Time Prioritization Game Activity and Team-Building Ice-Breaker

Page Updated on March 4, 2023

Cost

  • FREE to Use

Activity Purpose

  • Ice-breaker
  • Team building
  • Time Management

The main intention, with the ‘Time Prioritization Activity’ game, is to show how we need to be smart in how we prioritize things we do and how this impacts on our free available time.

This game/activity has a second and third purpose in that it is also a fantastic activity when used as an ice-breaker or team-building game.

In other words, this activity is great fun for participants and because they work in groups, it is great for the participants to get to know each other.

And, it is a great activity for team-building because of the way in which participants work in groups.

As a trainer, this activity requires very little equipment and is very easy to run and use.

Length of Group Activity

The recommended time for this activity is 25 minutes. This can be broken down as:

  • 10 minutes for the activity/game
  • 15 minutes to add points to the board or flipchart and for the class discussion.

What You Will Need

For this activity, you will need a flipchart that you will have prepared in advance with a list of tasks that participants will choose from.

You will also need another sheet of paper from the flipchart (or you can use a whiteboard for this), where you will have drawn a matrix for writing and adding up the scores for each team.

Starting The Activity – Instructions

Activity on Slide 50 of 60 (Time Management Skills Trainers Kit)
>> Activity on Slide 50 from our Time Management Skills Trainers Kit

1. Divide participants into teams of 5 to 8.

2. Unveil the list of tasks and place it somewhere easily visible for everyone.

You may want to attach it to the wall. (Make sure that this list stays covered until you finish explaining the activity.)

You can DOWNLOAD a printable PDF HERE of the list of the Tasks or just cut and paste the list that is also shown below.

3. Explain that teams have 10 minutes to choose and complete as many tasks as they can. Remind them that, whatever they do, they must keep safe.

4. The suggested tasks are (but you can adjust and change them as needed, but make sure that there are points attached to each task):

Task List

  • Do a lap around the room (5 points)
  • Create something for the instructor to wear, such as a hat or tie (10 points; bonus 5 points if the instructor actually wears it)
  • Find out something unique about each person on the team (5 points)
  • Sing a song together (15 points)
  • Make a paper airplane and throw it from one end of the room to another (10 points)
  • Get everyone in the room to sign a single piece of paper (5 points)
  • Count the number of pets owned by your group (20 points)
  • Each member of the team gives him/herself a nickname (5 points)
  • Create name cards for each team member (5 points; bonus 5 points if you use your team nicknames)
  • Make a tower out of the materials owned by your group (10 points)
  • Convince a member of another team to join you (20 points)
  • Name your team and come up with a slogan (5 points for the name, 5 points for the slogan)
  • Re-create the sounds of the Amazon rainforest with the sounds of your voices (10 points)
  • Make a list of what your team wants out of the workshop (15 points)
  • Form a conga line and conga from one end of the room to another (5 points; bonus 10 points if anyone joins you)

If You Are Teaching Online

You can do this activity online, but write on the list only things that participants can do virtually and within their group.

For example, tasks that can be done online include:

Find out something unique about each person on the team (5 points)

Sing a song together (15 points)

  • Count the number of pets owned by your group (20 points)
  • Each member of the team gives him/herself a nickname (5 points)
  • Create name cards for each team member (5 points; bonus 5 points if you use your team nicknames). They can do this virtually using MS Word or the online whiteboard.
  • Name your team and come up with a slogan (5 points for the name, 5 points for the slogan)
  • Re-create the sounds of the Amazon rainforest with the sounds of your voices (10 points)
  • Make a list of what your team wants out of the workshop (15 points)

You can also ask the participants  to draw something on an online whiteboard or to find a particular item by browsing the internet (this task would have low points as it is pretty easy to find everything on the internet unless you can think of something that is really hard to find.)

Task Evaluation

Different tasks have different points and there are bonus points for performing something extra for some tasks.

This forces groups to prioritize according to strategies, which they will discuss at the end.

At the end of the 10 minutes, add up the groups’ points and announce the winner.

Then start the discussion by asking: ‘How did you decide which tasks you wanted to do?’

A variety of strategies will be discussed.

For example, for the name card tasks, they get extra points if they use their nicknames, which means that by grouping tasks together teams can increase the value of their effort.

This is what happens in real life if we group similar tasks together.

Many teams will choose those tasks that are easier or faster to do AND have higher points values. This shows a preference for prioritizing high-yield tasks over low-yield ones.

Some groups will divide tasks between their team members so that the team can work on more than one task at the same time. This would show the importance of delegation.

Another discussion point may revolve around how group dynamics affect which tasks we decide to prioritize.

For example, did participants choose riskier tasks, such as singing, if they knew each other well?

Or did they decide to stay within their comfort zone and chose easier tasks if they did not know the other people well?

Other Free Group Training Activities and Games You Might Like

You might also find these free-to-use activities useful:

  • SMART Goals Training Kit – understanding time management is a key asset towards being able to utilize SMART goals.
  • Introduction to Mindfulness – One of the biggest complaints most of us seem to make is that we never really have enough time to do the things that make us happy right? How we manage our time is central to our mental health and mindfulness.
Classroom lesson plans
The following two tabs change content below.

Dr Paul Symonds

Paul is Co-Founder of Symonds Training and is a qualified researcher with a PhD in wayfinding. Paul helps the team at Symonds Training build and focus on providing high-quality training materials packages and programs for trainers, classroom teachers and HR departments.

Sharing is caring!