6 Effective Ways to Build Time Management Skills as a Manager

“Time is the biggest resource” is something we have all heard in different situations. Using it effectively is the key to making the most of it. Yet, time management is one of every manager’s most critical challenges.

With so much to do and so little time to do, time management skills are essential for managers. This blog will provide a one-stop guide on handling time for managers and leaders, starting with defining time management and highlighting common issues and challenges. It then provides tips on assessing your time management skills and highlights the skills needed for effective time management. So if you’re looking to up your game as a manager, this blog is for you!

What is time management?

Time management is the process of organizing and prioritizing your time to achieve your goals. Effective time management requires setting boundaries, establishing priorities, and breaking tasks into manageable parts. It involves setting realistic expectations for yourself, developing effective habits, and establishing rules for how you will use your time. It allows you to get more done in less time – saving your energy for more productive endeavors.

Time management can refer to creating systems or routines that help manage appointments, tasks, and deadlines. It also involves developing a personal schedule, setting priorities, managing distractions, and disciplining oneself. It is not just about prioritizing yourself and saving time for yourself. It also involves spending the right amount of time on whatever you get yourself involved in.

We can understand the value of effective time management best by looking at the examples of some of the most successful people of our time. For example, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffet, has famously said, “time is the most valuable resource we have.” The personal tips and tricks for time management of these popular leaders are interesting, such as the bucket system of Microsoft founder Bill Gates. He classifies his work into buckets and spends an equal amount of time dedicated to each every day. 

Is time management a skill?

Yes, time management is a skill. Efficiently managing your time and resources can ensure you get the most out of each day. People with solid skills in managing time efficiently manage their time and resources, and you can ensure you get the most out of each day. So, if you want to take your career to the next level, develop skills to manage your time effectively!

What are time management skills?

The essential skills for effective management of time include:

• Goal setting: Setting goals is essential for determining your purpose in life and objectives. It helps you focus on what’s important and stay motivated. With goals, it becomes easier to determine how you are progressing or where you stand relative to your stated goal.
• Prioritizing tasks: Tasks must be prioritized to ensure that you address the most important ones first. Prioritization enables you to allocate time and resources effectively while avoiding distraction or burnout. Effective time management requires breaking tasks into manageable parts and assessing their importance before setting a priority level.
• Scheduling: Schedule your time to ensure that you are working on important tasks at the right time. Scheduling allows for flexibility and a balance between work and leisure activities. However, scheduling can also be tedious if not done correctly. Many online tools help you schedule your time more effectively, such as Google Calendar or even Microsoft Outlook!
• Multitasking: Multitasking is the ability to carry out two or more tasks simultaneously. However, effective multitasking depends on task management skills. If tasks are not prioritized and organized, you will be too busy trying to do multiple things at once poorly instead of completing essential tasks.
• Overcoming barriers: Time management is often hampered due to barriers such as disruptive environments or people. Hence, you need to identify and overcome things that can confuse and distract you.
• Delegation: Delegation is the process of assigning a task to someone else, usually with the expectation that the delegate will carry out the task to your satisfaction. Delegating tasks allows you to focus on higher-level tasks while delegating less critical tasks to individuals who can complete them more efficiently and free up your time to focus on high-value aspects of work.

Why are time management skills essential for managers?

Time management skills are essential for managers because they help them stay on track and meet deadlines. Managers who are effective at managing time use various methods to manage their time effectively. These methods include organizing their work so that everything is manageable, setting realistic goals for themselves and their team members, and delegating tasks correctly. In addition to managing time skillfully, good managers also handle interruptions calmly and efficiently. By mastering these skills, managers can effectively manage their teams and stay on top of their work.

Benefits of effective time management

Managers need time management skills to handle the plethora of responsibilities effectively. In addition to solving personal challenges, the time management skills of a manager are required to ensure that team operations also stay on track. At a glance, effective handling of time helps managers in the following ways:

Create a better work-life balance

Effective time management skills help managers have a better work-life balance. By prioritizing and managing time properly, managers can delegate tasks correctly, stay on top of their work, and avoid distractions. It ensures they can handle the workload while still having a life outside work. Dealing with interrupts and multitasking is difficult without good time management skills. Managers organize their work by breaking it down into manageable tasks when they are skilled at managing time. In this manner, managers can ensure that they are not overwhelmed by work but give it due attention at the right time.

High quality of work

Effective time management skills help to produce high-quality work. By correctly delegating tasks and prioritizing work, managers ensure that the job is completed to the best of their ability. It allows them to put in quality work without sacrificing time or effort on other tasks. Good time management skills also help managers be less stressed, which leads to better decision-making capabilities and a higher level of focus in the workplace. They can also overcome procrastination and workplace distractions with effective practices for managing time.

Reduced stress

Terrible time management habits create causes for stress, such as tall piles of work and long to-do lists. Effective time management skills help reduce stress levels in the workplace. By adequately delegating tasks and prioritizing work, managers can avoid multitasking, leading to more stress. Managing time effectively also allows managers to set aside time for themselves each day- whether taking a break or a task list to relax. Stress at work negatively impacts mental and physical health; effectively managing time helps healthily manage this stress, leading to improved morale.

Better team productivity

A productive team comprises individually talented members who work together to achieve a common goal. Effective time management skills help create a productive team by ensuring that tasks are completed on time and that everyone can contribute their best work. To do this, managers ensure that their teams have sufficient work, time, and resources. It leads to better task completion and builds trust between team members- which is essential for successful collaboration. When each member feels valued and vital, productivity increases dramatically.

Catch interesting insights here: Performance or Productivity: Where do you focus?

Mental & physical wellness

Maintaining good time management skills can also help to improve mental and physical wellness. For instance, proper scheduling allows for restorative breaks throughout the day- which helps restore energy levels and boost productivity. Furthermore, it helps reduce stress levels, leading to better sleep patterns and overall health. On the other hand, poor time management habits have been linked with hypertension, obesity, anxiety disorders, mood swings, etc. – all of which are preventable by improving workplace habits.

Growth of leadership skillset

The growth of your leadership skillset is a direct result of improved time management skills. When team members are effectively managed, they are more likely to commit to and follow through with tasks. In addition, it promotes trust and cooperation- essential qualities for effective leadership. Furthermore, managers skilled at managing time can ensure that tasks are completed on schedule, facilitating better communication between team members. With strong leaders at the helm who work by the clock, teams can achieve great things together!

Are you prepared to handle teams? Assess your leadership skills for free now!

What if your time management is poor?

Poor time management skills have several negative consequences, including missed deadlines, less productivity at work, and poor coordination between different parts of your life and team. We can see poor time management in managers’ lack of a proper work-life balance. It also affects team coordination as team members find it difficult to trust a manager who cannot accurately assess the time required to complete a job. Consequently, low productivity and poor work relationships demoralize individuals and hurt their career growth. The impact of poorly managing time goes more profound than it is visible, as it can disrupt several crucial operations. The key signs of poor time management that you need to be aware of are:

• You are constantly procrastinating and putting away work
• You get to work when deadlines are approaching fast
• The quality of your work does not satisfy you
• You feel like you are not getting enough done
• Your team is often working extra and long hours

What are the challenges managers face in time management?

While time management is one of the essential skills of a manager, there are several impediments to achieving it in real life. Problems in managing time can range from an extra chatty co-worker disrupting your workflow to the background noises distracting you at work. In some cases, an overwhelming workload can also throw you into mismanagement, as you forget what needs to be done and when. As a result, you might find yourself looking for escapes from procrastination.

Time management challenges arise due to poor habits too. The lack of practice in prioritizing tasks and planning for contingencies often jeopardizes teams. When dealing with a team, the actions of team members can impact a manager too. If the team acts and responds too little, it will also slow down the pace of operations for everyone else. Here, the manager must solve with their team and for their team.

The problems of a manager are not solely limited to themselves. They can expand in terms of causes and impact on their teams. If such challenges in the management of time are not taken seriously, the constant flow of work and information can push managers toward burnout too.

How can managers overcome time management challenges?

Managing time effectively is a challenge that many managers face. However, with the help of time management tips, you can overcome this hurdle and achieve your objectives more efficiently.

Set goals & deadlines

Setting goals and deadlines helps to regulate the amount of time you spend on tasks. This way, you know how much time is allocated for a given task and can adjust your schedule accordingly. Goal setting is the first step to achieving them. It helps you create a timeline for actions to take and helps define a set of actions to follow. You can start effectively managing time today by using the many goal-setting techniques for managers, like SMART goals and OKRs.

Check out some great examples of time management goals here.

Prioritize tasks

Trying to do too many things at a time is one of the most common problems in the effective management of time. It’s essential to prioritize your tasks so that you can focus on the most important ones and give them their due share of attention. It also helps you stay focused and motivated. When you have a list of task priorities, it will be easier to know when and where to apply resources.

Share your burden

One of the best ways to save time is to delegate tasks to others. When you assign a task to someone else, they are responsible for completing it. This way, you can focus on other essential tasks while someone else completes the delegated task. Delegating also allows you to tap into the skills and knowledge of others in your team. When tasks are delegated correctly, everyone benefits!

Keep motivation high

Keeping your motivation high is essential to time management. When the task at hand feels like a drag, it’s much harder to complete. Instead, try to find things you enjoy and look forward to in your work. It will help keep you motivated when things are tough. In addition, try setting short-term goals for yourself and your team, along with rewards for reaching them (this can be anything from free lunches to significant discount cards). Finally, ensure regular breaks throughout the day to take a breath and re-energize yourself before picking up where you left off.

Time management activities for teams

Managing the team’s time is essential to keep everyone on track and motivated. A manager should create an effective task management system that keeps everyone organized and energized. Otherwise, lethargy can creep up on the entire team. Consider looking into engaging in time management activities that suit the whole team. For instance, the team can set up a Pomodoro routine to keep working throughout the day with sufficient breaks.

Design your time management strategy

No one-time management strategy is perfect for everyone. Instead, you need to customize it to fit your personal needs and the way you work best. You can start with some examples of time management strategies and move ahead. Following are some tips on how to do that:

• Evaluate your daily routine and see where time can be saved or improved.
• Create effective task management systems to help keep everything organized. Use time management tools designed for managers.
• Practice your skills by setting short-term goals, rewarding yourself when you reach them, and taking regular breaks throughout the day.

Wondering where to start? Check out Time management training: Boost your productivity and achieve your goals

Download the free Time Management toolkit for managers by Risely to access templates and frameworks that make time management a breeze for busy professionals. It helps you improve your all-around focus on managing time with its effective self-audit template, task prioritization framework, and weekly planner.

How to assess your time management skills?

Employers are constantly looking for managers who can efficiently manage their time and prioritize tasks. But, we often fail to recognize effective time management. It is generally confused with being busy and chasing unrealistic productivity metrics. Instead, effective time management keeps you from working extra long hours and getting stressed over pending work instead of keeping you glued to the workstation.

You can quickly assess your time management skills with Risely’s free Time Management self-assessment for managers and leaders. The self-assessment is designed to present an honest picture of your skills as a team manager based on your experience. It provides insights into your vital areas that catalyze growth and the weak regions that often land you in trouble. By understanding where you need to work, you can overcome the challenges hampering your professional growth easily.

To make things even easier, you can sign up for Risely to get customized guidance on managing time and any other people management challenges that block your way to success. In addition, Risely offers customized learning journeys that help you collaborate with your team to solve issues affecting your productivity. Equipped with toolkits and assessments for managers, it makes people management a breeze! 

Conclusion

In the end, time management is all about being efficient. After reading this article, you should know how to get started and make an impact with your new approach. If you follow the strategies mentioned above, you will be on track to achieve success in your career and become a great manager!

To conclude, keep one thing in mind: working more intelligently does not mean you can ignore everything related to time management. In fact, it is very important for everyone who wants to manage their workload effectively. With just a few tricks up your sleeve, like what we’ve discussed above, keeping tabs on tasks and prioritizing them without fail can be easier than ever!

Managers face a lot of challenges when it comes to time management. These skills are essential for a successful career, from juggling multiple tasks to resisting the urge to work late into the night. In this blog, we have outlined the different aspects of managing time effectively and provided tips on improving your skills. Make sure to read through the blog to get a one-stop guide on time management!