Managing time is important in all professional settings. But, its role is especially vital in teams. Adequate time management for your team can help speed up the growth of your business.
In this article, we’ll explore a few of the best time management techniques for teams. We’ll cover how these can help you boost staff productivity and get the most from your employees.
The best time management techniques for teams
Let’s delve straight into our main topic and explore a few time management techniques you can use for your team.
Time Boxing/Timeblocking
Time Boxing and Timeblocking are two very similar strategies. They both divide your team’s time into small parts. You then need to assign tasks or groups of tasks to each division. This will allow you to organize your staff’s responsibilities to speed up progress. Typically, professionals use Time Boxing to divide longer periods, such as weeks. Timeblocking, on the other hand, is generally used with shorter periods and task groups instead of individual tasks.
Both of these time management techniques can help your team with prioritizing tasks. This will ensure they don’t spend too much time on unimportant ones, leaving enough time for urgent tasks. Consequently, your employees will be able to avoid stressful situations and overworking.
Day Theming
Day Theming is another popular time management technique. It involves theming your days to work on one type of task at a time. This can be similar tasks like meetings, or ones relating to a specific project. The strategy can help your staff improve their focus and complete tasks more effectively. It is also easy to integrate into your schedule as day theming is quite simple.
One thing to be aware of with day theming is repetitive work. Setting up the time management technique by grouping very similar tasks can become tedious for your team. Be sure to avoid this as such tasks can lead to low employee engagement.
The Pomodoro technique
Lots of professionals use the Pomodoro technique worldwide. It involves splitting your day into cycles of work time and breaks, which are called Pomodoros. A typical Pomodoro includes 25 minutes of work followed by a 5-minute break. Moreover, the time management technique also calls for a longer break after completing four cycles.
The main goal of the Pomodoro technique is to improve focus. The strategy can help your team increase the quality of their work, as well as their overall productivity. It is also quite easy to get started with, requiring nothing except for a timer.
The Eisenhower matrix
The Eisenhower matrix is more of a task management strategy, but, it will positively impact your team’s time management as well. Frequently called the priority matrix, it involves categorizing tasks into four groups. These are important and urgent, important but not urgent, unimportant and urgent, and neither important nor urgent. You should then complete tasks in the first group, schedule the second, delegate the third, and get rid of those in the fourth.
A prioritization matrix will help your team spend their time on tasks that matter. Like other time management techniques, it will help your employees avoid stressful situations. This will then have lots of positive effects on your company and its growth trajectory.
How to use time management techniques with a time tracker?
Time tracking software can be very beneficial if you want to use time management techniques at your company. It can help you plan your schedules and create actionable steps for your staff to follow. This can help improve the effectiveness of the strategy you wish to use. In turn, your team will perform better, boosting your business’s productivity.
Apart from planning, a time tracker can help you ensure your team members stick to the technique of your choice. This is especially important for a time management technique like the Pomodoro, where periodic breaks are vital. A feature-rich time tracker like WebWork can also help with task management for a strategy like Day Theming.
What to look for in a time tracker to use time management techniques?
Let’s now explore what you should look for in a time tracker to implement time management techniques at your business.
Functionality
Functionality is always an important thing to consider in a time tracker. Having lots of tracking features can help you get the most from your team in lots of ways. Trackers that can also display collected data in a variety of reports will help your business perform even better. As an example, WebWork offers more than a dozen detailed reports. Through these, you can get a clear understanding of where your team is heading and how they’re performing.
Price
While many time trackers offer lots of functionality, fewer solutions do so at an attainable price. Because of this, you should consider a tracker with several pricing tiers. For example, WebWork has three subscription plans starting at just $3.99 per user/month. This makes it accessible to lots of teams, regardless of their industry or size.
Scalability
As you start using time management techniques at your business, your team will be able to grow more easily. Because of this, scalability is another important thing to consider when looking for a time tracker. Most tracking apps won’t have any problems accommodating large teams with plenty of tasks. But, it can still be a good idea to double-check this before purchasing an app.
Final thoughts
Managing time optimally is important for teams that wish to grow. Implementing an effective time management technique can provide lots of benefits to your team. This will include boosted productivity, increased quality, and more. Implementing these strategies can be quite simple, especially if you use a time tracker. Time-tracking software can even provide you with many other positive effects, which makes it a worthwhile investment in the long run.