News & Events

Weekend is a time for creativity and strategic objectives.

Pre-holiday benefits from Olesia Ulianova:

Weekend is approaching, it’s time outside offices, formal meetings or university classrooms.

The brain is not overloaded with OS, and feels a “reboot”, sometimes it’s so useful for it.

How to spend this time profitably, so that later you don’t feel guilty for doing nothing?

Formulate a question, goal or problem.

To what have you been going for so long, but still can’t realize it? A new concept, a plan for self-realization, or maybe even an idea for a business? Which peak do you want to climb? Write it all down on paper.

Do a short research.

After you have outlined your desires, it’s time to google it. Who has already done this? What might be needed?

What have you got? The process has begun. From now on, your brain is working in the background to resolve the issue. You can calmly go to rest. Nature, friends, museums, theaters are the sources of new images, thanks to which new concepts are born.

Write down your ideas.

Grab a notepad and write down the thoughts that come to mind. Don’t leave for later – the moment will go away and everything will disappear.

Final stage: bring matters under control.

Before the working week, arrange the invented/compiled/written. It can make a great plan for action.

Have a good rest and reboot of the brain!

How to load yourself with work and be known as a confirmed workaholic?

Today, there’s a few people working under a stable schedule from 9 to 5, especially in IT. The boundaries between work and personal life are gradually merging, the industry requires us to be fully involved. Yes, we often don’t mind – we are fascinated with the dynamics, a variety of tasks. The image of a constantly busy person has now become so popular that many are eager to overload themselves.

How to allow overload and burnout in the shortest possible time?

Let the work eat all your time.

No going to the cinema, shop or for a delicious dinner in your favorite cafe. Entertainment is a lot of lazy people, and you need to work.

People don’t notice that they are stressed. While you can dilute your emotional state with shopping or going to the movies, everything is in order. But as soon as you begin to limit yourself to the simplest things, it’s time to think twice: something went wrong.

If you want to change it, take a timeout. Treat yourself to something nice, especially if you have managed to complete several important tasks before this. With renewed vigor, the brain will proceed to the following tasks more eagerly.

Prioritize and plan, do all the most important and urgent. Leave strategic things for later. More micromanagement.

In fact, this is the most widespread and ineffective time management technique.

We were all taught that we must first do urgent and important tasks, and only then move on to the rest. But if you want to really be surprised at your own successes, try to prioritize important, but not urgent matters. They usually form the basis of your personal career development strategy. You won’t go far on micromanagement.

Get a fat diary and dump all the tasks randomly there. Do not specify a runtime.

Why try to limit yourself to extra deadlines, which mean even more stress. Besides, you never know how long this or that work will continue. Even better is to fit on one page all the tasks that came to mind. And it doesn’t matter if you can manage to do them all in a day, or part of them will certainly be put off until tomorrow.

Minor tasks must be a priority. You need to start with them, even if they are insignificant.

But in 3 hours you will have half a page of crossed out points. This is wonderful – the brain is delighted with completed tasks. And it’s nothing that in the middle of the day a difficult task hangs over you like a hammer, requiring complete immersion and renunciation of all external stimuli. Just one point that can be put off until tomorrow, the day after tomorrow …

Experts say that procrastination is giving importance to unimportant things. For some, this is a way to catch a break, give the brain a discharge. Sometimes it’s really useful, especially when you have worked hard before. But for the most part, this is a way to postpone complex and difficult tasks. The brain is afraid of them and in every possible way tries to avoid. Therefore, if you want to be truly excited with achievements, plan a difficult or creative task for the period of greatest effectiveness – 2 hours after you finally woke up. If you have done it, you can proceed to the small tasks, and since you have already got into a rhythm, you will cope with them much faster. An oppressive feeling will no longer haunt you until the end of the day.

Do more things at the same time.

Develop a concept for a new project, simultaneously correspond with colleagues and listen to the new album of your favorite band. In the end, you will get a gift set of an unfulfilled important task, decorated with self-discontent at the end of the day.

Things are piling up, and will be moved the next day. The result is low productivity, stress, and so on.

Multitasking or switch cost consumes up to 40% of the working time. If you have them – OK. If not, here is the solution: order and prioritization.

• Determine in advance what is routine and what requires mental effort.
• Detail cognitive and creative tasks and do separately from each other.
• When you are tired, go on to the routine.

In a word, if any of these points has become your usual behavior, you should think about it and do the opposite.

Time management is not about restrictions and not about constant rush. This is about the optimal distribution of time. Learn to value and feel your time. After all, this is the most valuable resource.

The main educational event of the month is the International Education Forum NewEdu: Tech in Focus which didn´t go right past us.

Outcome: a lot of positive impressions, acquaintances and a fascinating topic from Olesia Ulianova – gamification.

Games during training: the need or challenge of time.

How to make a lesson or training a productive game?

Interestingly, these principles apply to both children and adults. The only difference is the complexity of the game.

So:

 

Stage 1: Work out the plot.

You need to turn on imagination and make up a plot in order that a lesson will become a game. All other elements are strung on it. It can be a fascinating story, a world, or even a quest.

 

Stage 2: Define the goals.

Modern children constantly ask adults the question: “Why should I do this?”. Participants must clearly understand why they should do what is proposed within the game.

 

Stage 3: Distribute the roles among the participants.

Moreover, the team should consist of different people. If these are children, “A” students and “B” students should work together. There have been many cases where students in the game open themselves up from a completely unexpected side, and this may predetermine their choice of a future profession. But not only children, but also adults can see new opportunities in themselves, trying on themselves a new role for at least an hour.

Anyway, don’t be afraid to experiment.

 

Stage 4: Make up the rules, the challenges in the game.

The main thing is a fascinating context, it can be modern, historical and even fictional. Each challenge must become a condition for moving forward, and this can be any math problem, experiment in chemistry, rebus, charade or language anagram.

Hunter Davies is a well-known educator, who pleases children with his classroom games based on different plots, for example, to calculate a safe route, to leave the epicenter of zombies, and not to become a prey.

 

Stage 5: Use the device capabilities.

A mobile phone is an excellent tool for quickly finding information, as well as a tool for completing quests. QR codes, maps, routes – a million possibilities.

 

Step 6: Check the game mechanics.

If some participants quickly get levels or overcome stages, others find themselves in outsiders, it means the game world is somewhere incomplete. The facilitator needs to follow the balance.

In a word, games in education are exciting and useful. A person remembers best of all what caused his emotions, and any strong impression will forever remain in our memory.

The main thing is not to play too long. It is worth remembering that study is work, and game is a sweet dessert that you can’t overdo.

The end of program Mentoring for the company Intetics Inc. It was a productive month, there were ups and downs, successes and disappointments. Now ten (10!) motivated and trained mentors have entered the world.

At a series of trainings, new mentors:

• learnt about algorithms for knowledge transmission
• got to know about active listening technology
• acquired skills in building training systems taking into account personality types
• developed the skill of feedback and goal setting.

The results of productive work were methods of training their colleagues in a strictly limited framework (10 minutes). Of course, it was not without a fan. Emotions and positive attitude made our teamwork unforgettable! See you soon, my new colleagues!

We’ve already begun a series of corporate trainings, and the company Intetics became our first stop.

The program is extremely busy, but the colleagues expected only this.

5 topics, 5 exercises and activities, the result is 5 more steps closer to perfection. 

We are already past a halfway, but a second no less exciting part awaits the colleagues.

Eternal themes are:

• Mentoring or how to lead people. Who are these “pink unicorns”, good mentors? How to become one of them and can you learn this?
• Communications and clear tasking. The stages of information perception and methods of dealing with various levels of misunderstanding.
• Active listening and personality traits. Persuasion techniques and confident behavior. Techniques and rules for working with various personality types.
• Criticism and feedback. How to give developing feedback and constructive criticism.
• Making development plans for juniors. The balance of theory and practice, as well as effective case-study methods.

In general, the training lasts a month.

Now we go on and wait for the results.

Stand clear of the opening doors, please!
The next stop is an interesting and exciting study.
Yes, we finally opened. And our first news, for sure, about this.
Now we are a training center IT Grow for IT industry employees. Developers, testers, business analysts, HRs,
PMs, everyone who is somehow connected with the most high-tech field, which is also the most dynamic in
Ukraine, – come to us.
Olesia Ulianova will create the best training program for you based on your desires and career goals.
For 10 years of work, including as a trainer in large IT companies, she has brought more than a dozen lost
souls in the wilds of the code onto the path of professional and career growth.
She has 10 years of teaching experience, but she still doesn’t consider herself an educator – rather, she
helps young people and adults to determine their strengths and to use them as effectively as possible in the
profession.
Why now?
In fact, just in February, she defended the MBA, and now, having got a little rest, she is ready to leap into
action to new horizons. Now her office is decorated with another diploma.
Come, text, knock. We’re waiting!