The secret to personal performance and organizational success is good time management. If they, the team, and the organization are to reach their aims and business goals, then each individual must make the most of their own time, talent, and those of others around them.

Participants will have the chance to examine the basic concepts of time management, evaluate their existing working methods, and decide on a course of action to improve their effectiveness as an individual, a team, and an organization. The importance of managing one's own time as well as assisting others in managing theirs is emphasized. The personal effectiveness skill sets that are covered in this class include communication, effective business writing, efficient reading, and managing information overload.

Programme Objectives

• To help participants manage time better (their own and other people’s)
• To provide an opportunity for participants to explore the skills and principles of time-management and exchange ideas, tips and techniques
• To provide an opportunity for participants to take stock of their current working practices and decide on an action-based strategy to ‘work smarter’
• To encourage participants to be proactive in their continuous professional development and to provide them with a range of tools to support their learning

Who Should Attend?

All professionals and administrative staff who have some discretion over how to manage their time and the need to balance priorities, to meet both immediate demands and longer-term objectives.

Course Outline

Day 1 : Dimensions of Time Management & Personal Effectiveness

• Programme introduction and objectives
• Action planning and enhancing personal and team effectiveness
• Making the most of office technology
• Chronistic intelligence
• Time-stealers and costs of poor time management
• Priority setting – rational and emotional approaches
• Ten principles of effective time management
• Handling and making requests
• Behavioural analysis and time management

Day 2 : Personal Planning Systems / Interruptions / Project Planning/Stress

• Getting the best from diaries and to-do lists
• Proactive planning to meet key responsibilities
• Developing time-based planning – daily, weekly, monthly plans etc
• Handling interruptions – developing a time sensitive culture
• Planning project-type work
• Principles of Critical Path Analysis and implications for priority setting
• Understanding stress
• Managing stress in self and others
• Dealing with change – taking and getting a positive response

Day 3 : Getting the Best from Other People / Communication / Meeting Skills

• Delegation – giving and receiving
• Team-working and team building
• Improving communication and working relationships
• Assertiveness
• Effective and efficient meetings – ‘everybody’s a chairbody’

Day 4 : Office Ergonomics / Managing Information / Efficient Reading & Writing

• Optimizing the office environment
• Handling the paper-load and developing paperless systems
• Managing e-mails
• Improving the efficiency of management reporting
• Using and developing relational databases
• Business writing and the principles of ‘rapid composition’
• Rapid and efficient reading – digesting and retaining information
• Mind-mapping

Day 5 : Developing Creativity / Continuous Improvement / Self-Development

• Developing creativity in self and others
• How the brain works and creative thinking techniques
• Developing a culture of continuous improvement
• Implementing change initiatives
• Influencing skills – making a case and managing the ‘politics’
• Continuing professional development – a proactive approach
• Programme review and action plans