Time management
Featured in the The Team Leader's Development Manual training manual
By Mike Fenwick
Category: People Management and Motivation
Credit price: 3 download credits (Single user)
Anyone who has the time to go on a time-management course doesn’t need to be there! Frighteningly close to the truth; this says, in other words, that those people who do need time-management training don’t have the time to be there, and often never have it. So a good grounding in time management is an excellent resource for the developing team leader. This training activity introduces some basic principles, which the participants may build on at a later stage.
You begin this training activity with an ice-breaker exercise in which participants work in pairs and introduce each other to the rest of the group. They are given a list of questions and can use the information gained from only five of these to form their introduction. This exercise is then used to identify how we prioritise things as ‘essential’, ‘desirable’ or ‘dispensable’. A timed exercise follows, where each participant is given 5 minutes to undertake a range of tasks. In fact, only half the tasks listed need to be completed, but only those who read through all the instructions before they begin will realise this. This exercise emphasises the fact that you shouldn’t just dive in - you should ‘take time to make time’. You then introduce the group to the time-management grid – a tool for looking at every task we undertake in terms of how urgent it is and how complex. Using these two criteria, everything is then put into four grid zones – waste, action, planning and crisis. The group analyse what tasks they undertake in each of these zones, and then consider how tasks get into their crisis zone and how they can reduce the number that are in there.
Who is it for: This training resource is intended for use by trainers to introduce participants to a number of short exercises in effective time management and includes using the time-management grid to identify how all the tasks we do fall into one of four zones.
| Resource Type: | Activity |
| Min Group Size: | 4 |
| Max Group Size: | 20 |
| Typical Duration: | 02:15:00 |
| No of Pages: | 16 |
Resources: View standard resources for Fenman training activities
Purpose: This training resource is intended for use by trainers as either part of a team leadership or management development course, or as part of a wider time-management programme. It can also be used in programmes on communication, considering colleagues, creative thinking, decision making, influencing others, leadership, planning, and teamwork.
Download the training activity, Time management as featured in the Fenman training manual; The Team Leader's Development Manual