10+ Time Management Tips That Help You Control the Clock

In today’s increasingly busy workplace, effective time management is paramount. But, among the emails, texts, notifications, instant messages, shoulder taps, and regular meetings, you’re lucky to find even a few minutes of uninterrupted focus time.

However, with some simple productivity hacks and clever time management tips, you can learn to mitigate distractions and take back your schedule.

Read on to discover 12 essential time management tips to help you better manage your time at work.

What Is Time Management?

Time management is ability to plan and control the time spent on specific tasks. Essentially the purpose of time management is to enable people to get more work done in less time. Effective time management can increase efficiency and boost productivity.

Why Is Time Management Important?

Do you ever feel like there are not enough hours in the day? Before you know it, it’s the end of the day and your most important projects are still on the to-do list, unfinished. How does this happen? And, more importantly, how do you fix it?

We all have the same 24 hours in a day, so why do some people achieve more than others? The answer: effective time management.

Planning and organizing how you divide your time between different tasks can help you get more done in less time. Good time management reduces procrastination, allowing you to prioritize your tasks better and work smarter to achieve your goals.

Calculating the True Cost Of Distractions

Time management in the modern workplace is more about handling distractions than juggling hours in the day. That’s because we’ve never worked in a more distracting environment than we do now. Information floods our brains, each piece demanding our immediate attention, whether it’s a breaking news story, a social media update, the latest movie trailer, or an email from a co-worker.

At the same time, much of your work requires full, focused attention and deep thought. Humans have a hard time jumping right into a deep-thought mode, and a distraction can easily derail the process. In fact, a study from UC Irvine revealed that it takes over 20 minutes for an individual to return to a task after a distraction.

So, an employee coming to ask you a “quick question” could effectively cost you half an hour out of your workday. No wonder we always feel like we’re running out of time!

12 Essential Time Management Tips

Time management strategies seem to have been around since the first employee set foot inside the first office building. But part of the problem is many of these tips and tricks are outdated. Those activities for time management in the workplace weren’t created in the context of today’s distracting, digital workspace.

You need tools and techniques that will help you do more than simply create to-do lists. You need effective time management techniques geared toward your busy job and your busy work environment.

1. Plan Ahead

On your drive to work or as soon as you get there, take a few minutes to plan out your day. Think about what you need to get done, and what can wait until tomorrow.

Sticking to your plan will help you focus on the most important tasks at hand. It can also help eliminate procrastination and give your day a sense of purpose.

When you prioritize tasks, keep in mind the four Ds of time management, which are:

• Delete It: Is the task worth your time? If not, delete it.
• Delegate It: Is it your responsibility/necessary for you to complete the task? If not, allow someone else to handle it.
• Do It: Can you complete the task here and now in just a few minutes? If so, get it out of the way!
• Defer It: Do you have to complete the task this instant? If not, schedule it for later in the week.

2. Work With Your Daily Rhythm

Do you find yourself craving a nap after lunch? Is it difficult for you to think clearly before 9:00 AM? Well, the truth is, that’s completely normal. Your body runs on a 24-hour internal clock with natural, “scheduled” periods of both high and low energy.

This internal clock is known as your ‘circadian rhythm.’

For many adults, their lowest energy points are between 2:00 and 4:00 AM and 1:00 to 3:00 PM. However, these low periods may shift for night owls or morning people. Likewise, not getting enough sleep will make your energy swings more dramatic.

So, instead of trying to power through your low-energy periods, why not schedule your tasks around them? For example, work on mentally demanding tasks when you’re at your highest, and set more mechanical, “mindless” tasks for the times when you’re running on empty.

3. Disable Notifications

Do you constantly have people tapping you on the shoulder or email notifications appearing in the corner of your screen? It’s not uncommon to have both.

These simple steps can help you minimize distractions in the workplace:

• Limit open browser tabs to the ones you are currently using
• Turn off email and message notifications
• Keep your phone in your desk drawer
• Plan set times for checking emails—e.g. first thing in the morning and after lunch.

Fun Fact: Did you know the average person checks their phone 58 times a day? Keeping your phone out of sight can help rid yourself of the temptation to constantly check it.

4. Understand Your Current Habits.

You can’t control every distraction that comes your way, but you can control what you do with the free time you have afterward. And that starts with understanding what you currently do with that time.

Grab a sheet of paper and map out what you did the previous day, from the time you woke up to the time you went to sleep. Break it down hour by hour. Where did you invest your time? The results may surprise you.

Once you understand how you actually spend your time, you can hold yourself accountable and start making changes.

5. Embrace Breaks

Believe it or not, taking breaks is an important part of managing your time wisely. Psychologist Dr Larry Rosen explains in a Harvard Business Review article, that our brains operate in 90-minute rest-activity cycles. That is, we can only focus for 90 minutes before our brains need to rest.

Dr Rosen recommends that for every 90 minutes of working (particularly with technology), you should take at least a 10-minute break. Some researchers even suggest taking as long as 20-30 minutes to let your brain recharge. Doing so will help you keep your energy and focus up.

Try to schedule regular breaks throughout the day that give you both a mental and physical breather. This could be something as simple as taking a moment to stand up and stretch or walking around the block for 10 minutes in between projects.

6. Schedule Quiet Hours

While open office arrangements can support group collaboration and comradery, they sometimes make for distracting, difficult work environments. According to a survey published in Medium, 62 percent of high-performing employees think their office environments are too distracting, and 58 percent need more private spaces for problem-solving.

Among the Creative Team here at BambooHR, we instituted what we called “library hours” during the workday. These hours are reserved for quiet, focused work with no interruptions or conversations.

You can try the same in your own organization or with your team. Honoring quiet hours during the day prevents a constant flow of distractions without making your workplace feel like a prison. There’s still ample opportunity for coworkers to chat or collaborate—just not during the designated focus hours.

7. Disconnect From The Digital World

Of course, some of the most prominent sources of distraction are the very tools we use to complete our work: computers, phones, tablets, and other digital devices. The Internet is a rabbit hole, and research can turn into a Wonderland-like diversion in a matter of clicks.

Certainly, there are aspects of your job that require these devices, but do you really need them to be active at all times? Try putting your phone away, out of sight, and on silent. If you’re a tab-hoarder (you know who you are), try opening only what you need and disconnecting from what you don’t. There are even apps and plugins that will block certain websites for you during designated times of the day.

Whatever you do, try unplugging during your deep-thinking tasks, and see what it does for you.

8. Coordinate More Focused Meetings

When you set a meeting, establish a clear purpose, and communicate that purpose to the other attendees. It can also help to create an agenda for the meeting that you send out to everyone beforehand.

As you set your agenda, be sure to factor in time for communication and feedback. You may even want to designate someone else in the meeting to keep everyone on track. So, if you or someone else in the meeting take the discussion too far away from the meeting’s purpose, the designated watchdog can steer things back to the agenda.

9. Control Your Inbox

Schedule specific times throughout the day to check your inbox so you aren’t constantly distracted by new tasks. The best time to check email is when you are transitioning from one project to the next. When it isn’t email time, shut down your email window so you can’t be distracted.

10. Automate Clunky Processes

You can be a master at ignoring distractions and have all the effective time management strategies perfected. But as a busy employee, none of that will help if you’re still bogged down by poor processes.

Tasks, like approving time-off requests or updating employee information, don’t need to take up your whole day. Yet in many organizations, it’s all you can do to keep your head above the flood of paperwork.

11. Learn When To Say No

Guilty of saying ‘yes’ to everything? If so, that may just be the problem. When we have too many things on our plates, it can make us feel overwhelmed. It also makes it more difficult for us to get things done, as we often find ourselves procrastinating about where to start.

The bottom line is, we only have so many hours in a day, and we physically cannot commit ourselves to everything. Learning when to say ‘no’ and focusing on the tasks at hand is key to effective time management.

12. Embrace Time Management Tools

The best way to manage your time effectively is to equip yourself with the right tool for the job. Time management tools can be simple, such as a daily planner, or more complex like an app that helps to automate certain tasks.

Here are some examples of time management tools you can use in your workplace:

• Daily planner to create a schedule and/or a to-do list
• Apps such as Asana or Trello to manage and automate certain tasks, allowing you to focus on others
• Physical timer or a timer app to remind you to take breaks
• Distraction blocker apps such as FocusMe to prevent access to distracting websites and apps like social media

Keep in mind that different tools will help foster the development of different skills, so you should select the proper tools that will help with the skills that you want to teach.

How To Teach Effective Time Management Skills

The number one way to teach effective time management is by leading by example. Practicing what you preach goes a long way when you are trying to cultivate time management skills in the workplace.

Think of it this way: If you haven’t learned how to manage your time properly, how can you expect to teach your employees to do so?

Second, while you should focus on good skills when teaching, you should also discourage bad ones like multitasking. Many people feel that multitasking can help them complete more work, but the reality is that multitasking is simply impossible. If an employee thinks they are good at multitasking, they are really only switching their attention from task to task in short succession, resulting in lower productivity and lower quality work.

Third, you should focus on clear, concise communication. Strive to explain principles simply and be encouraging while you do it. You should also avoid nagging your employees about the skills you’re trying to teach. No one wants their boss to get on their case all the time about how they are doing things wrong.

Finally, hold your employees accountable for their own time management. Accountability can be a magical thing—rather than placing blame, set clear expectations ahead of time for your employees so they can hold themselves accountable for their work.

If you’ve given them the right tools, communicated your expectations clearly, and then provided them with the freedom to explore what works best for them, they’ll be much more likely to be motivated to produce their best work.