Programme overview
Introduction:
Time management problems rarely come from laziness: work arrives from several directions at once, every request is labelled urgent, calendars fill with meetings and the important work slips to evenings or misses its deadline. This Core Concept course gives professionals a practical method for time management and managing multiple priorities. Participants audit where their hours actually go, set clear work goals, rank competing tasks with proven prioritisation methods, plan the working week, renegotiate unrealistic deadlines and protect focus time. Each participant builds a Personal Priority and Weekly Planning System tested in a timed in-tray simulation.
Course Objectives:
- Analyse a personal time log to identify time wasters, reactive work and the gap between planned and actual effort
- Convert role responsibilities into SMART work goals and a short list of weekly outcomes that guide daily choices
- Rank competing tasks and requests using the urgent/important matrix, ABC ranking and value-versus-effort scoring
- Plan and schedule the working week with time blocks, buffers and realistic task estimates
- Handle competing deadlines and requests from several stakeholders by clarifying expectations, declining or renegotiating commitments
- Control interruptions, email and meeting load and manage focus and energy through a personal productivity system
Target Audience:
- Professionals and specialists who deliver several projects, tasks and requests at the same time
- Technical and analytical staff whose deep work is regularly broken by interruptions and ad hoc requests
- Administrative and coordination staff who receive work from several internal customers with conflicting deadlines
- Team members who report to more than one manager or work across matrix structures and shared services
- Project and operations staff who must balance routine duties with deadline-driven assignments
Course Outline:
Day 1: Time Audit and Personal Effectiveness Baseline
- Personal Effectiveness Model: Goals, Priorities, Planning and Execution
- Seven-Day Time Log Method and Activity Categories
- Time Waster Diagnostic: Reactive Work, Task Switching and Low-Value Activity
- Planned Versus Actual Effort Gap Analysis
- Personal Time Management Self-Assessment Scorecard
Day 2: Goal Setting and Prioritisation Methods
- Role Responsibilities to Key Result Areas Mapping
- SMART Work Goals and Weekly Outcome Statements
- Eisenhower Urgent/Important Matrix Classification Exercise
- ABC Task Ranking and Value-Versus-Effort Scoring Grid
- Priority Criteria Checklist: Impact, Deadline, Dependency and Risk
Day 3: Planning, Scheduling and Weekly Execution
- Master Task List and Getting Things Done Capture Routine
- Task Breakdown and Duration Estimation with Contingency Buffers
- Time Blocking the Working Week: Focus, Collaboration and Admin Blocks
- Daily Planning Routine: Top Three Tasks and End-of-Day Review
- Weekly Review Checklist for Open Loops, Commitments and Next Actions
Day 4: Competing Deadlines, Stakeholder Requests and Focus Control
- Request Intake Questions: Scope, Deadline, Standard and Priority
- Multiple Stakeholder Priority Conflict Resolution Map
- Declining and Renegotiating Commitments with a Trade-Off Options Menu
- Interruption, Email Batching and Meeting Acceptance Rules
- Energy Management and Procrastination Triggers Plan
Day 5: In-Tray Simulation and the Personal Priority and Weekly Planning System
- Timed In-Tray Simulation: Conflicting Tasks, Requests and Deadlines
- Mid-Simulation Disruption Round: New Urgent Requests and Reprioritisation
- Simulation Debrief: Decision Log Comparison with Peer Feedback
- Personal Priority and Weekly Planning System Assembly
- Thirty-Day Personal Productivity Habit Tracker
Skills You Will Gain:
- Time Use Analysis
- Goal Setting
- Task Prioritisation
- Weekly Work Planning
- Deadline Negotiation
- Interruption Control
- Focus and Energy Management
- Personal Productivity Systems
Why Attend This Course:
- Spend less of the working week on reactive, low-value activity and more on the outcomes your role is measured on
- Make faster, defensible decisions when several people claim that their request comes first
- Test your prioritisation choices under time pressure in an in-tray simulation drawn from several sectors
- Return with a Personal Priority and Weekly Planning System ready to run from your first week back
Conclusion:
Effective time management depends on deciding what matters before the week decides for you. This course moves from an honest audit of current time use, through goal setting and prioritisation methods, to weekly planning, time blocking and the handling of competing deadlines, stakeholder requests, interruptions and energy. The final day puts every method under pressure in a timed in-tray simulation, and the Personal Priority and Weekly Planning System assembled there gives participants a repeatable routine for managing multiple priorities at work.