Sadly, we don't have loads of money to send people on training courses but we do want to help you reflect on what you are learning and encourage you to learn all you can in your time here - for you, and what you go on to do, not just to be better at your work in SPEAK.

Knowing Your Working Style

One thing we have found helpful as a team is to use the Belbin test together (see below for downloadable questionnaire). It helps you learn about yur strengths in your working style and what you need to be mindful of. Completing it as a team has helped us to see the spread of personalities in the team and identify how we can best work together. You can download the questionnaire and type sheet below to find out for yourself.

Skill Charting

The SPEAK skills table is for all SPEAK NST staff and others to chart how they are developing in practical and spiritual skills that they get the chance to use while working for SPEAK. It is to chart how effective experience and training are and for managers to work with staff on their personal development.

The skills table should is to be used by all SPEAK NST staff as way of charting the journey that God takes us on individually as we serve him through our work. We are not here to be slaves to SPEAK but to serve God and grow in many different ways where he gives us opportunities through experiences and training. We have the opportunity to do so many different things and connect with amazing people that cross our path. Having a table of what you would like to develop will help you see what you have gained practically and spiritually as you work for SPEAK and help you to reflect on where God is taking you.

In discussion with their line manager, staff should identify skills which they are already strong in and would like to see develop more, skills they would like to have but feel they have a bit of longer journey to get there, and few things that are real stumbling blocks that they want to overcome. These can be personal development, practical or spiritual. In fact, a mixture of all 3 is good!

Over the time staff work for SPEAK, the table will identify experiences of using this skill, self-learning and training received. There is also space for staff to write their own self assessment periodically and for the line manager to assess how far they have come. For example staff can chart obstacles they come up against, progress and any extra help needed or mentoring. Line managers can help by suggesting positive action that can be taken, advice, sharing their own experiences, goal setting and investigating training ideas.

Each month the manager and staff member should fill in a separate table referring back to previous months to chart the progress. By the end of your time with SPEAK we hope that you will have had the chance to develop in lots of areas and see how you have some on in them, hopefully helping you see where God is taking you as you are planted out side the greenhouse! 

Personal Organisation 

Planning to Spend your Time Well: Setting Goals

Sometimes when you have a big plan it can seem hard to break it down into small bite sized chunks in order to get to your goal. However, it’s vital to take time to set goals for yourself to help you reach your deadlines and the goals that you want to achieve.

Why not create an action plan with a SPEAK goals table. An action plan is a list of tasks that you have to carry out to achieve an objective. It differs from a to do list in that it focuses on the achievement of a single goal. Wherever you want to achieve something, draw up an action plan. If you are working with a strategy or a task you can take elements of each and break them down into an action plan. This allows you to concentrate on the stages of that achievement, and monitor your progress towards it. To draw up an Action Plan, simply list the tasks that you need to carry out to achieve your goal and put dates beside when you want to finish them and think about how long each part will take so you can transfer it to your timetable. This is simple, but still very useful!

For example, an action plan for Pray & Post might be

Being Efficient: Prioritising your time

 With lots of stuff going on in SPEAK and the potential to get involved in everything that’s going on, it’s vital to plan well and know what you need to spend time on in order to reach your goals, rather than just what seems like it might be good!

Prioritising is a key skill to learn since often work can feel overwhelming if we place equal importance on everything. Your job description will tell you what your role involves but even then it’s hard to prioritise since there are a lot of shared areas of responsibility. You can speak to your manager about what it is best to do if other things come up. However, with day to day prioritising the following should help…

Being Efficient: To Do Lists

A ‘to do list ' is a list of all the tasks that you need to carry out.  It consolidates all the jobs that you have to do into one place – it means less has to be in your head at all times and that you definitely won’t forget any tasks if they are written down! You can then prioritise these tasks into order of importance or how they best fit into your day, around meetings etc. This allows you to make sure you leave time for the important ones as well as the responsive ones which always come up.

To do lists are essential when you need to carry out a number of different tasks or different sorts of tasks, or when you have made a number of commitments. If you find that you are often caught out because you have forgotten to do something, then you need to keep a to do list .

Whilst to do list s are very simple, they are also extremely powerful, both as a method of organising yourself and as a way of reducing stress. Often work may seem overwhelming or you have that feeling of just not knowing where to start – a to do list can really help.

Preparing a To do list 

The solution is often simple: Write down the tasks that face you, and if they are large, break them down into their component elements (see action plan section if task is especially big). If these still seem large, break them down again. Do this until you have listed everything that you have to do. Once you have done this, run through these jobs allocating priorities and working out how long they might take. This is important because it will help you see how you can fit things in to met goals. You can simply leave it at that or give tasks different priorities before you put them in your timetable. This allows you to separate important jobs from the many time-consuming trivial ones which are unlikely to be that trivial but may end up taking up too much time if you haven’t thought about priorities or the time you have

Using Your to do lists

Different people use To do list s in different ways in different situations. For example you may prefer to work with short ones every day and complete them or you may prefer to include lots of things and run them over into the next days if they are not a priority, raising their priority over time when you get closer to a deadline (although you need to be aware that this is how you are operating!)

You can also design them in different ways, e.g. a set of tick boxes, a daily timetable, a weekly list etc, etc.

Key points:

Prioritised To do list s are fundamentally important to efficient work. If you use To do list s, you will ensure that:

• You remember to carry out all necessary tasks
• You tackle the most important jobs first, and do not waste time on trivial tasks.
• You do not get stressed by a large number of unimportant jobs.

Assessing How You’ve Spent Your Time: Logging Your Work

Weekly time sheets as well as helping you plan, can also help you see how you’ve spent your time. You can use them as activity logs help you to analyse how you actually spend your time, in a very detailed way, for a week for example. It’s easy to forget everything that you did in a day and the only way to really assess how effectively you spend your time is to note everything down so that you can go back and judge more clearly how you can improve your time management or prioritise more effectively.

Many factors can affect you throughout the day – tea making, your own optimum times, people ringing up, blood sugar level, chatting, etc. And sometimes it becomes hard to judge how long tasks actually take. None of these things are negative, it’s just good to keep a log to be able to assess your time.

Keeping an Activity Log

Keeping an Activity Log for several days helps you to understand how you spend your time, and when you perform at your best. Without modifying your behaviour any further than you have to, note down the things you do as you do them. Every time you change activities, whether opening mail, working, making coffee, chatting socially or whatever, note down the time of the change.

As well as recording activities, you can try noting how you feel, whether alert, flat, tired, energetic, etc. Do this periodically throughout the day.

Learning from Your Log

Once you have logged your time for a few days, analyse the log. You may be alarmed to see the length of time you spend doing low value jobs!

You may also see that you are energetic in some parts of the day, and flat in other parts. A lot of this can depend on the rest breaks you take, the times and amounts you eat, and quality of your nutrition. The activity log gives you some basis for experimenting with these variables to find out how you can best manage your time.
Key points:

Activity logs are useful tools for auditing the way that you use your time. They can also help you to track changes in your energy, alertness and effectiveness throughout the day.

By analysing your activity log you will be able to identify and eliminate time-wasting or low-yield jobs. You will also know the times of day at which you are most effective, so that you can carry out your most important tasks during these times.

Other Hints and Tips

Spend a few minutes at the end of each day planning your time table and to do list for the next day. This will help you come into work knowing what has to be done and means you won’t forget anything that’s carried over from the day before.

1. If it works in your situation, list the things you might make sure you do each day to help you file
2. Filing in general will help you to be more efficient and know where to find things when you have decided what you are going to do!
3. If a task comes up that you have to do, e.g. a phone call or something going wrong that needs to be dealt with, don’t just abandon your timetable. After you’ve dealt with the urgent situation, reassess how much time you have and whether you need to re-prioritise your day.