More time for the important
- masterplanninginfo
- Jun 27
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 10
MasterPlanning adding order to day-to-day work
'Once again, everything has become super urgent and I absolutely have to attend this meeting and, by the way, the deadline for submission is tomorrow.' Unfortunately, moments like these are far too frequent in our day-to-day work. The urgent takes the place of the important. When stress and time pressure become the norm, work quality and personal health suffer in the long run.
Giovanni Trapattoni once com plained about empty bottles and meant exhausted star football players. This is an image that we of course like to seize on and turn upside down: the fuller the bottle is, the less time there is and the greater the stress. An example. With my MasterPlanning team, I support ALPLA, a leading international manufacturer of plastic packaging. At ALPLA, many employees' personal bottles are currently overflowing. To get some air back in, we rely on good planning based on the MasterPlanning system.
The idea is as old as it is simple: "Start doing it!" Something that is easy to say when there are so many different communication channels, meeting marathons and well-established processes. The little black booklet - the MasterPlanner - helps with personal time management. In it, each task is recorded along with a date and time. This is done weeks in advance, with a monthly overview for planning long term activities and projects as well as a page for recur ring tasks.
This creates a clear and binding daily structure, item by item. Ideally, it makes it possible to plan up to 80 per cent of the user's time. The remaining time is reserved for unforeseeable things. "It sounds paradoxical that handwritten notes would add more structure to working life. It makes us think about what we want to do, when we want to do it and by when it needs to be done,' says the initiator Claudia Wörner.
HOW CAN I GAIN MORE TIME IN MY DAY-TO-DAY WORK?
There are some rules that help:
Everything I want to do immediately goes into the MasterPlanner with a date and time.
With good preparation and task allocation, I shorten meeting times.
I send out an agenda with a clear division of tasks three days before the meeting and prepare my part within 24 hours.
Who will do what, by when will they do it and in what form?
Drive instead of constant running
The MasterPlanning Agenda - or MP Agenda for short - is just as important for more efficient and shorter meetings. We are looking at it from another angle: do I really have to be everywhere and always do everything straight away? Do colleague X and colleague Y need to attend that meeting or is the summary enough for them? People who organise their personal tasks well, arrive at appointments well prepared and value the time of others like their own create space and freedom. In their heads and in their calendars. “The truth is if you focus on the essentials on the essentials, go to the meeting well prepared, follow up quickly and can even say no, you gain a lot of time. It can quickly add up to four or five hours a week,” Claudia estimates.
The more employees rely on MasterPlanning, the more effective it is. Role models are essential, and there are more and more of them at ALPLA. A key motivator is CEO Philipp Lehner, who has been a fan of the analogue planning tool for many years.
The MasterPlanner is very valuable to me as it provides a comprehensive and organised approach to managing my projects, goals and tasks. It means I can manage complex workflows better as an individual as well as with my team. Having a clear overview makes it easier to make informed decisions, whether it is adjusting strategies or identifying bottlenecks.
Alisha Stingl, Head of Global Procurement Polyolefins at ALPLA
MasterPlanning has significantly improved my time management and allowed me to take proactive control of my days. This straightforward tool and method, which requires discipline and diligence, brings peace of mind and reduces anxiety. Whether you have a long-term plan that can be broken down into small, manageable tasks or simply want to maintain control over your upcoming days, MasterPlanning helps you become more effective every day.
Gabriel Olmos, Regional Manager HR (MXCA) at ALPLA
I am convinced that MasterPlanner will make us work more professionally and efficiently as an organisation. The new way of working will mean a challenge at first but if we root the methodology within our processes permanently we will add value for everyone even just the targeted meeting preparation and follow-up will help to achieve much more effective working and avoid unnecessary meetings without a specific goal or benefit. It is important to set a good example and communicate the potential so that we can implement this structured way of working successfully.
Daniel Lehner Global Sales Director Food & Beverage at ALPLA
WHAT SHOULD GO IN THE MASTERPLANNER?
Monthly overview
MP page for recurring tasks
Holiday calendar
Daily schedules for the current month and next month: meetings, fixed days, tasks and checks, with times
Empty MP page for notes
Keep It Simple
It is easy to say you are going to do something. Let's be honest, though: who likes changing the way they work? We humans are creatures of habit, and that is exactly what offers an opportunity. "People should make MasterPlanning a habit because it makes them more efficient, reliable and healthy. Anyone who uses it will immediately see the benefits," says Claudia with conviction. She made the method into a system and introduced the tools at ALPLA in the form of the MasterPlanner, Cube Timer and MP Agenda. Cube Timer? The name of the white cubes with the numbers 5, 10, 15 and 30 in the meeting rooms.
They structure the meeting like digital hourglasses. To give an example, 30 minutes of discussion, 15 minutes of task allocation. When the time is up the Cuber Timer beeps - and that is the end. A notebook, a time cube and a few basic rules for everyone are the basic equipment for MasterPlanning. "We don't have a hundred lists or dozens of books. With MasterPlanning everything is in one place and always available. Keep it simple" explains Claudia.
Global Rollout
Trained MP trainer Gabi Prochaska is overseeing the global rollout of MasterPlanning at ALPLA. She travels to different regions and introduces the tools to the regional managers. She says there is great curiosity and offers an anecdote. In the taxi from the air port to the regional HQ in Toluca (Mexico) and on the way back she sat with colleagues from India. Both asked her about the concept and wanted to know when they would start using it. When introducing it she encounters different types of people. Some are already very structured while others are sometimes in a bit of chaos. "The way people work is the same all over the world. That also means that MasterPlanning can add value for everyone" says Gabi.
Another global phenomenon: "Many mangers find it difficult to cancel meetings. MasterPlanning is intended to help them with this." In addition to Claudia and Gabi, there are qualified trainers to provide tips and examples of best practice during the roll-out. Susanne Apelt has been working in Hard since 2023 and Christina Luger will be joining the HQ in May. There are also female trainers in the regions, such as Petra Vallat in North America.
Now it is a task for everyone at ALPLA. The more employees use MasterPlanning the more time they free up for the really important things. There are positive signs with 35 managers and a further 140 employees at the ALPLA's Hard HQ (as of early March 2025) already using Master Planning. There are also promising signs in the regions: there the managers have already been convinced and are seeing a great deal of openness and interest from their teams. -
The text has already been published in ALPLA's Flaschenpost magazine. Published here with the kind permission of ALPLA.
