When you’re working on managing work-life balance, tools are important. As a manager or owner, you probably have years of experience optimizing time management in the workplace.
But what about your employees? Have you given them the tools they need to master time management?
3 tools every employee needs for better time management at work
TOOL #1: Goal-setting guidance
Setting goals is key to managing work-life balance. People need to feel like they’re accomplishing things during the workday in order to unplug and recharge properly at night. But in order for goals to improve time management in the workplace, those goals must be smart — or rather, SMART.
SMART goals are different from regular goals because they are:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Time-based
For example, while a typical goal might be “I want our company to make more money this year,” a SMART goal would be “I want to bill 20% more hours in the next 6 months.”
You can help your employees harness the power of SMART goals by setting them together.
- Schedule a time every 3 or 6 months to work with each employee on their own SMART goals.
- Tell them they can set both long- and short-term goals, and be sure the expectations are clear by the end of the meeting.
- Be sure to talk with company leaders beforehand so you can help employees align their individual goals with the company’s larger goals.
In the end, you and your employees will know what they’re aiming for, which will lead to better time management at work.
TOOL #2: Distraction-free blocks of time
When you get pulled from one task to another, how long does it take you to get back “in the zone” on the first task once you return to it? Studies find that employees lose up to 2 hours per day to distractions, and productivity drops by 40% when an employee attempts to multitask. Distractions may be the single biggest challenge to efficient time management in the workplace, yet employees don’t always feel they have the power to quiet them.
Help employees by doing it for them:
- Block out an hour a day, in the morning or afternoon, where employees can silence their phones, turn off instant messaging and pause emails.
- Don’t allow meetings to be scheduled for that time.
- Tell employees to use that time to catch up, work on a particular client or focus on their SMART goals — whatever the two of you decide will be most helpful to managing work-life balance.
After a few weeks, ask for feedback on how the system is working and make adjustments. Two-way communication is key to productivity, and to better time management at work.
TOOL #3: Time tracking software
In order to master time management in the workplace, employees need to know how they’re spending their time. The easiest way to see that is to use a time tracking solution such as Time Tracker.
At any moment, employees can see how many hours they’ve worked, which tasks or clients they’re spending the most time on, whether they’re going over budget on a project, and so on. By arming employees with that knowledge, they’ll be able to take control of their day and make the changes needed to manage their work-life balance.
Make it easy for them by choosing a platform like Time Tracker that:
- Is user-friendly with little if any training
- Has a customizable dashboard so they can drag and drop widgets where they want them
- Is flexible so they can input time from anywhere on a mobile app, time clock, tablet or desktop
- Tracks time with the push of a button (timers) or lets them clock in and out (time clock)
- Offers transparency by showing their schedule and priorities, even as up-to-the-minute changes are made
Once your team has the tools to take control of their own time management at work, you may be surprised how efficient they become.
Ready to improve time management in your workplace?
Try a free 14-day trial of Time Tracker today. No credit card required.
