Time management skills at work

Great time management skills help with planning and prioritising tasks, setting goals, and following work processes efficiently. Having effective time management skills can help your employees get tasks done and get the most out of the workday.

Here are 10 tips that you can encourage and implement with your employees to help develop an efficient and productive workplace:

Tip 1: Have a to-do list

This can be for each task, each day, or each week. Writing down a list of the things that need to be done is a great way to help with focus. Make sure that the list is written down, otherwise tasks can be forgotten if people try to keep things in their head. To-do lists may help boost employee motivation, especially when they see their lists shorten as they tick tasks off.

Tip 2: Set SMART goals

Encourage your employees to think about what they want to achieve at work by developing SMART goals. These goals are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. Employee work goals should align with your business vision and goals. Then employees can create tasks on their to-do list to help achieve these work goals.

Tip 3: Set priorities

Your employees won’t be able to do everything on their to-do list at once. Encourage them to look at their list of tasks and decide if the tasks are urgent or not urgent and important or not important. This is called the “Eisenhower matrix” or “Covey matrix” where tasks are put into one of these four categories (or quadrants if you draw up a matrix).

• Urgent and important
• Not urgent but important
• Urgent but not important
• Not urgent and not important

If they are unsure of the urgency or importance of any of their tasks, remind them to ask their supervisor about this to ensure they meet any deadlines or KPIs.

Tip 4: Use the 4D system

Once the tasks have been put into a category, apply the 4D system: Do, delay, delegate, and delete.

1. Do: If a task is urgent and important, then do it now.
2. Delay: If a task is not urgent but it is important, then delay it until when there is more time.
3. Delegate: If a task is urgent but not important, then delegate it, especially if your employee does not have the time and/or expertise to do the task.
4. Delete: If a task is not urgent and not important, consider deleting it.

Tip 5: Do a time audit

The 80/20 concept in time management is that 80% of someone’s output comes from only 20% of their efforts. Consider encouraging your employee to complete a time audit to identify when they are most productive, why this is, and consider how they could change their approach so the other 80% of their efforts become more productive too.

Tip 6: Use digital tools

There are lots of digital tools that can be used to help plan time, prioritise tasks, and understand how your time is used throughout the day. These include calendars, to-do lists, and time trackers that can help you understand when you are most productive.

After exploring some of these tools, discuss the options with your employees and consider trialling some of them. Some of these tools may be freely available with a basic level, and you pay for more functionality. You may find that the basic level is all you need. Remember to check out the terms and conditions and privacy policy for any tool you use.

Tip 7: Use time blocking

This involves creating time blocks in your calendar for specific tasks. You can also batch tasks together. For example, if your organisation works out of an office, your employees may block out time to focus on work in the morning and then have a block of time in the afternoon for meetings and administrative tasks.

Tip 8: Reduce meetings

Consider reducing the number of meetings you and your employees have to attend so more time can be freed up for other things. Encourage your colleagues to think about whether a meeting is always needed, as some topics could be addressed in emails or a chat discussion instead. If a meeting is required, then consider reducing the length of the meeting. Making meetings be 15 and 45 minutes long rather than 30 and 60 minutes long can help with this. Even shortening meetings by five minutes may give participants time to refocus and recharge between meetings and other tasks.

Tip 9: Multitask wisely (when possible)

While it’s generally better to avoid multitasking, this isn’t always possible, so make sure your employees multitask wisely when they have to do this. The issue with multitasking is that someone can waste time because they are constantly changing focus. However, the right type of multitasking may benefit your employees and your business. For example, you may encourage walking meetings. Also consider encouraging time batching and time blocking to help with multitasking.

Tip 10: Let your employees say no

If an employee has lots of things to do and they know they can’t realistically take on any more tasks, it’s a good idea to remind them that it’s okay for them to politely say no to further tasks. The worst thing they can do is take on extra tasks and not have the time to complete any tasks on their to-do list.

In situations where newer tasks are actually more important than what they are currently working on, communicate this to your employee and work with them to identify which of their current tasks can be put on hold or delegated to someone else.