Time Management and Personal Effectiveness Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Managers and team leaders, Project managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-PE-005

Before you join: Participants should have experience managing their own workload in a professional role and be familiar with calendars, email and standard workplace task lists.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Professionals often lose productive time not because they lack effort, but because urgent requests, poorly defined tasks, email traffic, meetings and shifting priorities consume attention. The result is missed deadlines, rushed work, long hours and commitments that exceed available capacity. Effective time management requires more than a to-do list: it requires clear outcomes, defensible priorities, realistic plans, focused work routines and agreements with colleagues about responsiveness and workload.

This course develops practical methods for controlling work rather than reacting to it. Participants assess where their time goes, distinguish importance from urgency, set measurable outcomes, prioritise competing demands and plan work at daily, weekly and two-week horizons. They use the Eisenhower Matrix, MoSCoW, GTD workflow, time blocking, Kanban, RACI and assertive communication techniques to manage tasks, meetings, email, interruptions, delegation and procrastination. The course also addresses personal energy, attention residue, decision fatigue and the habits that sustain consistent delivery.

Teaching combines short instructor briefings with realistic cases, individual diagnosis, group problem-solving and simulations involving competing requests, difficult workload discussions and overloaded calendars. Participants apply each method to their own role throughout the course. They leave with a personal operating system: a documented set of priorities, planning routines, task-management rules, communication boundaries, workload controls and a 30-day application plan. Delivery is instructor-led over five days, from 08:30 to 16:30, in classrooms in 50+ cities or live online. Participants receive a certificate of completion.

The course suits professionals who coordinate multiple priorities, manage commitments to internal or external stakeholders, or need a more disciplined way to protect focus while remaining responsive.

What you will be able to do

  • Conduct a time audit using calendar, email, task and interruption evidence
  • Set measurable outcomes using SMARTER goals and OKR logic
  • Prioritise competing work using Eisenhower, MoSCoW and weighted scoring methods
  • Build weekly and rolling two-week plans using time blocking and backward planning
  • Apply the GTD workflow to capture, clarify, organise and review commitments
  • Control email, meetings and interruptions through decision rules and response agreements
  • Delegate work using RACI, clear authority boundaries and structured follow-up
  • Create a 30-day personal effectiveness plan with measures and review routines

Benefits of attending

For you

  • A clearer basis for accepting, deferring or declining new requests
  • More protected time for complex, high-value work
  • A repeatable weekly planning and review routine
  • Reduced backlog anxiety through visible next actions and capacity checks
  • Greater confidence discussing priorities, boundaries and workload trade-offs

For your organisation

  • Fewer missed commitments caused by unclear priorities and hidden workload
  • Improved delivery predictability through realistic planning and contingency time
  • Reduced meeting and email waste through clearer communication rules
  • Better delegation and accountability across teams
  • More staff capacity directed toward agreed business priorities

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can identify how time is currently spent and diagnose the patterns reducing personal effectiveness.

  • Time audit using calendar, email, task and interruption evidence
  • Distinguishing urgent demands from important outcomes with Eisenhower Matrix
  • Identifying reactive patterns, hidden commitments and recurring attention drains
  • Estimating task duration with reference-class forecasting and buffer allowances
  • Defining controllable work boundaries, response norms and escalation routes
  • Setting personal effectiveness measures for throughput, focus and commitments

Participants can translate responsibilities into measurable outcomes and aligned goals.

  • Outcome statements written as observable results, deadlines and quality criteria
  • SMARTER goals aligned with team objectives and role accountabilities
  • OKR logic used to separate objectives from measurable key results
  • Weekly outcomes converted into milestones, next actions and decision points
  • Goal conflict resolved through trade-off criteria and stakeholder expectations
  • Personal success measures linked to service levels and delivery dates

Participants can make and explain priority decisions when demands exceed available capacity.

  • MoSCoW categories applied to competing requests and limited capacity
  • Impact-effort matrix used to rank improvement and delivery work
  • Weighted scoring models compare value, urgency, risk and effort
  • ABCDE prioritisation assigns consequences before daily task selection
  • Opportunity cost considered before accepting discretionary meetings and tasks
  • Priority decisions documented with rationale, owners and review triggers

Participants can create realistic daily, weekly and rolling work plans.

  • Weekly planning anchors fixed commitments, deep work and contingency blocks
  • Time blocking reserves protected periods for cognitively demanding work
  • Rolling two-week plans connect deadlines, dependencies and capacity
  • Backward planning maps deliverables from fixed dates to immediate actions
  • Calendar buffers absorb uncertainty, approvals and handover delays
  • Daily shutdown routines prepare priorities, materials and first actions

Participants can operate a trusted system for capturing, organising and reviewing commitments.

  • GTD workflow captures, clarifies, organises, reviews and engages commitments
  • Next-action definitions remove ambiguity from multi-step assignments
  • Context lists group tasks by location, tool and available time
  • Two-minute rule separates immediate actions from planned work
  • Kanban boards visualise workflow, work-in-progress limits and blocked items
  • Weekly review reconciles task lists, calendars, waiting-fors and projects

Participants can protect concentration and schedule demanding work around their productive capacity.

  • Pomodoro Technique structures focused intervals, breaks and completion checks
  • Attention residue reduced by batching similar tasks and closing loops
  • Distraction audit identifies digital, environmental and interpersonal triggers
  • Notification rules protect concentration while maintaining agreed responsiveness
  • Single-tasking protocols prevent costly switching during analytical work
  • Energy mapping schedules demanding work around personal performance patterns

Participants can reduce communication overload while maintaining appropriate responsiveness.

  • Email triage applies decision rules, folders, flags and response windows
  • BLUF messages state bottom line, action, owner and deadline first
  • Meeting purpose tests distinguish decisions, coordination and information sharing
  • Agenda design specifies outcomes, attendees, timings and pre-reading
  • Interruption scripts defer requests without damaging working relationships
  • Communication channels matched to urgency, complexity and audit needs

Participants can delegate appropriately and manage expectations through clear boundary-setting conversations.

  • Delegation analysis separates retain, delegate, automate and eliminate work
  • RACI clarifies accountable decisions, contributors, consultation and information needs
  • Delegation briefings define outcome, authority, constraints, checkpoints and support
  • Follow-up cadence monitors progress without reclaiming delegated responsibility
  • Assertive refusal uses DESC scripts and alternative commitment options
  • Stakeholder expectation agreements set response times, priorities and escalation paths

Participants can identify procrastination patterns and use behavioural techniques to start and sustain work.

  • Procrastination triggers diagnosed through task aversion, uncertainty and fear
  • Implementation intentions link cues to specific starting behaviours
  • Temptation bundling pairs unattractive tasks with controlled rewards
  • Five-minute starts reduce activation barriers on avoided assignments
  • Decision fatigue reduced through defaults, checklists and prepared choices
  • Resilience routines restore momentum after disruption, overload and setbacks

Participants can assemble an integrated personal effectiveness system and implement it over 30 days.

  • Personal operating system integrates goals, priorities, calendar and task lists
  • Capacity plan compares commitments, available hours and required trade-offs
  • Weekly review dashboard tracks outcomes, overdue items and blocked work
  • Boundary agreements define availability, response windows and escalation exceptions
  • Thirty-day application plan specifies habits, measures, supporters and review dates
  • Manager check-in agenda secures feedback, workload decisions and accountability

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Personal time-audit worksheet
  2. Priority decision matrix
  3. Weekly time-blocking planner
  4. GTD task-management checklist
  5. Email and meeting rules template
  6. 30-day personal effectiveness plan

Who should attend

  • Managers and team leaders — balance delivery, people responsibilities and competing stakeholder demands
  • Project managers — coordinate deadlines, dependencies, meetings and changing priorities
  • Programme and policy officers — protect planned work from reactive requests and administrative load
  • Operations professionals — manage high volumes of tasks, exceptions and service commitments
  • Specialists and analysts — reserve concentration time for complex technical or analytical work
  • Executive assistants and coordinators — organise commitments, communications and senior stakeholder priorities

Skills and tools covered

Priority settingWorkload planningTask managementFocused work routinesAssertive communicationDelegation discipline

Tools and standards

Eisenhower Matrix, MoSCoW prioritisation, Getting Things Done, RACI matrix

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short briefings to introduce each method, followed by case work based on overloaded schedules, conflicting requests, delayed decisions and demanding stakeholder expectations. Participants analyse their own time use, prioritise realistic work scenarios, build planning systems and practise communication scripts for interruptions, delegation and refusal. Group exercises compare alternative choices and their consequences. Simulations test email triage, meeting decisions and workload negotiations. Each participant develops an application plan linked to current responsibilities and manager discussions.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience managing their own workload in a professional role and be familiar with calendars, email and standard workplace task lists. They should bring examples of current commitments, recurring meetings, deadlines or workload pressures they want to address. No formal qualification, prior time-management training, project-management certification or specialist software knowledge is required. The course assumes participants can reflect honestly on their working habits and discuss practical changes to priorities, availability and communication with colleagues.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should have experience managing a professional workload, calendar, email and multiple commitments. No formal qualification or previous time-management course is required.

Bring a laptop or device if you normally use one for planning, plus examples of current deadlines, recurring meetings and workload pressures. Do not bring confidential documents; anonymised examples are sufficient.

It is suited to professionals whose work involves competing requests, deadlines, meetings, stakeholders and changing priorities. It is particularly relevant for managers, project staff, coordinators, specialists and operations personnel.

Project management courses focus on planning and controlling team-based projects, scope, risk, cost and governance. This course focuses on the individual's daily and weekly choices, attention, commitments, communication and workload boundaries.

Participants use their own work examples to build priority rules, planning routines and communication agreements. The 30-day application plan identifies specific changes, measures and manager conversations for the period after the course.

The five days run from 08:30 to 16:30 and provide about 6.5 contact hours per day. Time is divided among instructor input, cases, group activities, simulations, personal planning and structured reflection.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

Related courses in Personal Effectiveness