A big thanks to Pauline Sargent for organising the venue, Guinness Enterprise Centre hosting our unconference and providing food and beverages. And thanks to Christina Lynch, even though she couldn't make it due to her back, get well soon!

I want to shout out to our supporters:

And to our partner:

I have such a great TIME at weAREhere Unconference, so many women from various industries, cultural backgrounds sharing their experiences on topics like "How to say 'NO'", "How to stop procrastinating (e.g. on Facebook)", Tools to help with time management, and more.

Silicon Republic has been great and had a competition to receive tickets to our unconference and we had a winner:

Winner of the tickets to Sat's #weAREhere #timeUnconf is @laura_uzcategui! Congrats! Tickets are still on sale too http://t.co/yyUV8tdOv6
— SiliconRepublic (@siliconrepublic) April 23, 2015

Here are a couple of tips:

@siliconrepublic Best Time Mgmt Tip: Don't read the news daily! It changes frequently! #TimeUnconf
— Hannah Stephenson (@PineappleHannah) April 17, 2015

@siliconrepublic Greatest threat today for time management is digital distraction so I strictly schedule my online news time! #timeunconf
— Rachel Ray (@Rachel__Ray) April 16, 2015

We started the morning (after a quick intro and what happens at an unconference) rolling up our sleeves, grabbing markers, paper and post-it notes and jot/draw what we want to talk about and we start to group similar topics together.

Planning the agenda for #timeUnconf http://t.co/fZeop9U7TY pic.twitter.com/UFoILuEPDM
— enormous (@enormous) April 25, 2015

Have some blue peter fun at #timeunconf this morning. #techweekirl pic.twitter.com/ndIKWhUsU9
— whykay (@whykay) April 25, 2015

As a volunteer not-for-profit tech events and workshops organiser looking into making better use of my time and making it sustainable so I can keep going, I was really interested in "What to charge?" and finding ways to stop procrastinating. I took many things away with me.

My first session was "Charging for time"

Great first session in round 1, valuing and charging for your time. #TimeunConf #techweekIRL pic.twitter.com/fhsOoQR0xz
— whykay (@whykay) April 25, 2015

Some notes I jotted down, most are on the posters:

To charge for time
- Amount to earn
- Amount of hours
This will give you the daily rate, the value of your time.
From my perspective as a person running workshops and planning to run a for-profit social enterprise so I can make a living and everything else goes back into the organisations I'm involved in.
- I'm providing a service and money is a facilitator
Go and talk to LEO (Local Enterprise Board).

My second session was "Planning" or "Stop Procrastinating"

This is all about how to stop getting distracted going on social media like Facebook, or getting interrupted by work colleagues.

Sorcha said her trick was to have an open text file called "Things that make me want to procrastinate", and whenever there's a trigger (e.g. waiting for something for 30 seconds where one ends up on Facebook for 10 minutes), she just writes it down. Even just typing the word "waiting for something" is enough to stop the need to open the browser and check various social media sites. Another example is someone saying something that is unrelated and distracting and your flow is broken. She finds that this helps break the cycle.

Working from home has its distractions as well, as another mentioned that the best thing is turn off everything. Although if you are waiting for something, go get up and make a cup of tea, go for a walk, but nothing computer-related.

A nice tip, have a green plant behind your monitor so you can look at it, it relaxes your eyes.
Have your place that is a workplace.
Easier to work with someone -- you see someone working, you will tend to work as well.
Be restrictive, like keep to deadlines.

Nadja said that "Work expands to time allocated", so even if we give more time to a project, people will fill it even if they can finish earlier.

Laura said that work should be broken down into manageable tasks.

Meadbh mentioned AGILE, another person mentioned SCRUM.

Another great thing to remember, "You are a manager for yourself, not just for your team."

Ana mentioned that one should write an agenda to plan out the day. She noticed that one does a lot of work with other people and not your own work.

A great idea (which does work) is have a "stop sign", so people know when not to approach you if you are busy doing something and don't want to be disturbed.

One has too many tasks and it would help to write them down, and mark

the important ones
ones to leave for later

This leaves the mind more calm.

At various points of this session, we were veering towards asking about what time management apps and tools are recommended by other people, which is a separate session held at the same time in another room. Pauline will have details about this in her blog post. I will add the link to her post and other posts I fine in the comments below.

But here are some apps that were mentioned from that session:

Bullet
Soho
IFTTT
ToDoist
Evernote
Workflowy
Anylist -- I'm starting to use this with Mick as it has a great recipe/shopping list feature and you can share with someone else to help with shopping.

And remember, stick to one!

Wrap-up

Two case studies at #TimeunConf with Fildema and @paulinesargent. #techweekIRL pic.twitter.com/KoPpR12V5t
— whykay (@whykay) April 25, 2015

We ended up with Pauline and Fidelma giving everyone a short talk based on their poster.

RT @parryaftab: Big shout out to all who came to the #TimeunConf today it was terrific in so many ways pic.twitter.com/Gm62cgOw1L
— DigiWomen (@DigiWomenIRL) April 26, 2015

It was followed by Q&A with everyone.

Storified

I've storified tweets I found on the day from people using the hash-tag, "TimeUnConf", and you can find it here: https://storify.com/whykay/wearehere-time-unconference

Couple of quotes I heard on the day

"You need to be seen to do the work to be appreciated."
"NO is a full sentance."

Other stuff

I was talking to folks about various other things like:-

Women in Technology and Science Ireland (WITS) is 25 years old this year. New joiners membership will be EUR25.00, normal membership is EUR40.00. It's FREE if you are a full-time student.
- To join, visit http://witsireland.com/becoming-a-member/
Alternative to Adobe apps on the Mac
- Photoshop alt: Pixelmater
- Illustrator alt: Affinity Designer
Got interests to run UX, more Javascript Coding Grace workshops.