Time management is important for the success of any business. Its importance has made many time management techniques popular across a variety of industries. But, this popularity has also helped spread lots of misinformation about the concept. Many people believe these time management myths, leading to their efforts failing.
In this article, we’ll take a look at four popular myths about time management. We’ll cover why they’re false, and even take a look at how you can debunk them yourself at your business with time tracking software.
Debunking 4 time management myths
Let’s jump straight into our main topic and explore 4 popular myths about time management.
Time management myth 1: multitasking is more productive
Multitasking is something that we do every day, even without noticing. It may be something simple like listening to the radio while driving a car, or scrolling on a website while talking on the phone. But, its widespread nature doesn’t mean it is the best option for more involved tasks. Many professionals believe multitasking is more productive than working only on one thing at a time. However, studies have shown that humans are not well suited to this strategy.
When you multitask, you can’t fully focus on any one thing you’re doing. This leads to poor performance, reducing your productivity. Multitasking can also increase the likelihood of making errors, reducing the quality of your work. As a result, it is important to ensure this doesn’t happen in your team.
Time management myth 2: more hours lead to more completed work
Another popular myth among professionals worldwide is that working for longer leads to more work being done. In reality, longer work hours can only be used to measure commitment. Employees who are happy to work longer than they’re required are likely more engaged in their jobs than their coworkers. Having said that, someone completing their tasks and leaving early doesn’t mean the opposite.
Moreover, lengthy work hours may be caused by low productivity rates. In these cases, using productivity-boosting techniques and tools can be quite beneficial for teams of all sizes. A great example of this is time tracking software, with trackers like WebWork offering lots of productivity features.
Time management myth 3: you need to be working non-stop to be successful
When working on any project or task, success is probably what you’d like to achieve. Many believe that working non-stop will let them achieve success more easily. In reality, breaks and downtime play a vital role in performing your best. Without resting and allowing the mind to recover, professionals won’t be able to be productive in the long run.
Overworking, on the other hand, can have many negative effects on your team. It can reduce professional engagement levels measurably. In turn, your team members will perform worse and may even start looking for new career opportunities. Improving employee engagement is important for maintaining the growth of your company over the long-term future.
Time management myth 4: all management techniques work for everyone
When searching for a time management technique for your team, you might think that any strategy will work well. In reality, some strategies may work better than others. This is because everyone’s working styles are different. People often have different productivity preferences within one company.
Finding the correct time management technique for your team will involve some trial and error. You should try using a popular strategy like time blocking or timeboxing first. If you don’t see good results, try other techniques to find the right match for your business.
The role of time tracking software in debunking myths
Having explored a few popular time management myths, we can now shift our focus to time tracking. Specifically, the role of time tracking software in debunking these myths yourself.
Using tracked time data
High-quality time trackers will give you lots of data on how you and your team members spend time at work. This can help in verifying that the above-mentioned points are indeed myths. The tracked time data of your staff will also assist you in boosting their overall productivity. In turn, this will help your business perform better, speeding up its growth.
Verifying with additional reports
Besides ensuring that your team doesn’t spend too much time on any one task, you can also verify their productivity data. High-quality tracking software like WebWork can record lots of key metrics at your business. These include app and website usage, activity level, task progress, and much more. Just like tracked time data, this information will also be invaluable in speeding up the growth of your company.
What to look for in a time tracker to use time management techniques
Before closing off this article, let’s briefly explore what you should look for in a time tracker to use various time management techniques at your business.
Features
As discussed above, additional data can help you verify the productivity levels of your employees. But, various other time tracking features can be beneficial for your business as well. For example, task management functionality can help staff stay focused for longer. App and website usage monitoring, on the other hand, can help you detect distractions to eliminate them.
Integrations
Closely tied with our last point, integrations can give your business a boost in productivity as well. This is especially important if you use lots of software tools in your company. Integrating these can save your management team lots of time, which can then be spent where it matters.
Closing thoughts
As managing time is a popular activity, many have fallen for various time management myths. These can have a measurable impact on your productivity, leading to a decline in performance. Using high-quality time tracking solutions, you can verify that these time management myths harm the productivity of your business. Such apps can help you achieve what you want to accomplish, which is boosting productivity and working smarter, not harder.
