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Description

Time Management: Clarifying Priorities, Structuring Your Week and Honouring Commitments

Move out of reactive mode and win back time for the substantive work that slips every week

  • 3 days — 21 h
  • In-person or virtual
  • Foundation
  • Up to 6 participants

Days fill up with requests, messages and meetings, while deep work is pushed to tomorrow as a matter of routine. The task list grows faster than it clears, other people's urgencies become the priorities of the day, and the feeling of always running does not stop when the office closes.

Three days to measure where time actually goes, set priority criteria that hold under pressure, build a realistic weekly structure and learn to negotiate the requests that arrive mid-course. Each participant leaves with their own working system configured.

Learning objectives

  • Analyse how your time is actually spent across a typical week
  • Distinguish perceived urgency from the real importance of a task
  • Define priority criteria that can be applied under pressure
  • Plan your week with protected blocks for focused work
  • Negotiate a deadline or decline a request without damaging the relationship
  • Put in place a system for tracking the commitments you make

What makes this programme different

A log of your real working week analysed in session rather than a theoretical exercise
Practice in declining requests with sound reasoning, role-played on demands from your own stakeholders
A working organisation system configured before the end of day three

Programme

1Seeing where the time goes

Measure before you change

  • Activity log over a typical working week
  • Identifying low-value tasks
  • Spotting interruptions and quantifying their cost
  • Personal energy rhythms and periods of high concentration
  • Gap between estimated and actual time spent

2Deciding what matters

Criteria rather than reflexes

  • Importance, urgency and deadline
  • Linking tasks to the objectives of the role
  • Handling requests with no clear owner
  • Arbitrating between competing priorities
  • Defining your own sorting criteria

3Structuring the week

Planning that holds up

  • Realistic estimation of task durations
  • Reserving blocks for substantive work
  • Grouping tasks of a similar nature
  • Building in a buffer for the unexpected
  • Weekly planning review

4Holding firm under pressure

Protecting your organisation

  • Managing interruptions and incoming messages
  • Negotiating a deadline or a scope
  • Declining a request with sound reasoning
  • Escalating to the line manager
  • Communicating your availability rules

5Making the system last

Using tools wisely

  • Choosing a single tracking medium
  • Managing the inbox
  • Tracking commitments and delegated tasks
  • End-of-week review
  • Corrective action when the system drifts

Who is it for

Professionals, managers, administrative support staff and project managers facing a high volume of requests and overlapping deadlines.

Prerequisites

No prerequisites

Dates & locations

36 scheduled dates between November 2026 and December 2027. Seats are confirmed in the order enquiries are received.

November 2026

December 2026

January 2027

February 2027

March 2027

April 2027

May 2027

June 2027

September 2027

October 2027

November 2027

December 2027

None of these dates suit you? We open additional sessions on request, and any programme can be run privately for your team.

Practical details

Before the programme
Online positioning questionnaire. Your development objectives are shared with the trainer, who tailors the practical case studies to your context.
Teaching methods
Theoretical input, workshops and practical case studies. Digital course materials and method sheets provided.
Assessment
Multiple-choice tests and role-play exercises. Assessment of learning at the start and end of the programme, with immediate and 60-day follow-up evaluations.
After the programme
One year of access to the e-learning platform. Self-assessment of the skills acquired and a 30-day follow-up session with your trainer.
How to register
Registration online or on the basis of a quotation.
Lead time
11 working days after confirmation of registration.
Accessibility
Accessible to people of determination. Contact our accessibility coordinator to design a suitable solution: contact@mpf-academy.ae
Start dates
Rolling intake: in addition to the scheduled sessions, this programme can start on request.