No matter what your role is within an organization, it’s beneficial to take advantage of the best time management tips so you can focus on your top priorities. For leaders and managers, this is especially true. Being in a managerial role means you’ll often be the final decision maker, and that requires managing your time appropriately so you can be informed to make them. Here are our best time management tips for leaders and managers.
Time Management Tip #1 – Have an agenda for every meeting.
It sounds simple, doesn’t it? But setting an agenda for meetings can make all the difference. We’ve all had those days where we walk into work with a laundry list of tasks that need to be done – only to find that our calendar is booked solid with meetings. While meetings are definitely important, they aren’t as productive as we think. A study from Highfive found that no more than 37% of meetings in the US have agendas. They also discovered that meetings last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour on average with nearly 75% multitasking. That doesn’t sound too productive – especially when you’re a leader at your company who needs to focus on managing your teams.
By setting a detailed agenda before every meeting and holding your team to those boundaries, not only will your meetings be more productive – but they’ll be shorter and your employees will leave feeling empowered. That’s why agenda setting is one of the easiest time management tips to implement right away. Watch and see what a difference they make, and how much more time you have in your day.
Time Management Tip #2 – Track your time effectively.
Naturally, one of the best time management tips for leaders is to manage time effectively. This accounts for both your own time and the time of your employees. Every industry can benefit from effective time management tips and strategies, whether you’re the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or a project manager heading up a small firm. According to a study from Atlassian, the average employee spends approximately two hours each day just recovering from distractions. A simple solution? Using technology for all its worth.
Leave all the heavy lifting of time management by using a time tracking app like Time Tracker. Whether you need to run payroll quickly and efficiently, manage and approve employee time, or create employee schedules, Time Tracker is a great solution at an affordable price. You can even track your employees’ routes and location via GPS tracking for industries that have a mobile workforce. And with all of these services and apps at your fingertips via mobile app, you never have to worry about being out of the loop with employee time.
Time Management Tip #3 – Delegate.
No list of time management tips for leaders is complete without delegation. It’s often said that the more responsibility you have within a company, the more big decisions you have to make. That’s why delegating tasks to your reports or employees is a key time management tip. Of course, this starts with hiring the right people. A strong team can and should be able to handle executing the strategy that you, as a leader, have put in place.
Keep in mind that there’s a fine line between delegating tasks to your team versus micromanaging them. Trusting your employees is essential to their success, and ultimately, your success as a manager. If you trust your team, you’ll find that many employees will rise to the occasion if you exhibit trust and confidence in their abilities. By delegating tasks to your team, you’ll see the benefits not only in the amount of time you’ve freed up for yourself – but in the success your team achieves as a whole.
Time Management Tip #4 – Organize your inbox.
While email is a necessary evil, reading emails is one of the most significant ways that leaders and employees alike lose valuable productive time at work. Atlassian reports that the average employee checks their email at least 36 times an hour (let that sink in). As a leader, you’re likely getting a ton of emails from both lower-level employees and those who you report to – and it’s easy to get in the habit of constantly checking your email to field those messages. Effectively managing your inbox is one of the most valuable but often overlooked time management tips.
First and foremost, do a little research on the capabilities your email service provider offers. There are great solutions for Gmail and Outlook, among others. By setting up filters and turning off notifications, you can master email so it doesn’t master you. It just takes a little time and energy to get everything set up in a way that works for you – but it’s definitely worth it once you can live a stress-free email life.
Time Management Tip #5 – Automate what you can.
Manual time tracking is becoming more and more of a thing of the past. One of the great benefits of technology innovation is the ability to automate tasks that once took hours. Whether you’re spending hours on time tracking, payroll, scheduling, or billing, know that there’s a handy solution ready to make your life easier.
time management tips A time tracking app like Time Tracker was designed to help you automate your tasks so you can save more time, and ultimately more money. With Time Tracker, you can save more than 30 hours a month (yes, that’s practically a whole work week) through simple and effective time tracking solutions. If you ever find yourself asking where all the time went from the previous pay period, Time Tracker is here to help you quantify and qualify those hours so you can increase profitability and decrease wasted time.
If you’re looking to implement any of these time management tips and make time tracking a priority, you’ve come to the right place. Time Tracker by eBillity helps save your team time and money so you can focus on the big picture. Start a free trial today!
Read more: 10 Time Management Tips Every Retailer Needs to Know
