Time Management and Prioritizing

The Rationale
Peter Drucker reminds us that, just as management is an organization’s most critical resource, so is time the vital resource of managers. However, unlike other resources, time is inelastic. It is the one commodity that can’t be stored—laid up in advance, held in reserve supply, put aside for a “rainy day.” Effective managers are constantly aware of how well they are managing their time. During the day they repeatedly ask themselves such questions as: Am I making the most of my time? Should someone else be doing what I am now doing? Are there things I’m doing that shouldn’t be done at all? Are there better ways of doing what must be done? Am I working with freshness, or have I reached the point of diminishing returns?

Many managers are “workaholics” who see time management as a means of getting more work done per unit of time. But our approach to time management is concerned with time effectiveness, not efficiency. Hence, this module focuses on the concepts and skills that successful managers apply daily in managing their time effectively. As a result, managers return to work with a plan for making time their servant rather than their master.

Learning Objectives for the Workshop
Participants who attend this workshop will be able to:

• Identify the major time wasters common to most organizations
  
• Assess their own assumptions about time management
  
• Show how our assumptions about time affect our ability to manage it
  
• List 12 principles of time management
  
• Differentiate between time invested and time spent
  
• Describe how to log and analyze the use of time

Performance Criteria in the Workplace
Participants who attend this workshop will be able to:

• Prepare a daily “to do” list, ranking each activity according to priority
  
• Apply techniques for controlling our time on the telephone
  
• Apply 6 methods for making sure that time in meetings is used effectively
  
• Reduce the number and length of unscheduled, disruptive visits
  
• Analyze a weekly time log and take appropriate actions
  
• Apply 12 principles of time management in day-to-day work settings