Prioritizing: Key To Effectiveness

A. Course Description

Every priority claims itself as the most urgent and crucial thing in the world screaming for your immediate attention. While it does seem good that many people have entrusted many things to you care and have confidence in you, the problem is you can only do one thing at a time. 

Without a learned approach to prioritizing things, you tend to put out fires everyday and attend to everything that comes your way. This creates stress for you and for the people that you work with and it may also result to inefficiency and failure. There has to be a better way to do the things that you need to do and that lead you into achieving what you want in your work and in your life. 

B. Course Objectives

As a result of attending this 2-day workshop, the participants will be able to do the following:

1. Understand workplace demands and priorities and their impact on individuals, teams, and organizations
2. Define your personal vision and priorities and achieve personal balance
3. Learn how to manage your multiple priorities and achieve your daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and lifetime goals
4. Analyze how you use your time and work space and make significant improvements in them
5. Learn how to stay focused on your priorities through decisive action, delegation, follow-up, and assertive communication 

C. Course Outline

Session 1: Understanding Workplace Demands and Priorities for Individuals, Teams, and Organizations

• Identifying Opportunities and Challenges in the Workplace
• Searching for Value-Adding Commitments
• Planning and Executing Team and Organizational Priorities

Session 2: Understanding One’s Use of Time and Work Space 

• Personal, household, and work routines
• Getting rid of your stuff to have less things to prioritize
• 5S Method

Session 3: Achieving Personal Balance

• Defining your personal vision
• Committing to the stakeholders of your life
• Focusing on the things that really Matter

Session 4: From Big Picture Planning to To-Do Listing

• Managing Large Projects
• Setting Yearly, Monthly, and Weekly Goals
• Setting and Doing Daily To-Do List
• Using Prioritizing Tools

- Urgency/Importance Matrix
- Seriousness, Urgency, and Growth Indicator
- Grid Analysis
- Action Priority Matrix
- Ansoff & Boston Matrix

Session 5: Staying Focused on Priorities

• Delegating and Follow-up
• Avoiding Procrastination
• Managing Interruptions
• Assertive Communication
• Learning to Say No