowly than you are capable of doing - and you don't comprehend or remember as much as you could. This seminar will give you the tools to understand and remember better and faster than ever before. You can't afford to miss this experience - that is, if you want to stay on top of your field.

You will:

• Double your reading speed (at least!).
• Maintain your comprehension if it is already high; increase your comprehension if it is lower than you find acceptable.
• Learn ways to store and retrieve critical information that you have processed through reading, viewing and listening.
  

In order to keep pace with today's work, hobby, and pleasure-reading, professionals must know how to read faster and remember more. In this workshop, you will learn skills and strategies to help yourself (and others) overcome reading overload.  You will be more informed and on top of things.  Do yourself a favor and take part in this special workshop that will serve you now--and for the rest of your life.

Let's assume the following:

• You want to be effective in your position;
• You want to enjoy your work;
• You want others to acknowledge your contribution;
• You want to be respected for your ideas and efforts;
• You want to be listened to;
• And more...

If these assumptions are true, then make sure you take part in this special workshop: where you will learn how to be more confident, put forth your ideas, communicate cordially and strongly, and have your outer and inner package match for maximum impact.

You can also expect to laugh while you're learning... and you'll take away some interesting mementos from the workshop - as well as new knowledge and presence.

Konrad Adenauer said, “An infallible method of conciliating a tiger is to allow oneself to be devoured.” Doesn’t sound too great, does it? The message for this session is that we DO have a choice, i.e., we can be devoured by the “tiger” (whatever that tiger may be), we can be nibbled at or munched on by the tiger, or we can choose to assert ourselves and regard the tiger from a safe place, thereby protecting ourselves. You can expect that this workshop will affect you in a powerful fashion.

You will identify:

• What or who the tigers are that threaten to devour you (or have already devoured you)
• What you are doing that is “conciliating” the tigers
• What the cost is to you (and those around you) to be conciliating the tigers
• Then, you will acquire the knowledge and skills to choose to assert yourself with aplomb, i.e., in such a way that you are confident, strong, and poised. Ah, sounds delicious (but not to the tigers!)

This work helps you make significant changes in yourself and your situation. 

Today's academic world is a very different place than it was - even 5 years ago, let alone 15 or 25 years ago. Our personal and professional lives and spaces can quickly become chaotic. And, while some of us thrive (seemingly) at a frenetic pace, juggling lots of balls in the air - others of us are feeling anxious, out of balance, and in disarray.

The truth is that for the benefit of faculty members, staff, students, and the institution (let alone ourselves and our families), we need to keep chaos at bay. This workshop, presented by Dr. Meggin McIntosh (AKA "The Ph.D of Productivity"™) will address specific ideas for members of the college/university faculty and staff who are striving to be as productive as possible.

In this fun and practical session, Meggin will provide tools and techniques for contending with the barrage of information, paper, requests, and "stuff" that can keep us from flourishing in today's exciting world. Dr. McIntosh will frame this workshop around ten specific ways to "keep chaos at bay" (including dealing with interruptions, knowing where your time goes, leveraging the use of your time, breaking the procrastination habit, building time control systems that fit with your style and personality, etc.)

This workshop has been offered throughout the country at colleges and universities - and the response is positive and ongoing. Be part of this, too.

Is it time for you to "make a break for it?"

• Is it taking more energy for you to go to work than you receive by being at work?
• Do you have skills, talents, and strengths to offer, but they aren't being tapped into through your current position?
• Is there an appeal to being "on your own" as a speaker, consultant, researcher, coach, small business owner, or whatever your niche is?
• Or, maybe you just need to make a drastic change within your current organization and you're looking for ideas, strategies, and the motivation to make that change.

Then, consider this workshop offered by Dr. Meggin McIntosh, who did indeed "make a break for it." She left her safe, secure, good job as a tenured, full professor at a university...and hasn't regretted it for a moment.

Do you have what it takes? Does it matter to you whether your life is as good as it can be? Consider these and other questions in this workshop with Meggin.

This workshop provides the impetus, the vehicles, and the tools to champion all that is “right” in your setting.  Students, teachers, staff, parents, and the “non-parent” public need to hear, feel, and experience what is working in a positive direction in education.  Expect to learn new skills for “telling your story” - both internally and externally.

There’s a surprise metaphor that will change how you gather and deliver the positive stories surrounding you.

What a fun, culture-changing workshop this is!  Using a 'taxicab' theme and metaphor (and acronym), this workshop for elementary school teachers addresses school climate, interpersonal skills, communication, and more--all with the idea that teachers will be better able to increase their students' achievement, increase their collegiality with other staff members, and be more productive because of the positive and communication-rich workplace. 

For staffs who already work together extremely well, this helps clarify how and why they do--and how to keep that going.  For staffs who aren't working together as well as they could, this workshop begins the process of enhancing their own and their students' achievement, collegiality, and productivity. 

Based on the concept that each one of us is a 'bucket' and we can either have full buckets, empty buckets--or anything in between, this workshop helps participants

• communicate more openly
• build trust
• determine and address issues that 'empty their buckets'
• work to make sure that their own and their colleagues' 'buckets' stay full
• apply the concepts to students in their classes
• and much more.

This workshop is ideal for all levels of educators--elementary, secondary, and higher education.  It's positive, fun, and powerful...all at once. 

The title "So, What's Your Story," is intentionally ambiguous, i.e., the title of the workshop can be said using a variety of inflections.  The message behind the title is not ambiguous in the least, however. 

Teachers in this workshop

• identify the stories they tell become clearer about 'story structure' practice using aspects of this structure
• create new stories to tell

The point of the workshop is for teachers to recognize the power of stories, not so much in their everyday teaching, although there's power there, but rather, in their professional life as an educator.

Participants find the workshop to be uplifting, inspiring, and positive.  It's ideal for the beginning of the year because it can help an entire school be intentional about the stories told. 

What workshop would you like to see on this list? 

Email me and we can find out whether I could design that workshop for you or I could suggest someone else to you.