As mentioned earlier, time management is an essential part of workplace productivity. Luckily, with technology advancing at lightning speed, there are now easy ways to teach time management to employees.
By teaching your employees how to manage their time effectively, you can help them achieve their goals, keep them motivated, and reduce stress. This also helps them feel more connected to the organization as they spend less time doing administrative work and instead focus on moving up in the company.
Time is one of the most valuable resources we have as humans- it is important for us to understand this and learn how to use it wisely. Unfortunately, today’s workers seem to be constantly busy and spending too much time chasing after what seems like the next big thing.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but if we don’t take time off to relax and unwind, then we will suffer later on. Without relaxation, people become stressed out and perform poorly which could cost the career or job that he or she has worked so hard to earn.
It is very difficult to maintain control over our time when we are not using it properly. That is why it is important to train your staff on time management skills!
Fortunately, technology makes it possible to do just that. With the right apps, you can create lessons and tests for time management for both Android and iOS devices. You can even reward your students with points or rewards for completing tasks.
Have a plan for everything
As mentioned before, time is a valuable resource that you will have to manage. This means that you must understand how much time each person in your organization spends on various tasks so that you can develop strategies to improve efficiency.
By having a plan for every task, people will be more conscious of when they should start their work and what steps they need to take to complete it on schedule. They will also be aware of how long each step takes, which helps prevent anyone from falling behind or being too rushed.
Everyone has different personal styles, but there are certain habits and routines that most effective workers have. By learning these habits, you can help others learn how to use time effectively.
Some of the things that affect how quickly someone completes an assignment include whether they like doing this job, if they feel motivated about it, and whether they receive enough feedback and acknowledgement for their efforts.
Hold them accountable
As mentioned before, time management is an internal process that involves tracking your activities and yourself. This can be done in several ways depending on what level of detail you want to have.
The most basic way is just to make a note every hour you spend working or being active and then totaling it up at the end of the day. That’s how some people manage their time when they are sitting down for work during the week.
By doing this, you’re holding yourself accountable because you have to write everything down and then compare it with what you had planned. It also helps you quantify how much time you spent on work and other things so that you can evaluate whether you needed to cut back into less important tasks or not.
However, this isn’t very accurate since you have to remember to account for those breaks and things like lunch which may take longer than expected. Also, if someone else was asked to do something related to your job, they might ask you to help them with theirs instead of keeping you focused on yours. All these things can distort the truth about how much time you really invested into your work.
Another option is to use a time tracker such as Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook to log all your activity. These track individual events within each task to see where your time goes more accurately.
Encourage them
As mentioned earlier, time management is an essential part of workplace productivity. If you’re in charge of managing someone else’s schedule, then it makes sense that they would expect you to manage your own.
By this thinking, if you’re always busy, then people will assume that you don’t have anything more important to do than spend all day long getting things done. This could be difficult to swallow for some, particularly at the beginning when employees may feel that their colleagues are not pulling their weight or are even taking advantage of the company resources.
If possible, let your boss know about how hard you’ve been working and ask if there is any way you can help out. Or if you find something that can be put off until later, suggest that. It might win you points with her or him!
Alternatively, talk to your peers and see who they think deserves praise for keeping good time records. You probably know most everyone so why not start a conversation? Ask around discreetly though as some people may not like being reminded of how much time they spent online shopping or what movie they watched last night.
Reminded again of their poor time record-keeping skills, they may decide to make a change.
Be consistent
As mentioned before, time management is an ever-changing process that requires consistency in order to see results. This can be tough when you’re giving deadlines to colleagues or superiors who may not have clear guidelines for how they manage their own time.
As such, it is important to establish clear rules for yourself. For example, if your boss says he will hold off on his next review until March, then set a deadline of February 25th for your own review. If he asks why it took so long, tell him that you needed this extra time due to unexpected personal events.
This way, he doesn’t feel like you were putting more pressure on him, and you get the same amount of time to prepare. On the other hand, he feels better knowing that you are both aware of the date and what items need to be done before then.
Make it clear how much time they have to work
As mentioned before, one of the main reasons employees are never able to focus is because they don’t know when their next task will be completed.
If you’re in a position where you can give your colleagues more freedom, then offering them deadlines and promoting goal-setting should help them stay focused.
But even if you can’t offer that kind of flexibility, there’s still something you can do. You can make it very clear to people what amount of time they have to complete tasks and keep track of those times yourself.
This way, they’ll feel some sense of control over their workload, which can reduce stress and contribute to better performance.
Ask for help
As mentioned before, being able to manage your time is an essential skill for anyone who wants to achieve their dreams.
If you’re in a position where you can ask someone else to do some of the tasks for you, then this can be helpful in ensuring that you don’t overextend yourself.
It may even inspire them to take more responsibility themselves or maybe teach you something new!
By asking others to do certain things for you, it creates an obligation on their part to complete the task at a specific time. This can keep people accountable, which is a valuable thing.
If you’re willing to share your workload with other people, make sure you understand what their responsibilities are first so there aren’t any surprises later.
Never expect someone else to watch out for your needs unless they have been given permission to do so. It could create resentment and bad feelings down the line.
Set rewards
A lot of employers make promises about how they will reward you for your hard work, but never actually do. They may tell you that if you meet your targets you will get a pay rise or promotion, but such incentives are usually months away.
What most employers don’t realize is that when employees achieve their goals it gives them a feeling of self-confidence which can be carried into other areas.
By giving people what they want in their own lives, they feel more motivated and invested in the company. This increased engagement can have a positive impact on their performance right now and in the future.
Rewards should be clear and meaningful – something that adds value to an employee’s life rather than just taking up time.
That means celebrating a job well done with drinks or a night out, not with a teddy bear. More likely though, it’s going without lunch so they don’t overspend. Or getting a gift card to a restaurant they like.
The important thing is to pick things that mean something to each person and that motivate them. In doing this, you’ll find there’s almost always one little thing someone doesn’t talk about, but they’re very proud of.
Finding those things and promoting them is good motivation teaching time management to employees.
Be realistic
As mentioned before, time management is an elusive goal that can be tricky to teach if you’re not willing to make changes yourself first. If your colleagues or superiors are not supportive of changing how they manage their own time, then this will put pressure on you as a staff member to do the same.
It’s important to remember that everyone does not have the same amount of self-discipline when it comes to managing their time. Some people are just more disciplined than others!
If someone has to go off to attend a conference next month, then they probably cannot afford to spend one hour every day watching TV. It is up to them to recognize this and work around it, which may mean asking for help with planning and monitoring their workload.
On the other hand, maybe that person could invest in some smart technology that helps them organize and track their time efficiently.