Learn to Better Manage Time
When you know how, you can make a difference, get more done, and get it done better.
Course Content
This course is divided into eight lessons:
Lesson 1: Nature and Scope of Time Management
- Outcomes of good time management
- Importance of good time management at school or college
- Importance of good time management at work
- Importance of good time management at home
- Links to work-life balance
- Work-life balance and health
- Relaxation and reflection
- A few cautionary notes
Lesson 2: Obstacles to Time Management
- Personal Barriers
- Identifying your time management personality type
- Firefighter/ superhero
- Multitasker
- Over committer
- Under estimator
- Perfectionist
- Procrastinator
- Improvisor
- Over sharer
- Early bird
- Turtle
- Researcher
- Conscious and unconscious barriers to time management
- The consequences of poor time management
Lesson 3: Time Management Strategies
- Key strategies
- Planning
- Setting goals
- Time management at home and at work
- General tips for students
- Time management techniques
- Pomodoro technique
- 45/15
- Time Boxing
- Sequential scheduling – batches
Lesson 4: Time Management Assessment Tools
- Introduction
- Auditing your time
- Analyse data
- Benefits of a time audit
- Self-Assessment
- Identifying your own potential time wasters
Lesson 5: Prioritising Time
- Introduction to prioritising
- HOW TO prioritise
- Pareto principle
- Techniques for prioritising
- Kanban Board
- Covey’s Time Management Matrix
- MoSCoW (Must have, Should have, Wish, Could have)
- Workload management skills
Lesson 6: Maintaining Productivity
- Measuring productivity
- Cost benefit analysis
- Teem feedback, peer assessment
- Time tracking
- Profitability
- KPI's, Customer feedback
- Motivation tools
- OKR (objectives and key results)
- SCRUM - Team roles, key elements, scrum ceremonies
- Busywork - keeping busy versus being productive
- Maintaining energy levels
Lesson 7: Effective Delegation
- What is delegation?
- Reasons why some managers fail to delegate
- How can delegation help with time management?
- Problems associated with failure to delegate
- Micromanagement & poor time management
- When to delegate
- Benefits of delegation
- How to delegate
- Some delegation Tools
Lesson 8: Other Time Management Tools
- Changing mindset
- Some habits to try, some habits to avoid
- Other time management tools
- Calendars and planners
- Diaries
- Software planners
- Spreadsheets
- Time tracking software
- Staying on track with calendars and planners
Course Duration 100 hours, self paced.
TIME MANAGEMENT IS CRITICAL AT WORK
Better time management at work makes for a happier workforce, happer customers, increased productivity, improved and sustainability. There really isn't very much that cannot be improved by managing time better.
There is nothing more frustrating than workdays where you spend lots of time on tasks but at the end of the day you have achieved very little. Being unproductive not only adds to the pressure of getting things done, but it can also be demoralising. When people feel they have less control, and are less able to influence outcomes, there is less incentive to do the task. On the flipside, when you do successfully complete tasks on time, there is a tremendous feeling of accomplishment.
Good time management at work also helps you produce better quality work. This can be attained through prioritising your daily work tasks. If you organise what you need to do into levels of importance, you can focus more on those tasks which are most crucial leading to a higher standard of work. Since you are working more efficiently, you will also meet deadlines far easier which means you can spend more time thinking about things and planning your activities. Some other possible outcomes from failing to meet deadlines include appearing to be unprofessional, getting a bad reputation, being considered unreliable, and possibly financial penalties like loss of pay or withdrawal of contracts, or even being fired.
When managers and staff manage their time better, they can also make clearer and better decisions. If you leave everything to the last minute and then must decide, the chances are it will not be as well considered than if you did not have to rush it. Approaching decision-making in a calm state of mind is far better.
When you manage time better there is less chance that you are going to put things off. Procrastinating can make your work pile build up so that it becomes difficult to figure out what to do next.
Another follow-on effect of being better organised in your work life is that you will take less work home and will not need to work longer hours than is necessary. This means you can spend more time at home doing the things you enjoy.
