Course outline for Time Management

Time management courses come in three flavors.

At the most basic level, they are made up of tips, tricks and shortcuts that are assembled without much concern for how they fit together. These programs are often offered in short spaces of time, when the audience is assumed to be new to the topic and the budget for something substantial is unavailable.

At the next level are programs that define a set and fixed collection of habits or practices to be followed. These courses go into great detail to define these behaviors, and emphasize the need for compliance in order to produce a successful result. Generally, the course focuses little on implementation, and mostly on describing specific practices.

At the highest level, time management courses are intended to teach a user how to design his/her own system. They take an andragogical approach, which assumes that the learner is a competent adult with not only some knowledge of time management, but also a system that functions to some degree. Such a course would follow this outline:

Part 1 - Establish the need for an upgraded system

- Are there failures?

- Is failure expected in the future for some reason? e.g. increased workload.

Part 2 - Analyze the individual's current system

- use best in class behaviors to create a shared understanding of skills in important areas.

Part 3 - Look for obvious gaps, and define a target system to be implemented by a particular due date.

Part 4 - Break down the gaps to be closed in small steps and schedule them for implementation over time.

Part 5 - Set up a multi-faceted habit change support system to ensure that the required behavior changes are supported.

This kind of time management course teaches the user how to successfully perform an in-place upgrade i.e. an upgrade that must take place while a system is in active use. Many people fail in these implementation steps in the other courses mentioned earlier because they are unable to change their current set of habits.