Time Management Skills for the Management
Published: 09/12/2024
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This article will explore time management skills crucial for anyone working in management or higher. Additionally, we will discuss tools to aid the skillset and ways to overcome common challenges along the way.
The role of management is mainly focused on ensuring that all the resources they have on hand are applied to reaching preset goals without exceeding the budget or missing deadlines. Some attribute this solely to the ability to prioritise tasks, while others attribute it to thorough planning and accurate forecasting. The reality is that both of these rest upon a much bigger pillar: time management. In other words, to be truly successful in their jobs, managers and higher need to first and foremost master the skill of time management.
It sounds simple, and it is a self-explanatory skill you’d expect someone leading the team to have. However, things are more complicated than they seem, and failure to recognise that leads to many companies neglecting proper training or skill gauging when it comes to time management. We are hoping to shed some light on this topic.
Here’s a list of time management skills that are crucial for higher-echelon employees:
An ability to assess progress to time spent ratio;
Focusing and prioritising one task at a time instead of spreading thin through multi-tasking;
Monitoring how time is spent across functions and identifying areas for improved efficiency;
Flexibility to change the course of actions when unexpected challenges arise;
Being able to make quick and effective decisions about how to allocate time and resources;
Allocating time blocks without interrupting the overall progress;
Creating realistic schedules and plans that align with goals, deadlines, and available resources;
An ability to distinguish between urgent and essential tasks, prioritising and allocating them accordingly.
Time management is an umbrella term for many skills, precisely what makes it complicated. Combine it with today’s standards, and getting overwhelmed is easy. But don’t worry. You have a helper available: digital timesheets.
Time management is crucial for anyone working in management or simply supervising people. It begins with planning the use of time and creating forecasts and approximates to achieve the set goals on time. Alas, deviating from the plan is very common in all instances of life, including business. While minor changes are expected, they aren't too damaging as long as they don’t change the outcome. But, sometimes, miscalculations at the planning stage bear destructive consequences, such as missing deadlines, exceeding the budget, or failing to deliver a project. There is a way to minimise the risks at the planning stage. For this, you will need digital timesheets and to utilise them.
Time tracking solutions are irreplaceable for the management team as they provide a centralised view of the team’s time expenditure. While it allows you to adjust the ongoing activities and resource allocation easily, it also includes plenty of data to base your planning stage in the long run. The more you analyse data recorded via digital timesheets, the more patterns you notice. The said patterns will then make improving the accuracy of your planning easier as you will have proven flows to expect.
Running one project is challenging, but management is often tasked with foreseeing multiple projects. Being good at managing time, so both of these are addressed, is a non-negotiable skill. However, this doesn’t mean you’re expected to shoulder everything alone. Simply put, it’s humanly impossible, not without exposing yourself to errors along the way. And, as we’ve already discussed, those can cause much damage.
Digital time tracking systems are more than their name implies. Very often, these solutions offer automation options across multiple project management-related parts. For example, client invoicing. Instead of calculating how much each project will cost manually, considering differentiating rates and whatnot, the correct setup of a timesheet tool will do it for you automatically. Some solutions will even generate and distribute the invoices for you. Other modules may also cover areas like expenses, holiday management and onboarding.
No journey is without challenges, and time management is no different. Similarly to digitisation, it’s an ever-changing procedure that requires you to optimise as you go. But this part is actually easier than it sounds.
There are two types of time wasters: people who don’t use their time to drive efficiency and tasks that take up too much time for the impact they make. To address and solve either, you must first identify them, which is one of the management team's significant challenges. Your team’s and, subsequently, your success depends on your ability to do that and do it fast, as every negligible delay bleeds into a setback. Accumulate a number of those, and you’ll be facing grim-looking consequences.
Time management is your best bet in tackling this issue, especially using the right tools. Staying diligent in tracking and analysing time expenditures will quickly highlight the weak links, empowering you to address them as the trends begin emerging. Digital solutions like timesheet software are perfect as they give you an instant overview in a digestible format when you log into the system. You can generally customise the type of information you see on your dashboard and explore it in-depth via more detailed reports.
While the concept of time management itself is simple and straightforward, mastering it is anything but linear. The reason is that to match today’s standards and demands, you can’t get away without using digital solutions. Although they vary in capacities, how simple the interface is and other features, the market changes daily. If you want to truly up your time management game and keep it so in the long run, being able to adapt to innovations is crucial. And it sounds more complicated than it is.
Huge, ground-breaking changes seldom occur. Usually, they’re small, bite-sized developments that don’t impact your day-to-day operations. However, we recommend both testing and embracing these small changes as soon as they come out, as once they stack up, they do bring huge changes. Adapting to them gradually and slowly as they roll out is a simple way of not falling behind and always staying in the loop with little to no effort.
After discussing all the ways to upgrade your managerial time management skills, you may be wondering whether it’s worth the hassle. The simple answer is yes, it is! Let us explain why.
While this is one of the most overused sayings, it is true. Time and workforce are the most valuable assets in every business; making them work in tandem is the formula to success. Many attribute being good in management to managing people, but time management is an irreplaceable component, too. Simply because you can’t prioritise resource allocation correctly without understanding your teams’ efficiency time-wise.
Becoming good at time management automatically makes you better at managing people, stirring them in the direction that leads to improved productivity and, therefore, better profit margins. Time is money, and being smart where you invest it will give you more of it. For example, investing in automation tools will win back the time you spend on manual tasks. In turn, you can repurpose that time into profit-driving activities, meaning you will break even and generate profit. As corny as the old saying is, it still carries a lot of truth - recognising it boils down to one’s perspective.
Time management skills are essential for the managerial team and above to be efficient in their duties. However, with today’s fast pace and high demands, they should utilise digital timesheets to aid it. Active use of them helps with better forecasting and resource allocation down the line. Digital solutions come with ample automation options across different operations, making juggling several projects simultaneously a more manageable task. Additionally, this approach reduces the chance of human error.
Digitisation can also solve other time management challenges. For example, it can improve your team’s overall efficiency by helping you identify the most considerable time wasters and highlighting them in reports. Most solutions also undergo frequent updates to stay up to date with today’s standards, in turn helping you do the same. Moreover, they help you save time, which is the most valuable asset to any business. Instead of spending it on repetitive manual tasks, you can instead focus on tasks that drive profit to your company.
How good are your time management skills? It’s time to upgrade them.